Netizen Voices: “Certain Retired Leader” Who?
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection released a report last week alleging graft among...
Three Gorges Dam
China Sweeps Aside Civilians in Rush for Hydropower
The Guardian reports on the European firms that are helping China build up its hydropower...
Peter Hessler’s ‘Strange Stones’ Reviewed
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Pallavi Aiyar reviews Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West by Peter Hessler, former China correspondent for The New Yorker. She discusses the tight focus of Hessler’s writing on...
Looking Deeper Into The Yangtze River
The Sydney Morning Herald’s National Travel Editor Anthony Dennis describes his cruise from Chongqing to Shanghai, revealing what makes the Yangtze River attractive from his own perspective after the construction of the...
Sensitive Words: Sichuan Earthquake, Xi Jinping
As of April 22, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function). Sichuan Earthquake: At least 188 are dead and over 11,000 injured after Saturday morning’s 7.0-magnitude...
Return to River Town
Peter Hessler, the former New Yorker correspondent in Beijing, also wrote a best-selling book in 2001, River Town, which documented his two years teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer in a town that was on the verge of...
Water Shortages: Desalination vs. Conservation
Seawater desalination may offer a promising supplement to diversion of freshwater to China’s dry north-east, especially as severe droughts in the south place the latter’s basic logic in question. Critics argue,...
China Rushes to Build a New Generation of Mega-dams
In its rush to find sources of power, China has focused on hydropower. Following the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam, work is now centered on the Jinsha River in Yunnan Province, where up to 30 dams are currently in...
Thousands to Move, Again, from Three Gorges
The Three Gorges Dam finally reached full power output in July, but geological risks are forcing some 120,000 people living along its reservoir to relocate, many for the second time. From Reuters’ Sui-Lee Wee: Landslides...
Three Gorges Dam at Full Capacity
The Three Gorges Dam’s 32nd and final generator went into full operation for the first time on Wednesday, finally bringing the dam to maximum capacity almost 20 years after the project started. From the AFP: “The full...
China’s Lies, Damn Lies and Secret Statistics
As Beijing tries to stifle independent monitoring of its air quality and seals up previously public financial data, Trefor Moss surveys the various types of controlled information at Foreign Policy. Beijing makes no secret of...
Three Gorges Forces Further Displacement
Twenty years have passed since the Chinese government authorized the massive Three Gorges Dam project. Since then, there has been ongoing concern about the social and environmental ramifications of the damming. The Financial...
Causes & Consequences of Southern Droughts
According to Xinhua, nearly 8 million people and over 4.5 million livestock in 13 provinces suffered from inadequate drinking water as of April 5th. Severe drought, usually a characteristic of the north, increasingly afflicts...
Construction Begins on Final Yangtze Dam
While China continues to push for work to be resumed on the Myitsone Dam in Myanmar, it’s own Three Gorges Corp. has begun construction on a dam that will flood the last free-flowing portion of the middle Yangtze River....
Sinking City Solution: Pump Groundwater Back?
The State Council recently ratified a five-year plan to address the sinking ground levels of over 79,000 square kilometres and more than 50 cities in China, which potentially threaten the stability of everything from high-rise...
What You Might Not Know About the Three Gorges Project
Non-profit environmental advocacy group PROBE International released the English translation of a lengthy and informative article written by Guo Yushan last year. Guo is director of the Transition Institute, an independent...
Study: Three Gorges Dam Did Not Worsen Climate Change
The much-maligned Three Gorges Dam received a domestic boost on Friday when a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found no evidence that the project caused climate change. From Xinhua News: Research has shown that...
Reading List: Peter Hessler
The New Yorker’s former China correspondent Peter Hessler is among the 2011 MacArthur Fellows, whose awards were announced on Tuesday. To mark this, The New Yorker has collected links to all of Hessler’s...
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