The Telegraph (UK)
November 16, 1999

China is to move 700,000 people from low-lying areas along the Yangtze River before next summer’s flood season, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday.

The new scheme takes to more than four million the number of farmers and city dwellers being uprooted from homes beside China’s longest river. The relocation scheme announced yesterday represents a fresh headache for officials already struggling to find homes for the millions being scattered around the country by flood prevention schemes, as well as the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze.

Massive floods last summer drew attention to the presence of millions of farmers who have found fertile, if highly risky, land inside the flood defences along several major rivers. China already plans to move a total of 2.1 million people away from flood diversion zones on the Yangtze. A further 1.2 million people are to move to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

The Three Gorges relocation scheme has been plagued by official corruption, including embezzlement, the theft of compensation money and shoddy construction work, some of which has already caused fatal accidents. After initial assurances that migrating farmers would be found land near their original homes, either on nearby highlands or in existing villages away from the floodplains, government officials have started to admit that many are simply going to be sent into cities.

Others are being encouraged to move to China’s farthest flung corners, including such traditional places of exile as the tropical island of Hainan and the paramilitary production brigades of Xinjiang, in the far west. China’s new flood control policies will leave few areas of life untouched. Last year, the government imposed a ban on logging natural forests after scientists blamed soil erosion and massive deforestation for much of the flooding.