On 20 July 2025, China announced the start of construction of the world’s biggest hydropower dam in Tibet, along the Yarlung Zangbo River. This hydropower dam will consist of 5 cascade hydropower stations, and is expected to produce 3 times the power which the Yangtze River Three Gorges Dam is currently producing. A cascade hydropower station system will look something like this.
Means of Production
In ancient times, manual labour (be it humans or animals such as bulls) is an important means of production. With manual labour, society engages in agriculture. Tools and equipment for daily living and military uses were also produced using manual labour. The blacksmiths would hammer away at the swords one by one, and the tailors would sew the clothes one by one.
With the industrial revolution, oil (petroleum) becomes an important tool of production. With oil, electricity can be generated, industries are built up, goods can be moved across locations quickly. The country without oil will still be stuck at the lower level of manual production. North Korea, with the sanctions imposed on them, are unable to get the required amount of oil for them to industrialise. This is why till today the country is still stuck at the lower levels of production and unable to grow their country and their economy.
In the next era, AI and big data will be the next means of production, without which countries will still be stuck in the current state, unable to move up. I think it is obvious why AI and big data will be very important in the future, so I will not explain further. This is why countries are very sensitive about the companies which:
- Can collect big amounts of data (Tiktok, Google, Microsoft)
- Have AI capabilities (ChatGPT, Deepseek)
- Can produce chips (Samsung, TSMC)
A technological war has emerged between the more capable countries, with them trying to hinder the progress of each other’s critical companies and sectors as they climb up the technology tree themselves. Countries which managed to successfully scale up the technology tree will have significant control over the rest of the countries. We look back at history, and we see that countries which industrialised first went on to colonise a big part of the world. History often repeats itself one way or another.
Power Requirements When Scaling Up The Technological Tree
For both AI and big data to be effectively used, many things are required. But among all these things, 2 things are critical: chips and power (electricity). Both of them deal directly with one thing: computing power.
If the AI and big data sector is to grow, if the country is to move up the technological tree, computing power is absolutely necessary and consequently, more power is needed. We look back at history again. As human progresses through the ages, more and more energy is required to sustain the functioning of civilisation. Fire was used by early humans for cooking, warmth and light. But as society progressed, fire was used more frequently and in every aspect of society. Every household and businesses have candles for night activities which early humans did not have. Fire was also used for smithing, for pottery, for glassmaking etc. The energy required by society to function in the Middle Ages far outstripped that of the Stone Ages.
The start of the industrial age saw only a few privileged people using electricity and appliances that depended on it, such as light bulbs. But as society progressed, similar things happened. The use of electricity and electrical appliances spread to every aspect of civilisation. Things which people did not have in the past became increasingly widespread and necessary for the functioning of the new civilisation. We can see many things we have today that was not widespread nor available in the early days of the industrial revolution – light bulbs, air-conditioning, computers, etc.
Again, similar things will happen as we move forward to the next era.
If a country is to use AI and big data not only as a search engine and research like how we use ChatGPT right now, but to have such technology permeate every aspect of our lives, then the energy required for such a venture would be enormous but necessary. A test of a society’s technological powress is not in how much of an advanced technology it has, but how far technology has permeated its common populace. For example, North Korea has advanced weaponry (nuclear bombs) which many countries do not have. But do we consider it a technological advanced country? No, because many of its people do not have common technological items the rest of the world has – computers, internet, air-conditioning. We look again at Singapore, which does not have a nuclear warhead, but almost every household have all the common technological items mentioned above. We would say that Singapore is a more technologically advanced country than North Korea.
Therefore, for a country to be considered successfully tech’ing up to the next level, we should not see what its top technology is, but what are the technologies its common people are using.
China’s Demand For Power (Electricity)
In the bid to scale up the technology tree and for that technology to be part of the society, great power is needed. Just like it is too late to plant rubber trees when you need latex, planning needs to start early and China is definitely doing that. And the way to go is renewable energy because it is somewhat ‘infinite’ and environmental friendly compared to non-renewable energy. That is one big reason why I invested in Three Gorges Renewables, even though I will not reap in any rewards for the next few years. China is definitely power hungry because it can, and it will scale up the technology tree.
China has big land, a big population and a big ambition to be at the top of the world. The difficulty and resources to bring itself up another level is far greater than a much smaller country, for example Singapore. That is why China has been so active in achieving self-sufficiency in all the critical and strategic resources for themselves, and here lies numerous opportunities for us to capture.
Containing India
India is far off in terms of technology, military capabilities, economics and everything when compared to China. However, it is also beneficial for China to contain India. Humans are all the same, no matter which era they are in – strengthening themselves while weakening others. If we look at the map, we can see why the hydropower dam also has a few benefits.
The circled place is the city of Nyingchi, where construction of the hydropower dams will take place in nearby areas. We look at the map and we can see the river flows downstream into India. By building a hydropower dam upstream in China, there are concerns where water supply downstream may be cut off, and it is a valid concern.
Here, we do not discuss the morality and correctness for such an action. The US has done the same to Mexico, cutting off their water supply despite Mexico being a far weaker neighbour. For China, weakening India further as a secondary objective would be a bonus. What is more, if China can achieve self-sufficiency in its power requirements, it can even sell some of its power to nearby India. But of course, this is not the primary objective. The primary objective for this project remains to generate enough power for its own future usage. Anything else is just secondary bonus. Like I always said, top level decisions seldom fulfil only one objective. They often have a multitude of tiered objectives to achieve.
Mexico and India can only blame themselves for being unlucky in the geographical allocation lottery. That being said, it also shows China’s national might has reached a certain level. One may say, what China does within its own borders is none of other people’s concern. But imagine Iraq today saying they want to build a nuclear power plant. See what happens to Iraq the next day.
Conclusion
It is inevitable that China will rise, and it is inevitable that they will go for renewable energy to power up their country. In the bigger picture, if one can move accordingly and deploy his or her resources in the right places, then all they need is just patience while they wait for the rewards to come in.
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