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A controversial Chinese journalist, two project engineers, a social anthropologist and an American hydrologist/preservationist speak about the Three Gorges Project.
Watch the video clips or read what they have to say.
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DAI QING
Journalist, Activist |
To my surprise I was arrested, and not because I was involved in the turmoil. The true reason was because of my writings concerning the Three Gorges Project. This can be proved by the fact that after my arrest the book was banned and all the interviewers and interviewees involved with the book were investigated and some had to confess to their "so called" wrongdoing. Some even lost their jobs because of their involvement in the book. |
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CHIEN-KUO LO, PhD
Three Gorges Project Engineer |
The hydropower station at the Three Gorges Project will generate 85 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year. This can be translated into 25 million tons of crude oil, 15 nuclear power plants or 50 million tons of coal equivalent. The use of such a clean, reusable energy would definitely help to provide a better living environment for generations to come. |
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JUN JING, PhD
Social Anthropologist |
You look at the investment right now. You look at the infrastructure of construction projects going on and all these projects - major projects - have focused on urban development. They are rebuilding cities. They are relocating cities. They are relocating urban hospitals. Essentially the money is spent on the city people for a very simple reason: because all the government agencies are located within the city. That's why special attention has to be given to the rural people who depend on the land to make a living. |
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HUA GUO-XIANG, PhD
Three Gorges Project Engineer |
You know in China, when the government wants to do these things, they must succeed. They have power because now in China, the investment is big. The investment is about $50 billion. The trade from your country every year - $40 billion from your country - we use the capital. |
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PHILIP WILLIAMS, PhD
Hydrologist, International Rivers Network |
There has been no instance anywhere in the world where this technology has been used successfully. And so the design of these sluice gates is really an experiment, and if that experiment fails and the reservoir does silt up very rapidly, those benefits for hydro-generation, for flood control, for navigation will be negated. So future generations of Chinese will not see any benefits from the Three Gorges Project, but only be living with the legacy of its problems. |
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ELIZABETH CHILDS-JOHNSON, PhD
Archeologist |
[The findings at Dragon Bone Cave] date to two million years ago. This
is competitive with the earliest human finds found in which geneticists
have traced as our ancestor, as the ancestor of the human species. So
now to have equally early remains found in China is really quite
exciting and dramatic. |
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