(May 31, 1994) PREFACE TO THE CHINESE EDITION
WORKSONG ON THE YANGTZE RIVER by Wu Guoguang
In China, nothing is free of politics. Although it should be a scientific issue, the Three Gorges project has, unfortunately, been dragged into the political arena.
(May 31, 1994) THE THREE GORGES DAM AND THE CHINESE POLITY by Lawrence R. Sullivan
The contributors to this volume are generally not liberal, Westernized dissidents. Many are long-time loyal communists; others are veteran members of China’s normally compliant satellite parties. These are not the young idealists who filled Beijing’s streets in the democracy movement of 1989, but largely elderly officials with scientific and technical backgrounds who have opposed the dam out of a genuine concern for China’s economic health and political stability.
(May 31, 1994) Yangtze! Yangtze! is a collection of Chinese documents debating the Three Gorges project. This English translation is organized in a manner similar to its Chinese predecessor, with interviews, essays and letters to Chinese officials forming distinct sections. But this edition, which is being published after the project has been given the official go-ahead, also reflects the continuing struggle against the dam: 10 new chapters are included here, which both update and expand the material contained in the original Chinese edition.
(May 23, 1994) This report is an introduction to the impacts of large dams in general, the environmental problems associated with existing large dams in Asia, and the potential impacts of damming the Salween.
(March 21, 1994) Because of Probe International’s work to stop the Three Gorges dam, Dai Qing, China’s foremost female journalist, asked us to publish the English-language version of Yangtze! Yangtze!, a remarkable book that rallied public opposition to what threatens to become the world’s largest and most harmful dam, and led to her 10-month imprisonment.
(April 9, 1994) The earthquake that killed 10,000 people in India last September struck within 15 kilometers of a reservoir filled just 2 years earlier. That proximity in time and space seems more than coincidental to two U.S. seismologists who propose that filling the reservoir may have set off the quake.
Because of Probe International’s work to stop the Three Gorges dam, Dai Qing, China’s foremost female journalist, asked us to publish the English-language version of Yangtze! Yangtze!, a remarkable book that rallied public opposition to what threatens to become the world’s largest and most harmful dam, and led to her 10-month imprisonment.
(February 1, 1994) Meanwhile, independent experts blast World Bank for ignoring mounting disaster at downstream tributary’s Pak Mun Dam.
Mekong ecosystem under new attack, as Asian Development Bank prepares to finance dam in Laos
(January 1, 1994) PROBE INTERNATIONAL is calling for an international investigation and audit of the World Bank by a team of independent national auditors from member countries into the financial soundness of the Bank; the costs to taxpayers of maintaining the Bank’s preferred creditor status; and the voting structure and secrecy of the Board of Executive Directors.
(November 13, 1993) It’s crowded with ancient sites and spectacular scenery. But soon the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River may disappear forever, writes Donald Morris.
On the night of August 27, 1993, a dam burst high in a remote province in China, sending torrents of water crushing down on nearby villagers. Close to 300 people were killed and thousands made homeless.
(October 1993) China’s official media have been eager to depict happy peasants thanking the government for their decision to move them out of their poverty-ridden villages on the Yangtze, and give them new homes, jobs and farmland. But this is not the whole story.
(October 1993) In the chaotic, black-market capitalism of the new China, the children of the Communist elite are the economic warlords – a secret society reaping vast fortunes through family connections.
(September 19, 1993) ON THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 27, 1993, a dam burst high in a remote western province of China, sending torrents of water crashing down on nearby villages, killing more than 200 people, and rendering thousands more homeless. Though no official reason has been given for this latest human-made disaster in a country plagued by them, one government spokesperson admitted that a destructive earthquake which hit the region of the Gouhou dam in 1990 "may have had some effect" in causing the dam to collapse under this year’s flood waters.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
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