Der Spiegel
September 5, 2006

‘We are not fundamentally against the [Nu River dams] project,’ Yu Xiaogang insists. ‘But we want the consequences for the environment, for the people and for the economy to be assessed first, just as the law requires.’

The state-owned energy conglomerate Huadian, which enjoys excellent ties to the political leadership, wants to build a series of dams on the pristine Nu River in Yunnan Province, at a cost of about $10 billion. The project would displace about 50,000 people and possibly devastate the region’s tropical ecology. “We are not fundamentally against the project,” Yu [Xiaogang] insists. “But we want the consequences for the environment, for the people and for the economy to be assessed first, just as the law requires.” China’s young civil society has reached a new stage in its Nu River initiative. For the first time NGOs have banded together to form a network opposing a state-owned company. They are coordinating their approach, getting the media involved and hiring experts. The government has recently responded aggressively to similar initiatives, and arrests and repression occur frequently