Los Angeles Times
June 4, 2006
China: Problems have dogged Three Gorges facility, with costs put at as much as $70 billion. Now, building official reportedly makes off with $120 million. BEIJING–The world’s largest public works effort, China’s Three Gorges Dam, has been hit by a fresh wave of corruption charges that further call into question the wisdom of the controversial project. During the last 18 months, allegations of mismanagement and malfeasance have grown from a trickle into a steady flow of tales of massive corruption. The latest allegations center on the head of a company involved in the construction, the Three Gorges Economic Development Corp. Company boss Jin Wenchao was reported by a Hong Kong newspaper this week to have disappeared, along with more than $120 million, some of which was transferred to overseas bank accounts, the South China Morning Post said. Jin, a former soldier, allegedly got the money by selling jobs in his company and taking out loans supposedly in support of the $24-billion dam, which is under construction in central China along the mighty Yangtze River, the world’s third-longest waterway. Jin’s son and daughter also have been accused of acquiring loans to set up fictitious businesses, reports said. The allegations could not be confirmed Thursday, the middle of a weeklong holiday in China to mark International Labor Day on May 1. Chinese officials are generally tight-lipped about scandals concerning the dam, a hydroelectric project pushed by the Communist regime as a symbol of national strength and know-how. But state media recently have begun publicizing accounts of corruption in connection with the project, an indication of the alleged fraud’s seriousness and magnitude.