“Myanmar Regime Pushes Myitsone Dam as Fix for Power Crisis”, 1 July 2026,

Myanmar’s junta is pressing ahead with the revival of the long‑suspended Myitsone Dam [...] portraying the China-backed project as the key to solving the country’s crippling power crisis. The Myitsone Dam [...] was suspended in 2011 [...] following widespread public protests. Concerns centered on mass displacement, seismic risks, environmental destruction and the dam’s location at a site regarded as culturally significant by the Kachin people. The project was also criticized for [...] plans to export 90 percent of its 6,000‑MW output to China.

In April 2024, the junta revived the Irrawaddy Myitsone Upstream Hydropower Project Support and Cooperation Committee, working with the dam’s Chinese developer—State Power Investment Corporation Yunnan International Power Investment (SPICYN)—to conduct research, propose technical solutions and run public relations campaigns.

The following year, in December 2025, then-deputy junta chief Soe Win personally traveled to Myitkyina, urging locals to back the dam’s resumption.

Since January, regime-appointed Kachin State Chief Minister Khet Htein Nam has led a series of public meetings across the state, including in Myitkyina and Putao, urging locals to cooperate for implementation of the dam. He accompanied Min Aung Hlaing on the latter’s visit to China.

At a recent public meeting, Khet Htein Nam—once a vocal critic of the dam—claimed the project could be completed within eight-and-a-half years and would help meet Myanmar’s national target of 100 percent electrification by 2030.

However [...] Civil society groups and the Kachin Independence Army continue to reject the project outright, warning it will bring irreversible damage to lives, homes and the environment.