Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:47:52.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

China's Three Gorges Dam: Questions and Prospects*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

The idea of building a massive dam in the Yangtze gorges has fired the imagination of Chinese and foreign engineers, adventurers and entrepreneurs since the 1920s. Politicians, financiers, presidents and chairmen have been bombarded and bamboozled with the nuts and bolts of Three Gorges and the impassioned views of project proponents and opponents. The crescendo of debate has risen steadily through decades of civil unrest, war, revolution, and national upheaval and reconstruction. Still, despite this long gestation, Chinese and foreign perspectives on the place and purpose of the proposed dam are remarkably limited in concept and substance.

Type
Research Note
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Guojie, Chen, “Some viewpoints on [the] macroscopic ecological system and [the] environmental impact of [the] Three Gorges Project,” paper presented at the Symposium on the Three Gorges Project, Education and Science Society, Inc., New York, N.Y., 6 12 1986.Google Scholar

2. Zhongguo ziran dili: dibiaoshui (Physical Geography of China: Surface Water) (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1981), p. 20Google Scholar, as quoted in Changming, Liu and Ma, Laurence J.C., “Interbasin water transfer in China,” Geographical Review., Vol. 73, No. 3 (07 1983), p. 254.Google Scholar

3. Yangtze Valley Planning Office, Wanli Changjiang qi hongtu (Great Plans for the 10,000 li Changjiang) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1976).Google Scholar

4. Joseph Needham, with the collaboration of Ling, Wang and Gwei-Djen, Lu, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), Vol. 4, Pt. 3, pp. 211378.Google Scholar

5. Hanying, Zhang, “Preface” to Zhongguo shuili shi gao (Historical Sketch of shuili in China) (Beijing: Shuili dianli chubanshe, 1979).Google Scholar

6. Jinchang, Li. “Yige zhongyao zhanlue zhidao sixiang de pujian” (“Dissemination of an important strategic guiding thought”), Huanjing baohu (Environmental Protection), No. 11 (1986). pp. 23, 32.Google Scholar

7. Baocheng, Han. “Three Gorges Project: is it feasible?Beijing Review, Vol. 29. No. 29 (21 07 1986) and No. 30 (28 07 1986), pp. 1620, 2224.Google Scholar

8. “Ta Kung Bao debate over Three Gorges Project,” Hong Kong, 31 03 and 1 04, 1986.Google Scholar Translated in Joint Publications Research Service. JPRS-CEA-057, 9 May 1986, p. 17.

10. Xiaoqiu, He. “Some explorations about the planning of Three Gorges Project,” paper presented at Symposium on the Three Gorges Project, Education and Science Society, Inc., New York, N.Y., 6 12 1986.Google Scholar

11. Dixon, John A. et al. , Economic Analysis of the Environmental Impacts of Development Projects. Asian Development Bank Economic Staff Paper No. 31, 08 1986.Google Scholar

12. Shutian, Li et al. , Zhongguo shuili wenti (China's shuili Problems) (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937).Google Scholar

13. Hufschmidt, Maynard M. et al. , Environment, Natural Systems, and Development (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), pp. 23.Google Scholar

14. Chandler, William U., The Myth of TVA (Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1984).Google Scholar

15. People's Republic of China, Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power, Three Gorges Feasibility Study. Terms of Reference and Scope of Work for CIPM Yangtze-Joint Venture, 16 06 1986, p. 3.Google Scholar

16. Committee for the Preparation of the Thirty Years Commemorative Volume of the Chinese Engineering Society, Sanshi nianlai zhi Zhongguogongcheng (Thirty Years of Engineering in China) (Chongqing, 1946).Google Scholar

17. Wenhao, Weng, “Huigu wangshi” (“Review of the past”), in Wenshi ziliao xuanji (selected Compilation of Literary and Historical Materials) (Beijing: Wenxue lishichubanshe, 1982), Vol. 80, pp. 116.Google Scholar

18. Xishang, Song, He shang ren lun (Musings by the River) (Taipei: Book World Co., 1965), pp. 245–54.Google Scholar

19. Yongyi, Ye, “Tigao shuili jianshe jingji xiaoyi de tujing” (“Ways of promoting economic efficiency in water resources development”), Kexue yanjiu lunwen ji. Shui ziyuan (Collection of Scientific Research Papers. Water Resources) (Beijing: Shuili dianli chubanshe, 1983), No. 14, pp. 170–78.Google Scholar

20. National Research Council, Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Problem-Solving (Washington: National Academy Press, 1986), pp. 119.Google Scholar

21. Baruch Boxer, Statement at Hearing on Irrigation in Drought and Famine-Affected Countries, U.S. Congress. House of Representatives, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Subcommittee on Water and Power Resources. 23 July 1985.

22. Edward, Goldsmith and Nicholas, Hildyard (eds.), The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams. Volume Two: Case Studies (Cornwall. U.K.: Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1986).Google Scholar

23. Larkin, P. A., “A commentary on environmental impact assessment for large projects affecting lakes and streams.” Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Vol. 41 (1984), pp. 1121–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. National Research Council, Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Problem-Solving, pp. 114115.Google Scholar

25. Shengye, Lu. “Gezhouba shuiku de huanjing yixue jianshi yao jiaqiang” (“Strengthen environmental health supervision of the Gezhouba Reservoir”), Huanjing (Environment), No. 12 (1984), p. 11.Google Scholar

26. Pelts, Geoffrey E., Impounded Rivers (Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, 1984), p. 1113.Google Scholar

27. Ibid. p. 238.

28. Ibid. pp. 238–66.

29. Municipal public works, environmental protection, greening, and transport officials, Yichang, Hubei province, personal communication, June 1982.

30. Baocheng, Han, “Three Gorges Project: is is feasible?”Google Scholar, and Boxer, Baruch, “Environmental research in China: achievements and challenges,” China Exchange News, Vol. 15, No. 2 (06 1987), pp. 711.Google Scholar

31. “Scientists discuss need for balanced ecology,” translation from Beijing Xinhua 26 December 1979, Joint Publications Research Service. JPRS 75036-Worldwide Report: Environmental Quality, No. 238 (30 January 1980), pp. 7–8.

32. Xueyu, Hou, “Shenma shi shengtai xitong shenma shi shengtai pingheng” (“What is an ecological system? What is ecological equilibrium?”), Xinhua wenzhai (Xinhua Abstracts). Vol. 2 (1982), pp. 212–13.Google Scholar

33. 1983 Agriculture Handbook (trans.), Joint Publications Research Service, JPRS–CAG–86–028, 24 07 1986, pp. 172–78.Google Scholar

34. “Ya Er Hu wuran diaochao baogao” (“Report on Investigation of Ya Er Hu Pollution”), Huanjing baohu yu shuisheng shengwu yanjiu baogao (Environmental Protection and Hydrobiology Research Reports), No. 11 (Wuhan: Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1975).Google Scholar