An Introduction to the Politics of the Three Gorges Dam1) What was the Chinese Government's intended PURPOSE/AIM for constructing the
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The Chinese Government had four main goals/aims for the Three Gorges Dam project:
1. Flood Control: The history of the Yangtze River includes many devastating floods which have killed thousands of people & have caused millions of dollars in damages. The dam would be able to reduce the impacts of flooding, since it would have a flood control capacity of 39.3 billion cubic meters. 2. Power Generation: The use of hydroelectric turbine generators would reduce China’s dependency on coal; a hydrocarbon that produces greenhouse gases. The Three Gorges Dam would have an output of about 85TWh annually, which is close to one tenth of current Chinese requirements. Thus, due to the dam's large clean power generation, the dam will have social, economical & environmental benefits. 3. Navigation: The presence of the dam, the reservoir, and the ship locks would allow large ships to travel up and downstream for the first time. Shipping would become slightly safer. Improved navigability on the river will allow larger ships to sail from Shanghai to as far as Chongqing upstream from the dam and 2,000km from the sea, to aid China's burgeoning domestic and export trade. Overall, shipping would increase and transportation costs would be cut. 4. Tourism: Since the Three Gorges Dam Project was set to be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, it was expected to be popular among tourists visiting China. Furthermore, it would be seen as a symbol of pride and political power. |
A brief Political History/Timeline of the Construction of the Dam |
1919: The founder of the People's Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, conceived the idea of a dam on the Yangtze river for power generation purposes. The idea was shelved due to unfavourable political & economic conditions.
1958: Lin Yishan, head of the Yangtze Valley Planning Office, favored the dam construction. His optimism was further encouraged by the favorable political climate & the support from the late chairman Mao Zedong, who wanted China to have the world's largest hydroelectric dam. This was during the start of the Great Leap Forward, when Mao aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid INDUSTRIALIZATION & Collectivization.
March, 1989:
Due to much domestic and international pressure, the State Council agreed to suspend the construction plans for five years. |
1954: Major floods resurrected the idea, and thus the government decided to start adopting the idea of the dam for flood control.
1960 's:
Due to the failure of the Great Leap forward, preparation work had ended in 1960. The idea resurfaced in 1963 as part of the new policy to build a "third front" of industry in southwest China. But the Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966, and in 1969, and this resulted in a construction delay. June, 1989:
However, after the Tiananmen Square protests, the government forbade public debate of the dam, accused foreign critics of ignorance or intent to undermine the regime, and imprisoned Dai Qing and other famous critics. |
Initially, Vice Minister of Electric Power, Li Rui was in favour of the dam, however he also argued that smaller dams should be built first until China could afford such a costly project, and that construction should proceed in stages to allow time to solve technical problems.
However later on, Li Rui concluded that the dam should not be built at all since it would be too costly, flood many cities and fertile farmland, subject the middle and lower reaches of the river to catastrophic flooding during construction, and would not contribute much to shipping. The construction of the dam was further objected by Sichuan province officials. 1970 's:
Work was resumed on Gezhouba; a smaller dam downstream, but it soon ran into severe technical problems and cost overruns that it seemed likely to plague the Three Gorges Dam on an even larger scale. The economic reforms introduced in 1978 underlined the need for more electric power to supply a growing industrial base, so the State Council approved the construction in 1979. 1992:
Premier Li Peng crusaded for the dam and pushed it through the National People's Congress in April 1992. When the dam project was being voted on by the National People’s Congress, some 177 delegates, one-third of the Congress, voted NO and 664 delegates abstained from voting. Two delegates even walked out of the vote. The Three Gorges Dam resolution passed by the smallest margin in Chinese history. |
As we can see, the Chinese Government built the dam for a variety of reasons; social, political, economic and environmental. However, all social & environmental benefits, eventually led to Economic Benefits, such as reducing flood damage costs, generating more power and increasing trade & tourism revenue. Furthermore, it can also be seen in the timeline that the actual instigator for building the dam, was the Economic Reforms of 1978. Thus, we can say that the Government was mostly Economically motivated, in terms of building the dam.
Moving on, looking at the timeline, we can see that even within the Chinese Government, the issue of the dam was widely debated over for a long period of time. Next, there were severe technical & cost issues with another smaller dam on the same river. Nevertheless the government didn't take this as a warning & still decided to build the TGD. Finally, we now know that all public resistances against the dam, were shut down by the government forcefully. Thus this was the first time that with relation to the dam, the Chinese Government violated major Human Rights (as declared by the UN), such as the Freedom of Speech, Expression and the Right to Protest. |