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dam-l The murky pool (SCMP Editorial)
May 3, 2000
SCMP EDITORIAL
The murky pool
It was meant to be among the greatest engineering
feats of the era. A project to tame the Yangtze River,
harnessing its hydro-electric power and irrigation
potential to modernise vast tracts of rural China. A
multi-billion-dollar attempt to bring the benefits of the
21st century to communities which lacked the most
basic facilities, setting the seal on China's emergence
as a major modern state.
Instead, the Three Gorges dam threatens to become
an economic disaster and a major embarrassment to
the central Government.
When it began, its very name evoked such awe that
anyone associated with it had instant status and
power. But from the outset, there appears to have
been a calamitous lack of professionalism,
organisation or comprehensive checks on
expenditure. Some key staff clearly lacked
qualifications for their work. With such a combination
of factors, the scene was set for a series of scams to
test the imagination of a Hollywood scriptwriter.
Details now surfacing pinpoint Jin Wenchao, boss of
the development corporation, as the man behind one
major scam. The full extent of his haul may never be
known. But corruption on the scale of at least one
billion yuan cannot exist in isolation. It required
collusion in high places or officials prepared to
overlook malpractice, for it to have continued
undetected for about eight years. Clearly, there are
other, possibly bigger, fish at the bottom of this
murky pool.
President Jiang Zemin has said that no matter how
high the office, anyone found guilty of graft will be
pursued and brought to justice. That should remove
all limits from investigations into this affair even into
the Ministry of State Security and the Three Gorges
Project Construction Committee of the State Council
if need be.
The matter also raises questions about the integrity of
the construction work, and whether corners have
been cut on materials or engineering procedures. The
truth must come out. Otherwise, breaches in the wall
of the country's development might threaten to
overwhelm all China.
_______________________________
Doris Shen
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
doris@irn.org
tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
fax: 510.848.1008
IRN http://www.irn.org
learn how you can help stop Three Gorges Dam http://www.floodwallstreet.org
IRN China Page http://www.hk-sanxia.org