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dam-l Three Gorges Probe: May 25, 2000
Three Gorges dam is 'black hole of corruption', says Chinese journalist
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THREE GORGES PROBE
Wednesday, May 25, 2000
(Issue No.18)
Racked by allegations of mismanagement and corruption, scandal surrounds
China's Three Gorges Dam project once again following two recent exposés
involving senior officials and vast sums of missing project funds.
Earlier this year, Three Gorges Industrial Company general manager Dai
Lansheng was charged with embezzling billions of yuan after importing
dilapidated, used construction equipment, instead of brand-new,
fully-functioning machinery. The scam came to light after dam workers
complained that the 20-year-old vehicles didn't work properly and
incurred costly repairs — one-third of the US$122 million Dai Lansheng
charged to his company for the secondhand purchases, remains unaccounted
for.
A more recent funds fiasco involves Jin Wenchao, head of Three Gorges
Economic Development Corporation, a company set up to provide support
services to the project, who is reported to have vanished, along with
more than US$120 million. Jin is alleged to have acquired his nest egg
by selling bogus managerial positions to acquaintances for substantial
bribes, as well as through the creation of fictitious businesses set up
to acquire loans supposedly in support of the Three Gorges Dam
development — but the yuan does not stop there. Jin's son and daughter
are also in the hot seat for allegedly borrowing vast amounts of money
from their father's "briefcase companies."
In the wake of Jin Wenchao's disappearance, Dai Qing — China's foremost
environmental journalist and long-time critic of the dam — offered her
comments on the latest outrage to rock the project, which she describes
as "a goldmine for corrupt officials."
"What interests me is how Jin [Wenchao], a barely-literate 67-year-old,
in just eight years, could progress from being a minor staff member at a
small county reservoir to become the general manager of the Three Gorges
Economic Development Corporation."
Legend has it that Jin Wenchao was plucked from obscurity and hired by
Li Boning, the then Deputy Minister of Water Resources during an
inspection tour, and was then promoted through the ranks by Guo Shuyuan,
a director of the State Planning Commission which oversees construction
of state megaprojects including Three Gorges. Such connections have
served Jin well. Even after being arrested in Beijing — Beijing police
hauled Jin in for failing to repay debts owed to the China Construction
Bank — his bail was posted by the Resettlement Bureau of the State
Council's Three Gorges Construction Committee — his organization's
parent company.
According to Dai Qing, the project's "black hole"of corruption spiralled
out of control after the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square. To
help repair its bloodied world image following the massacre, the state
turned the dam project into a symbol of national glory, the construction
of which would herald China's emergence as a major modern state.
Dissident opinions were not permitted publicly which, Dai says,
presented officials like Jin Wenchao and Dai Lansheng with a perfect
set-up, enabling them to embezzle and misappropriate vast sums of
project-related funds.
Dai Qing calculates that the dam's cost estimates have skyrocketed over
the years from US$ 4.5 billion in the 1980s to around US$ 24 billion,
currently. But a project insider in 1997 estimated the total cost could
soar to around US$72 billion, although, says Dai, US$120 billion would
not be "sufficient if officials carried on stealing at the rate they
have been."
In March, 53 senior engineers, water management experts and academics
appealed to China's central government not to fill the Three Gorges
reservoir to a maximum of 175 metres right away, to give people more
time to move and scientists more time to study the dam's effect on
navigation and flooding near Chongqing city. Nevertheless, says Dai
Qing, dam builders are still pushing for faster completion and maximum
output.
Dai Qing says that Three Gorges has become a "fishing project" for
corrupt officials like Jin Wenchao and Dai Lansheng: "The larger the
project, the more money there is for looters to stuff in their pockets."
END
Dai Qing was imprisoned without trial in 1989 for her role in promoting
debate in China about the Three Gorges dam. She is the editor of
Yangtze! Yangtze!, a compilation of essays by prominent Chinese
intellectuals opposed to the Three Gorges dam. In 1998 she released a
second book about Three Gorges, The River Dragon Has Come!
For more detail, see back issues of Three Gorges Probe at Back issues:
http://www.probeinternational.org/probeint/ThreeGorges/tgp/archive.html
"Chinese engineers and scientists urge leadership to change Three Gorges
dam operating plan," Three Gorges Probe 17, April 26, 2000.
"Three Gorges executive fired for malfeasance," Three Gorges Probe 16,
March 24, 2000.
"Chinese officials caught embezzling Three Gorges resettlement funds,"
Three Gorges Probe 15, February 21, 2000.
________________________________________________________
NOTICE:
"Three Gorges Probe" is a free electronic news service provided by
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Gorges dam, the world's largest hydro-electric project, now under
construction on the Yangtze River in the People's Republic of China.
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for political debate. Views expressed are those of the authors and
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Executive Editor: Mu Lan
Publisher: Patricia Adams, Probe International
ISSN 1481-0913
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________________________________________________________________
Doris Shen
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703
doris@irn.org
tel: 510.848.1155 ext. 317
fax: 510.848.1008
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