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Mao Tse Tung
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| Chinese and International Views |
The Three Gorges Dam sparks controversy on many fronts. The debate began in 1919 when the founder of the Chinese republic, Sun Yat-Sen, first proposed a dam in the area. Since that time, the Chinese government has alternately supported and shelved plans for the project. The United States was involved until the communist takeover in 1949. Communist Leader Mao Tse Tung supported the project, but economic disaster and technical debate prevented its progress.
After the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, political tensions regarding the dam rose when the publication of Dai Qing's collection of essays against the Three Gorges Dam provoked the government to ban the book and imprison its editor. In 1992 Chinese Premier Li Peng finally won the approval for the dam by the People's National Congress, even though one third of its delegates either voted against it or abstained.
Since ground was broken in 1994, construction of the dam has become a symbol of Chinese national pride. Conquering its challenges has become the quest of Chinese engineers. Yet international organizations of all kinds speak out against the dam, year after year. And the Chinese people who must be relocated await the government's word on their fate - silenced by police scrutiny and arrests.
The Chinese government estimates that energy from the dam will increase industrial output and generate millions of desperately needed jobs.
To prosper in the global economy, China must increase its economic strength. One key element is the development of infrastructure. As China develops its urban centers, new factories, offices and homes create increased power demands. To avoid burning coal for power and causing massive pollution, China must develop alternative resources. The hydroelectric power produced by a dam is clean, renewable energy. The Three Gorges Dam will not only provide that energy, but it will increase shipping and commerce in the region, bringing economic opportunities to people in the middle of the country.
The dam will control natural flooding and protect millions of people left homeless when the waters surge beyond their banks.
In addition to flood control, Chinese scientists state that the Three Gorges project will have an overall positive effect on the environment. Experts found that construction of the reservoir may help the climate of the area, causing winters to become warmer and summers cooler.
| International and U.S. Perspectives |
A leading funder of hydroelectric projects around the world, the World Bank declined to participate in the Three Gorges Dam project.
Responding to mid-1990s protest campaigns against the Three Gorges Dam by an international coalition of environmental, developmental and human rights groups, the U.S. National Security Council concluded that the federal government should avoid further involvement in the Three Gorges Dam. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation withdrew its support of the project. In May 1996, the U.S. Export-Import Bank announced that it would not support loans to U.S. companies pursuing Three Gorges contracts. Nevertheless, some banks in the U.S. have invested in the dam. As protests continue around the world, the Chinese engineers say that nothing will stop the construction of the dam.
Many of these dams are monuments, in the same way that the pyramids were monuments for a particular regime or a particular ruler ... Stalin had dams on the Volga named after him, we have Hoover Dam in the United States. There is this grandiosity that appeals to a megalomaniac instinct that overrides not only economic considerations but sometimes even sound political judgment.
- Philip Williams, PhD, International Rivers network
Sources:
the Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing,China;
Benjamin M. Ludlow, Trade Environment Database project;
Steven Mufson, "The Yangtze Dam: Feat or Folly?" Washington Post, Nov. 9, 1997
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