Probe International

‘Ultimately the life of this dam is very limited, unless they build other dams to prevent it from silting up,’ said Jennifer Turner, coordinator of the China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

According to China Newsweek reports, among the 85,000 plus reservoirs in China, over 30,000 have problems but continue to be operational, constituting a major hidden danger in water resource facilities.

Human Rights in China has learned that Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai is being treated for serious injuries following an assault by an unknown assailant.

(June 12, 2006) China plans to build a dozen dams in the upper Yangtze catchment area in the next 20 years, with a combined installed capacity of 90.2 million kilowatts.

Japanese researchers plan to conduct a three-year study to investigate the causal relationship behind an increase in jellyfish off the coast of Japan and changes to the Yangtze River brought about by the Three Gorges dam.

Fu Xiancai, a Three Gorges migrant who has campaigned for years on behalf of people who were moved to make way for the dam, is in hospital with a broken neck and paralyzed from the shoulders down, Human Rights in China reports.

‘The attack on Fu Xiancai, a critic of the government’s treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam project, raises questions about police complicity and highlights the risks Chinese rights campaigners face.’

Human Rights in China welcomes the German media and government intervention into the case of Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai.

The director of German TV station NDR has filed a letter of complaint with China’s ambassador to Germany over the attack on Three Gorges migrant Fu Xiancai, writing: ‘This overshadows our intention to intensify our coverage of the Olympic Games 2008.’

Three Gorges migrant-campaigner Fu Xiancai ‘was struck from behind on June 8. The blow broke his neck, leaving him paralysed from the neck down but able to speak. He is under 24-hour police surveillance in hospital in Yichang city.’

‘An energetic, engaging man, [Fu Xiancai’s] activism annoys local officials intensely. After we met in March, I was detained and questioned for hours by police, made to sign a confession and hand over my notes and photo memory card.

‘We thought [Fu Xiancai’s] high profile would serve as some form of protection. But this was not the case,’ said German correspondent Jochen Graebert. ‘We will do everything we can help to help this man. We won’t abandon him.’

Reporters Without Borders urges China’s foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, to intervene in the case of Fu Xiancai, a vocal critic of the government’s treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam who was left paralysed after a beating.

Reporters Without Borders has demanded that China investigate the beating of an activist after he criticized the government in a German TV interview, calling the incident a worrying sign for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Fu Xiancai yesterday vowed to continue his fight on behalf of people displaced for the Three Gorges dam, and appealed for help with paying for vital surgery.