Why would Chinese authorities remove four articles on hydropower dams by high-profile geologist Fan Xiao from WeChat after tolerating them for years?

It Is Sad and Lamentable! Such a Great Country Cannot Even Accommodate a Few Articles About Hydropower Stations

By Mu Lan | Chief Editor of Three Gorges Probe | Published by Three Gorges Probe

For the original, Chinese-language version of the commentary below, see the publisher’s website here.

A few days ago, I heard that an article about the Tiger Leaping Gorge power station renowned Chinese geologist Fan Xiao had posted to his WeChat public account, “He Shan Wu Yan,” was deleted as soon as it was posted. Fortunately, a website outside of the Great Firewall forwarded it in time and the article was “rescued”. I thought the authorities might be worried that the article would cause controversy (the Tiger Leaping Gorge power station was shelved due to the huge wave of opposition to it) and, having taken quick and decisive action to delete the article, would not take action against Fan Xiao’s other articles.

But I overestimated the kindness and generosity of China’s Internet management authorities. When I checked my Moments on social media today, I found that Fan Xiao said his other four articles had also been deleted one after another, all of them about hydropower stations.

Wrote Fan Xiao:

“After the article “Four Major Hazards of the Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River” was deleted four hours after being published on WeChat on October 22, 2024, four more articles published many years ago on WeChat were deleted from January 12 to January 13, 2025:

October 18, 2022, from the perspective of geological risks, the development of hydropower in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is not feasible;

On October 8, 2022, we will discuss the 6.8-magnitude Luding earthquake and the seismic activity in the Sichuan-Yunnan seismic belt;

March 23, 2020: China’s river dams are overflowing, and overdevelopment of hydropower has led to massive water abandonment;

On June 4, 2018, the Zipingpu Reservoir may have really triggered the Wenchuan earthquake — a literature review report on the relationship between the Zipingpu Reservoir and the Wenchuan earthquake.

The correct approach should be to start discussions or debates based on scientific data and facts, which is truly beneficial to the interests of the country and the people. If you only block speech and control the population, it is not only unconstitutional, but also shows that you are guilty and afraid. What are you afraid of? If you act uprightly and walk the right path, you will not be afraid of criticism and opposition. The Three Gorges Project allowed NPC deputies to vote against it. The above articles have been available for many years and are now deleted. It is related to the fact that some people are eager to promote certain hydropower projects recently. The information disclosed in these articles has touched the pain points of some people. They cannot respond, and a lot of information is what they don’t want the public to know. “

Yes, these articles by Fan Xiao have been on WeChat for many years, and the earliest one, “Zipingpu,” was posted in 2018. Why did the authorities tolerate it for so long, but now they can’t bear it anymore and why did they launch such a brutal removal operation?

Perhaps Fan Xiao’s own intuition gave the answer: “It is related to the fact that some people are eager to promote certain hydropower projects recently. The information disclosed in these articles has touched the pain points of some people…” There are at least two places that people can immediately think of in relation to this statement: one is the Jinsha River Tiger Leaping Gorge Power Station (now called the Longpan Power Station), and the other is the Yarlung Zangbo River Grand Canyon Medog Power Station (hotly discussed online recently).

When building large dams on rivers, no matter how strong the opposition is or how the local residents resist, the Chinese government and hydropower companies always stick to their word, and there are few cases where they are forced to give up. However, the Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Station may be an exception. Not only did the local residents directly write to then Premier Wen Jiabao, but when the hydropower company was eager to start construction and arbitrarily carried out house and land surveys, it triggered a collective protest of tens of thousands of people to stop the hydropower company’s behavior. The local government and the hydropower company, worried that the matter would become a big deal, were forced to temporarily shelve the project.

However, in recent years, the project has shown signs of “revival”. Fan Xiao wrote in his article “Tiger Leaping Gorge”:

“The huge GDP growth, fiscal taxation, and project investment benefits are always a temptation that is hard to give up for local governments and hydropower developers who benefit directly. Especially when the economy is down, developers are in financial difficulties, and the government is in financial crisis, it is easier to have the impulse to gain benefits for oneself at the expense of the people, the public interest, and the environment.

In 2023, many experts from China’s hydropower interest groups frequently published articles advocating the benefits of the leading reservoir of the Jinsha River Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Project and demanding the promotion of the Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Project.”

The Medog Hydropower Station on the Yarlung Zangbo River has been hyped online for many years, but the Chinese government has not released any comments. It was not until December 25 last year, when Westerners were celebrating Christmas, that Xinhua News Agency released a message that the Chinese government had approved the hydropower project on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River. The Xinhua News Agency report ran a total of five paragraphs, but it was almost all official documents, without any information about the hydropower project itself, such as the project’s name, specific location, investment and construction scale, and the start and completion time. (For the original text, see: The Yarlung Zangbo River Lower Reaches Hydropower Project Has Been Approved).

If the Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Station is only a matter for the residents of the Jinsha River, the Medog Hydropower Station on the Yarlung Zangbo River is not just a matter for the residents of the Tibetan area, but also involves India and Bangladesh downstream. No wonder Xinhua News Agency chose to release the news on Christmas Day, and its content can be said to be unprecedentedly empty, as if it wanted people to know, but didn’t want people to know too much.

However, the authorities believed that Mr. Fan Xiao, a geologist, had said too much and spoke too realistically. Although these articles only discussed scientific issues and almost no so-called sensitive words were found, they still “touched some people’s sore spots” and therefore had to be reported, giving the Internet management authorities a reason to “delete” them.

A netizen posted on “X” saying, “Modern book burning — deleting articles. … If you can’t argue, just burn the books, you feel guilty and wrong. The inflamed people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will say: China is a country under the rule of law. Any country that burns books (deletes articles) is not a good country, don’t go there. A gentleman does not enter a dangerous country.” (For the post link, see: https://x.com/Jam79922967/status/1878776997603594416).

It is also interesting to look at the “handling notice” sent by the Internet management authorities to the parties involved. The last sentence reads: “Please abide by relevant laws and regulations, and let us create a healthy and green content ecology together.”

What a “healthy”! What a “green”! What an “ecological”! What is healthy? This notice is dark and cold, and it is glaring and heartbreaking. It is not green at all, so how can it be called ecological? Who wants health, who hopes for green, who likes content, and who wants ecology?

How sad! Such a great country can’t even afford to write a few articles about hydropower stations?!

Appendix 1: Notice from the Chinese Internet Administration to Fan Xiaofa:

—— From the perspective of geological risks, the development of hydropower in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is not feasible:

——Talk about the 6.8-magnitude Luding earthquake and the seismic activity in the Sichuan-Yunnan seismic belt:

——China ’s rivers are “overcrowded ” with dams, and overdevelopment of hydropower has led to large amounts of water being abandoned:

——The Zipingpu Reservoir may have really triggered the Wenchuan earthquake:

Appendix 2: Five articles deleted by Chinese Internet management authorities (four of them have English translations, and one was actually deleted. I have no way to find it. I can only ask readers to help to locate this missing piece. If it can’t be found, I’m afraid I will have to ask the original author to complete it in the end).

1. Four major hazards of the Tiger Leaping Gorge Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River:

http://www.sanxiatansuo.com/index.html?index=view&vid=10908

English translation (coming soon)

2. The impracticability of hydropower development in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon from the perspective of geological risks:

http://www.sanxiatansuo.com/index.html?index=view&vid=9482

English translation:

3. Talk about the 6.8-magnitude Luding earthquake and the seismic activity in the Sichuan-Yunnan seismic belt:

http://www.sanxiatansuo.com/index.html?index=view&vid=9471

English translation:

4. China’s rivers are overcrowded with dams, and overdevelopment of hydropower has led to massive water abandonment:

http://www.sanxiatansuo.com/index.html?index=view&vid=7072

5. The Zipingpu Reservoir may have really triggered the Wenchuan earthquake: a literature review report on the relationship between the Zipingpu Reservoir and the Wenchuan earthquake

http://www.sanxiatansuo.com/index.html?index=view&vid=7690

English translation:

For access, see: https://journal.probeinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fx-12-11-1-3.pdf