Beijing – Thousands of Chinese dams have been described as "time bombs" by Chinese officials. They said more than one-third of the country’s estimated 85,000 dams are defective and need urgent repairs.

China’s top industry planning body has given the go-ahead for a megadam on the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) River that will be the country’s third-largest hydropower station after Three Gorges and Xiluodu.

BEIJING, Mar. 09, 1999 — (Reuters) China will resettle 400,000 people from around the southwestern city of Chongqing in the next five years to make way for the giant Three Gorges Dam project, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (AP) — People being forced out of their homes by China’s massive Three Gorges Dam have accused resettlement officials of corruption, an environmental lobbying group said Sunday.

The Tiger Leaping Gorge dam has been listed as one of the country’s major infrastructure projects for the 11th five-year plan period (2006-2010). Although final approval is pending, there is a strong likelihood the project will go ahead.

(December 28, 1998) China’s Premier Zhu Rongji urges builders of Three Gorges dam to pay more attention to the “quality” of its construction, an AFP story quotes Xinhua.

BEIJING, Dec. 08, 1998 — (Agence France Presse) China’s relocation quota for the giant Three Gorges Dam project has fallen behind this year with only 49,000 people moving out of their homes near the Yangtze river, the China Daily said Tuesday.

The following is an excerpt from the book The River Dragon Has Come!