(May 30, 2002) Deputy premier Wen Jiabao has stressed the importance of water conservation in tackling the looming environmental crisis in parched north China. But Mr. Wen, who is expected to succeed Zhu Rongji when the Chinese premier steps down next year, also voiced support for the controversial plan to siphon a huge volume of water from the Yangtze River and transfer it north to the arid Beijing-Tianjin region.

‘In China, where the state is committed to protecting the market for its own pet power projects … private investors are going to be in the dark about the viability of their investments,’ says Probe International’s Grainne Ryder.