"China on Thursday said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The statement came as a new economic report predicted that the building of dams to harness hydropower on the Mekong River would reshape the economies of five countries along the waterway, fueling long-term inflation and dependence on China. The drought over the past year has severely hurt farming and fishing in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, and many blame China’s 11 dams on the upper Mekong – which China calls the Lancang River – as well as climate change. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a lack of rain was the main cause of the drought and said China had suffered from it too. “China has overcome its own difficulty and increased water outflow from the Lancang River to help Mekong countries mitigate the drought,” Wang told a meeting of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) grouping..."