Probe International

The United States Export-Import Bank could decide next week whether to subsidize corporate America’s involvement in China’s controversial Three Gorges dam. The bank’s board of executive directors is expected to vote on the project once the current budget impasse is resolved.

The White House has apparently distanced itself from its earlier advice to the Export-Import Bank to stay away from the Three Gorges dam in China, according to a report in the Journal of Commerce. American multinationals are now confident they will get support from the bank to help build the massive and controversial dam on China’s Yangtze River.

Chinese officials admitted last week that the number of people who will have to be moved to make way for the colossal Three Gorges dam is higher than originally expected.

$12.5 million Export Development Corporation loan to Chinese government makes Canadian Taxpayers financiers of world’s "riskiest and most destructive dam project ever"

Chinese health authorities are alarmed about the potential spread of diseases among the people being forced to move to make way for the Three Gorges dam, according to an article in a Chinese newspaper, Health Daily.

Three Gorges Probe May 31, 1996 After a protracted and heated debate, the United States Export-Import Bank announced yesterday that it will not provide financial assistance for US companies vying to build […]

Despite China’s optimism in offering a $120 million bond issue for the Three Gorges Project this month, international investors are still hesitant to back the highly controversial dam. Says senior analyst Simon Billenness, of Franklin Research and Development in Boston, "Until the grave environmental and human rights concerns are adequately addressed, we wouldn’t touch Three Gorges with a barge pole." A project finance analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, maintained, "The Chinese are going to have a very difficult time financing this. I think the Three Gorges [project] is simply going to be crushed under the sheer weight of itself; the project is much too ambitious."

General Electric shareholders are getting involved in the riskiest and most destructive dam project ever, according to seven environmental groups, representing nearly 900,000 supporters across North America. Their message was sent in letters to the largest shareholders in General Electric Company, after it was announced last month that General Electric Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Connecticut – based General Electric Company, was awarded a contract to supply turbines and generators to the Three Gorges dam project in China.
 

(i) Half a Million to be Moved After Disastrous Floods
(ii) Senior Dam Opponent Speaks Out Again