Probe International

(December 17, 2005) The Three Gorges Project Corp. plans to issue bonds worth five billion yuan (US$600 million) to domestic investors.

(December 18, 2005) Yichang, near the Three Gorges dam, is planning various events this fall ‘to showcase the emerging world-class hydropower city,’ Xinhua reports.

(December 21, 2005) Police in eastern China detained 40 people who had demanded to be sent back to their homes in the southwest which they were forced to leave to make way for the giant Three Gorges dam, a rights group said on the weekend.

(December 27, 2005) The Economist asks: What happens to the villagers slated for resettlement who dare to protest? ‘We don’t dare to speak out,’ one villager says. ‘If we do, we’ll be arrested.’

(December 27, 2005) Scientists in China are preparing a drastic rescue plan for one of the planet’s rarest animals – a dolphin with the misfortune of living in one of China’s busiest and most polluted rivers.

(December 28, 2005) With cracks to fill and toxins to remove before the water rises next year, the people of the Yangtze can only hope no one cuts any fatal corners, John Gittings writes.

(December 28, 2005) The downstream cofferdam was demolished on July 1, two months ahead of schedule, Xinhua reports.

(December 29, 2005) Project officials still need to raise US$7.2 billion to complete construction of the world’s biggest dam.