The River Dragon Has Come!

Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China's Yangtze River and Its People

Dai Qing, John G. Thibodeau, Michael R Williams, Qing Dai, Ming Yi, Audrey Ronning Topping

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780765602053
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315502755
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

In the ongoing courageous struggle of a relatively small group of Chinese to prevent the completion of the Three Gorges Dam in China, Dai Qing is the outspoken leader whose eloquent voice is always heard despite threats and intimidation by the Chinese authorities to silence it. Dai Qing, an investigative journalist and author with a wide audience in China and abroad, compiled this book of essays and field reports assessing the impact of the Three Gorges megadam now under construction at Sandouping in China's Hubei province at great risk to her own freedom. This book is an effort to prevent history from repeating itself ten-fold (a reference to the great floods in 1975 during which over 60 dams collapsed and at least 100,000 people lost their lives) if the 39 billion cubic metres of water in the Three Gorges reservoir ever escapes by natural or man-made catastrophes. These comprehensive essays reveal the deep rooted problems presented by the Three Gorges project that the government is attempting to disguise or suppress. The main concerns are population resettlement and human rights, the irreversible environmental and economic impact, the loss of cultural antiquities and historical sites, military considerations, and hidden dam disasters from the past. Opponents of the dam are attempting to kill the project or at least reduce the size of the megadam now planned to be the biggest, most expensive and, incidentally, the most hazardous of all hydro-electric projects on this planet.

Chapter One

The Three Gorges Project

A Symbol of Uncontrolled Development in the Late Twentieth Century

Dai Qing

“Water benefits all things generously and without strife. It dwells in the lowly places that men disdain. Thus it comes near to the Dao.”

—Laozi

The opening of my country to the outside world has been the most important development in twentieth century China. The two major consequences of this “opening” have been the birth, development, and dominance of the communist/socialist system, and the influx of modern science and technology. We Chinese are repeatedly told that both the communist system and the ascendency of science and technology fit China’s historical conditions of economic underdevelopment, foreign domination, and political autocracy. But rather than “fit” our national conditions, these systems have dominated and distorted our lives. As the old Chinese adage says: “Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme” (wuji bifan). This is the case with our current socialist regime and its blind faith that engineers and technical fixes can solve all problems. The result of all this is uncontrolled development, and there is no better symbol of uncontrolled development than the Three Gorges dam.

“Uncontrolled” (bujia jiezhi) and “out of control” (shiqu kongzhi) are similar terms which actually have different implications: The first—uncontrolled—is subjective and describes someone who consciously fails to control his/her behavior. The second—out of control—is more objective and describes how someone’s behavior can cause things to spin out of control.

The Three Gorges project has been meticulously planned and controlled from its original design to its final construction. But the people who have been doing this planning have failed to understand key Chinese concepts such as self-restraint and the control of brazen arrogance. In Chinese antiquity, a sense of self-restraint was paramount; as the ancient Daoist philosopher Laozi said: “To know one’s limits is to be invincible” (zhizhi keyi budai). But a couple of centuries after the advent of the industrial revolution, this ancient wisdom lost its appeal and has only been recalled in the last fifty years. This conscious failure by China’s leaders to “control” their behavior; that is, to respect and follow ancient wisdom, is what makes the Three Gorges dam a symbol of uncontrolled development. The sad irony is that although every aspect of the Three Gorges dam’s construction has been thoroughly planned by scientists, engineers, and officials, if it is completed and goes into operation, we will quickly learn that we are unable to control its effects on the environment, and on society.

The Three Gorges dam will be the largest dam ever built. Its wall of concrete, reaching 185 meters into the air and stretching almost two kilometers across, will create a 600-kilometer-long reservoir.

The dam will require technology of unprecedented sophistication and complexity: It will include twenty-six, 680 MW turbines; twin five-stage lock systems, and the world’s highest vertical shiplift.

The project will also cause some of the most egregious environmental and social effects ever: It will flood 30,000 hectares of prime agricultural land in a country where land is the most valuable resource; it will cause the forcible resettlement of upward of 1.9 million people; it will forever destroy countless cultural antiquities and historical sites; and it will further threaten many endangered species, some already facing extinction.*

But perhaps the most astounding fact of all is that although the project has attracted the interest of the world’s businesses and the ire of its environmentalists, it has faced very little opposition at home. The National People’s Congress (NPC) approved the project in April 1992, but since then very little has been said or written in opposition to the dam that will disrupt the lives of so many and damage such great swaths of our territory.*

“Wind box gorge.” One of several smaller gorges inside Wu (witches) Gorge. At the center is the entrance to the “cavern of the enchantress.” (Photo by Audrey Topping)

Table 1.1

Three Gorges Dam Specifications

Dam crest	185 m
Dam length	2,000 m
Reservoir Functions
Normal pool level	175 m
Flood control level	145 m
Total storage capacity	39.3 billion m^3
Flood control storage	22.1 billion m^3
Navigation	Reservoir level raised by 10–100 m to allow 10,000–ton ships to Chongqing
Power Generation
Installed capacity	17,680 MW
Unit capacity	26 units, 680 MW/unit
Inundation
Land	632 km-long, 19 cities, 326 towns
Arable land	430,000 mu [30,000 hectares]
Population	1,130,000 people

Note: Figures for land inundated and people moved are government estimates and are questioned by dam opponents.

Dam construction site near Sandouping (circa 1996). (Photo by Richard Hayman)

Map of China.

Pagoda near Wanxian; waters will flood to base of the structure. (Photo by Audrey Topping)

Everyone knows that China is facing an energy shortage,** that our transportation systems are congested, and that we suffer frequent floods. The country has only recently emerged from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and, with the pursuit since 1978 of a new, more open economic policy, increased foreign trade, and dramatic reforms in agriculture and commerce we have finally begun to experience some remarkable economic gains. Why then, just when the country seemed to have a bit of money to spare, was this mammoth project proposed; especially when there were smaller and more viable options to meet our energy, transportation, and flood control needs?

The best alternatives involve building smaller dams on the Yangtze River’s tributaries. But alternatives were never seriously considered by the top leadership. Why? Because China is in the midst of a phase of “uncontrolled” development where a sense of moderation and restraint are completely absent. This lack of control is evident at every level of planning for the Three Gorges project: From the “red specialists’” faith in technology, to the closed decision making of autocratic leaders, and the complete disregard for the environmental effects of the project on the river valley and its residents.

The Power of the Red Specialists

In China the so-called red specialists (hongse zhuanjia) consider themselves infallible even though the history of the People’s Republic is littered with grandiose technological and economic projects gone wrong, often at enormous costs to the treasury and to human life.* With regard to the Three Gorges dam, this sense of infallibility manifests itself in a number of ways. For instance, the red specialists arrogantly claim that they have the technical ability and capacity to build the world’s largest dam, turbines, and shiplift. But what they fail to consider is that the use of this technology does not make hydrological and environmental sense. Meeting the difficult technical challenges posed by the project should never take the place of sound scientific decision making. Decisions based only on what is technically possible may eventually succeed in building the dam and turbines, but they are unlikely to solve the pressing hydrological, environmental, and human problems which the dam will undoubtedly cause. This point was raised as early as the 1930s by Professor Huang Wanli. But unfortunately, the opinions of such venerable sages have had vitually no impact on policy that is driven by visions of technological grandiosity.

Even if the Three Gorges project is completed at the appointed hour, the long-term upheaval and damage caused by the resettlement of upward of 1.9 million people and the destruction of treasured cultural relics will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. The havoc created by the vast resettlement scheme will not only carry an immense price tag, but will also forever damage the spiritual and psychological health of the relocatees. The dam is not just about the loss of beautiful tourist landscapes, but about the damage the nation will do to itself through the patent disregard and ignorance of its spiritual wealth.

The “red specialists” have never managed to grasp the concepts of fundamental order and balance in the relationship between humankind and nature. At every turn—from its preference for a planned economy with a focus on iron and steel production, to its promotion of grain production, population growth, and large-scale dam construction*—the Chinese leadership has made decisions which run counter to the Chinese philosophical concepts of maintaining order and balance between humankind and nature. Not surprisingly, each of these decisions has caused immense damage to the country’s environment and natural resources. For political reasons, however, those scholars and intellectuals who are in touch with this philosophical tradition have had very little opportunity to speak up. With the promotion of a new market economy since 1978, profit once again comes first in the minds of China’s leaders, and all they think about is plundering nature rather than respecting and conserving it and maintaining the balance.

Adding to the problem is the fact that so many of these specialists make decisions based on blind self-interest, or on the narrow interests of their bureaucratic bailiwicks. A case involving the Leading Group for the Assessment of the Three Gorges Project is illustrative.** The youngest of the 412 experts to advise the leading group was an u...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Editors and Contributors
• Preface
• Foreword: The River Dragon Has Come!
• 1. The Three Gorges Project: A Symbol of Uncontrolled Development in the Late Twentieth Century
• 2. A Profile of Dams in China
• 3. The World’s Most Catastrophic Dam Failures: The August 1975 Collapse of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams
• 4. Discussing Population Resettlement with Li Boning
• 5. The Environmental Impacts of Resettlement in the Three Gorges Project
• 6. What Are the Three Gorges Resettlers Thinking?
• 7. A Survey of Resettlement in Badong County, Hubei Province
• 8. Resettlement in the Xin’an River Power Station Project
• 9. The Danger to Historical Relics and Cultural Antiquities in and around the Three Gorges Area: Interviews with the Director of the National History Museum of China, Yu Weichao
• 10. A Lamentation for the Yellow River: The Three Gate Gorge Dam (Sanmenxia)
• 11. Water Pollution in the Three Gorges Reservoir
• 12. Military Perspectives on the Three Gorges Project
• Epilogue: The New Golden Triangle of China
• Appendix A: Acknowledgments from “General Plan for Population Resettlement”
• Appendix B: Sediment Problems at the Three Gorges Dam
• Appendix C: The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China’s Southern Heritage
• Appendix D: Priority-Level Cultural Antiquities in the Three Gorges Area
• Appendix E: Archaeological Sites to Be Inundated in 1997 by the Construction of the Three Gorges Dam
• Appendix F: Letter to Jiang Zemin Concerning Archaeological Sites
• Appendix G: Major Cities and Sites to Be Affected by the Three Gorges Dam and Reservoir
• Biographic Glossary
• Index