Stretching a mile across a spectacular site on China’s Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam is the most ambitious hydroelectric project ever attempted. Estimated to cost more than $70 billion when completed, it will provideelectricity to China’s peasants, stop the disastrous flooding of the river and offer billions of dollars in foreign investment.

‘While China’s government is still easily able to order large-scale engineering projects that might be politically impossible in democratic nations, concerns over dams’ environmental and social impact has been growing in recent years.’

(April 7, 1999) 10,000 villagers petition central government for help

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.