Financial Times
March 23, 1999

‘While China’s government is still easily able to order large-scale engineering projects that might be politically impossible in democratic nations, concerns over dams’ environmental and social impact has been growing in recent years.’

[Excerpt] Beijing: Beijing has approved construction of a hydroelectric project in southwest China that will be the country’s third-largest. The approval of the Baihetan plant on the Jinsha River at the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces highlights the government’s commitment to developing hydropower despite growing concerns about dams’ environmental and social impact. The Baihetan project will be built by the China Three Gorges Project Corp, which also built the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River and is working on Xiluodu, another hydropower project along the Jinsha, a Yangtze tributary. … While China’s government is still easily able to order large-scale engineering projects that might be politically impossible in democratic nations, concerns over dams’ environmental and social impact has been growing in recent years.