Probe International

(May 3, 2009) At a conference attended by prefecture and county officials on April 21, the joint work team gave a progress report to prefecture commissioner Xu Zerong on efforts to deal with the disturbances at the Dahe hydropower station. The record of the conference showed how the significant decisions were made.

(May 3, 2009) With the dispute over the calcium-carbide factory now a thing of the past, the affected groups in Shanyang turned their attention to another major struggle: extracting compensation for fields eroded by the Dahe dam after 1978.

(May 3, 2009) On August 1, 1987, 200 peasants marched to the Dahe station, led by Tailor Wang, Jiang Youheng, Wu Qixian, Yao Longshi and Liang Yongwu. The heads of the upstream groups and several representatives went to the office at the station to talk to the people in charge.

(May 3, 2009)

"The top leaders in Beijing are our benefactors, the provincial leaders are like our family members, there are good officials at the prefecture, there are more bad eggs than good at the county – while all local cadres at the township level are our enemies." – A Yunyang county folk song

(May 3, 2009) On October 28, 1984, the head of Shanyang township, Yang Yongquan, was riding his bike over the bridge leading to the Dahe station when his way was suddenly blocked by a man in his 60s.

(May 3, 2009)

After the county and prefecture governments made it clear that local Shanyang cadres had not, in their view, committed any crimes of corruption, the villagers had to decide how to proceed. According to the regulations pertaining to China’s shangfang [appeals] system, petitioners were allowed to appeal to a higher level than the prefecture government – the provincial authorities. But Tailor Wang and the other "elite" of the affected people decided to go to the highest authorities of all, the top leaders in Beijing, by way of the provincial capital.

(May 3, 2009)

[quote] "Many problems have been solved to date but there are still problems left over from history. There is therefore a need to make every effort to address the masses’ problems according to central government policies and local conditions. When dealing with the problems, do whatever you can to fix them, by stages and in batches. When problems remain unresolved, the masses will persist in their appeals to higher authorities. And if the hole in the dyke becomes too big, the flood of appeals will cause the entire structure to collapse, swamping higher authorities.

(May 3, 2009)

[quote]A crowing rooster (jiao ji gong) refers to 1) a person who deliberately makes trouble or 2) a person who is always keen to complain.
— Quoted from "A glossary of local dialects in Yunyang county," Yunyang County Annals[/quote]

(May 3, 2009)

[quote]The new dam shines like a bright pearl,
Its power sent everywhere.
But we peasants suffered when the floods came
And washed away our land.
The prefecture issued documents on the problem,
The hydro station gave money to help us.
But corrupt, greedy officials stole the funds,
Leaving victims of the disaster mired in misery.
– Folk song for the flood victims[/quote]

(May 3, 2009)

"A huge rock lies across the heart of the river like a dragon,
The sound of waves can be heard night after night.
Can we ask what you are complaining about,
And why the resentment has not waned for thousands of years?"

– Dragon Back and Waves in the Night, by Qing dynasty poet Li Yingfa

(May 3, 2009)

"Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the state has allocated a great deal of money to build more than 10 hydropower dams in Sichuan province, and the number of affected people has now reached 224,000. For a long time, problems have lingered as a consequence of dam construction, largely due to a low standard of compensation and shortage of available land in the resettlement zones.