(October 3, 2012) Wang Like is a Three Gorges Dam migrant who moved thinking it was his duty and honour to do so. Wang and his family, along with so many others, gave up everything for the construction of China’s concrete colossus – an edifice that would later be described as equal parts vanity project and technological marvel – in the belief that it was for a greater good. But on arrival in their new resettlement area, Wang’s family experienced what has become standard for countless Three Gorges Dam migrants: a welcome of open hostility, corruption of resettlement funds, broken promises and incomprehensible ill-treatment – as though he and his fellow migrants were being punished for their sacrifice. Wang’s story is rendered in powerful detail here, in a letter he wrote to a sympathetic journalist, in the hopes his voice would be heard.
Air pollution harder to deny in cyber China
(February 1, 2012) China’s cyber citizens, or ‘netizens’ as they are known, are forcing their government to come clean-er on air pollution.
Weibo Watch: Issue 10
(January 23, 2012) In this instalment of Weibo Watch: grassroots social activism takes off.
Weibo Watch: Issue 9
(November 21, 2011) In this instalment of Weibo Watch: the media investigates cadmium-contaminated rice, technological bird kills, and rivers polluted with heavy metals or choked with weeds; netizens catch online vendors selling protected species; and professors kneel in protest against steel factories, setting off a heated debate.
Who’s on notice: Ai Weiwei or the Chinese government?
(November 16, 2011) The notice from tax authorities has launched Ai as a cause célèbre yet again but, this time, and significantly, within China.
Weibo Watch: Issue 8
(November 9, 2011) This week, a botched Car Free Day sees heavier traffic jams than usual; Beijing’s air pollution is far worse than Chinese authorities admit; citizens clash with police in protests against waste incineration; and farmers burn straw, adding smog to Chinese cities.
Environmental Hot Docs from China
(October 19, 2011) Independent documentary film plays a particularly critical role in a country lacking freedom of speech. Because the Chinese government is hiding the damage done to China’s environment by two decades of economic growth, citizens are taking up the job using film to expose the trade-offs between the environment and the economy, and the effect this is having on Chinese citizens and society at large.
Liu Zhi: “Chaos reigns in China’s river valleys”
(September 29, 2011) Liu Zhi from the Beijing-based Transition Institute looks at China’s costly and chaotic dam-building spree, and the legal and economic reasons behind the bad investments.
Shale gas in China
(September 28, 2011) Shale gas is a burgeoning (if controversial) industry in the United States, but in China, which may have reserves to rival the U.S., development is only beginning. Liu Zhi, of Beijing’s Transition Institute, discusses the potential and the problems of China’s shale gas industry.
Weibo Watch: Issue 7
This week on Weibo Watch: rock desertification is turning a huge swath of southwest China barren; villagers in Guangdong fight illegal, environmentally damaging mining; citizens in Zhejiang, protesting an energy company’s carcinogenic pollution, face official denial and police detention; restaurants stop selling shark fin; and an NGO walks along the highly polluted Xiang River.
Weibo Watch: Issue 6
This week, netizens take on polluting phone manufacturers, document Beijing’s traffic troubles, successfully shut down a hunting festival and investigate sales of mysterious “grey swan” meat for the Mid-Autumn Day Festival.
Zeng Jinyan: Middle class parents in China looking for a better education for their kids
(September 16, 2011) On the western outskirts of Beijing, middle class Chinese parents and teachers have chosen a site to construct and decorate a school, called Spring Valley. They do most of the work themselves maintaining traditional Chinese culture and practices, but applying a local version of the famous Waldorf education model.
Weibo Watch: Issue 5
(September 15, 2011) In this installment of Weibo Watch: hundreds of rivers and dams dry up, Poyang Lake continues to shrink, Beijing Zoo’s new amusement park draws an angry response, and complaints about mining in Tibetan culture’s holy mountains fall on deaf ears.
Weibo Watch: Issue 4
(September 12, 2011) This week on Weibo Watch: controversy brews over a beer company’s plans to trek through a fragile nature reserve.
Weibo Watch: Issue 3
(September 2, 2011) Weibo Watch: Issue 3 looks at China’s Eco-Water Tours; industrial stink, dangerous dams and drains that are completely fake.
Probe International 