From The Wall Street Journal:
The Canadian government’s little-examined role in the building of China’s Three Gorges Dam sheds light on how foreign governments and companies helped China move forward with one of the most controversial engineering projects in history.
Many Western governments, including the U.S., initially refused to support China’s plan to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam. Canada was the first Western country to break ranks and back the massive project. That opened the door for Western companies to sell lucrative high-technology equipment to China, while certain governments pledged taxpayer dollars in export credits.
The decision to build the Three Gorges Dam was ultimately Beijing’s. But a big part of how events played out occurred thousands of miles away in the Canadian province of Quebec. In the midst of a domestic political crisis, the Canadian government offered important assistance for the dam, despite warnings from Canadian engineers about how high the dam could be. [Full Text]
