How China’s extreme weather summer is affecting its security

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Responsible for nearly 50 percent of China’s grain production, the [Yangtze River Basin] YRB plays a vital role in the country’s food security. There are already huge concerns that the drought may impact China’s autumn grain harvest. As Liu Weiping, China’s vice minister of water resources recently remarked, China’s autumn crops are at a “critical period.”

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Given the reduced water levels in Sichuan’s reservoirs and low precipitation levels, the drought and its impacts are expected to be prolonged. The looming specter of further power shortages raises questions over the reliability of renewable energy sources, particularly those that rely on water.

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The drought further raises questions about China’s quest for water security. The country’s unequal spatio-temporal water distribution is well established: the north suffers from acute water shortages, whereas the south is prone to severe floods. To overcome the challenges presented by this uneven spatial distribution and precipitation, the Chinese government put forward the South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP). The SNWTP diverts water from southern China to northern China along the Eastern, Middle, and Western Routes.

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he YRB’s water shortage may force Beijing to adopt more ambitious proposal versions as the SNWTP’s Western Route. Rather than linking the upstream of the Yangtze River to the Yellow River, these proposals suggest transferring water from the upstream of transboundary and transnational rivers (such as the Brahmaputra, Mekong, and Salween) from Tibet to northwest China.

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