The Three Gorges Project, which had been debated and examined for decades, was finally built during Jiang Zemin’s administration. Why did Jiang Zemin push so hard for the Three Gorges Project? Watch China correspondent interviewed Dr. Wang Weiluo, a renowned expert in environmental ecology and hydraulic engineering living in Germany.
Jiang Zemin’s visit to the Three Gorges Project dam site
After the June 24 crackdown, Jiang Zemin became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. His first visit was to Sanduoping, the dam site of the Three Gorges Project. Wang Weiluo said in the interview that at this Time Jiang Zemin’s position was not yet secure and he had to make a choice of sides with his physical actions. “On the morning of July 21, 1989 Jiang Zemin flew by plane from Beijing to Danyang Airport in Hubei Province, only 26 days before he became general secretary. Because Jiang Zemin knew very well that he was elected by eight old men, many of whom were active supporters of the Three Gorges Project. For example, Li Xiannian, Wang Zhen, and Deng Xiaoping, all of whom supported the Three Gorges project. Then their families wanted a big piece of the Three Gorges project.
At that time, Jiang Zemin took the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Water Resources to Hubei. They were greeted in Hubei by the provincial party secretary and the director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, Wei Tingzhi. Then after a lunch break, Jiang Zemin went by car and boat to see the site of the Three Gorges Dam at Sandouping. On the way back, he went to see the Gezhouba Dam project.
The next day, Jiang Zemin took a car from Yichang to Shashi, along the way to see the Yangtze River embankment, and then took a boat from Shashi to Wuhan, along the way to see the Jing River flood diversion project, Jing River embankment and so on. On board, Jiang Zemin, like Deng Xiaoping’s last visit to the Three Gorges, listened to a report by Wei Tingzheng, director of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission. Then Jiang Zemin said the purpose of my trip is to understand the seriousness of the flood control problem in the Jing River area and the role of the Three Gorges Project in flood control. A look on the ground confirmed this original conclusion. He said that if there were no technical problems, it was to assess the political problems. It is clear that at that time Jiang Zemin’s attitude toward the Three Gorges Project was very obvious, that is, he actively supported it. However, Jiang Zemin told the reporters accompanying him that you should not report my opinion on the Three Gorges Project to the public. When Xinhua News Agency published the report on July 27, it only said that Jiang Zemin visited the flood control dike of Jing River, the flood control area of Jing River, etc. It did not say that Jiang Zemin visited Sanduoping, the dam site of Three Gorges, nor did it openly say Jiang Zemin’s attitude toward Three Gorges. In fact, it is clear that Jiang Zemin ran to Three Gorges 26 days after he became general secretary, and he showed his attitude with his feet.”
Experts on the bend of the Three Gorges project sediment problem
According to Wang Weiluo, the issue of sediment was actually a hotly debated issue in the Three Gorges project demonstration at the time. “When Jiang Zemin arrived in Wuhan, he inspected the Wuhan Yangtze River embankment, and that afternoon he went to the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission to visit several models of the Three Gorges Project on the issue of sedimentation. For Jiang Zemin, a layman, he couldn’t understand the diagrams, but it should be easier to understand the models. If a person sees the model of the Three Gorges Project sediment test, he will not support the Three Gorges Project if he thinks about it.
Let’s use the thoughts of Lu Yuegang, a reporter from China Youth Daily. He said that the reservoir capacity of the Three Gorges project is certain, and part of the sediment has to be deposited in the reservoir, not all of it can go out, and one day, over the years, the reservoir capacity will be occupied by sediment.
Let’s now look at how Chinese experts explain it. Here is the explanation of the Chinese sediment expert, Dai Dingzhong, on this issue. I hope listeners and viewers will think for themselves after listening to it, and I am here to help you explain it. He said that the Three Gorges Reservoir is a canyon, a river reservoir, a very narrow reservoir, with a long reservoir capacity of 5% of the annual flow, solid rock walls on both sides, a large natural river flow, strong sand-carrying capacity, and the suspended sediment is basically through the hall. He then said that before the Three Gorges project was built, there was no sedimentation problem inside the Three Gorges river channel.
He also said that after the construction of the dam, the water level was raised. How much did it raise? The water level was raised by 113 meters. What is the direct result of the higher water level? It is the original very fast flow of water, the water has become slower, its ability to carry the sand is reduced, the sediment inside the water to be deposited, which caused the reservoir sedimentation.
In the first 10 years of operation, the ratio of discharge and sand discharge was only about 35%. That is, when the flood comes, to use the force of the flood to flush the sediment out of the reservoir, 35% of the sediment can be flushed out using this method, and 65% is to stay in the reservoir.
He said that according to the calculation, after 30 years of operation, the sand discharge ratio increases to 50%, after 60 years of operation, it increases to 90%, after 80 years of operation, it becomes 100%, and the flushing and siltation of the reservoir basically reaches the balance again, that is, how much goes in and how much goes out.
Let’s think about why the sediment flushing and discharge ratio will increase from 35% to 50%, to 80%, to 90%, to 100%, and then back to the original state? The only possibility that the speed of your water flow is going back to the original speed of that water flow. The Three Gorges Dam is not demolished, the reality of raising 113 meters is there, how can you make the speed of water flow faster? Only the water level at the end of the reservoir due to the siltation of the sediment, so that its water level is constantly raised, only to make the water flow faster. Do you understand? Only when the water level in Chongqing keeps rising will the problem of sedimentation in Three Gorges be solved.”
Jiang Zemin did not understand the sediment model
Wang Weiluo further pointed out why it is said that the 2020 Yangtze River Flood No. 5, not as big as the 1981 flood, but its water level is much higher than 1981? “If the water level in Chongqing is raised higher, the problem of sediment siltation in the Three Gorges Reservoir will become lighter and lighter. After the Chongqing flood, what is the first thing that the people of Chongqing came out to do? It was to send the silt back to the Three Gorges Reservoir. Everyone was clearing the silt, using taps, bulldozers, planks and doors, to send the silt back again. So many actions of human beings, many behaviors are looking for a dead end for themselves, on the road to their own demise.
So when we say that Jiang Zemin was looking at the sedimentation model, I think he didn’t understand it, he just thought that the problem of sedimentation could be solved. But what is the cost of the solution? Because the experts know that the politicians want to get a result that the Three Gorges project can be on.
Because you just think, if the Three Gorges reservoir has a certain percentage of sediment left in the reservoir every year, the reservoir must be silted up, but experts say that it is back to the original state, it is balanced by the siltation, how is it balanced by the siltation? The water level is too high, the silt above a little more powerful, then the silt balance, but the experts did not tell you the state of the silt balance again, this is to you all to think for themselves. Jiang Zemin he did not think, he just think there is a scientist argument to the bottom.
Jiang Zemin he thought he could not take the main responsibility for this decision. He thought there were more than 400 experts who participated in the Three Gorges Project demonstration, and they recommended the Three Gorges Project to the central government. So it was those experts who should take the responsibility for this specific decision, not him. He just drew a circle on this demonstration report of yours, just like Mao Zedong did.”
Jiang Zemin fantasizes about making a name for himself in history
Jiang Zemin returned to Beijing from Wuhan by plane on the evening of July 24, 1989, and early on the morning of the 25th Jiang Zemin rushed to the hospital to visit Li Peng.
Wang Weiluo talked about: “Li Peng said in his diary on July 25 that Comrade Jiang Zemin came to visit me in the hospital at 9 a.m. He advised me to be at peace with myself, and that people are prone to illness after a long period of stress and fatigue. That was because he was so nervous and fatigued from suppressing the Tiananmen student movement that he got sick, and I don’t know if he got sick from the ideological disease like the Chinese Communist Party cadres who didn’t become general secretary. Then he said Jiang Zemin talked about the impression of the Yangtze River inspection, and he thought it was necessary to go on the Three Gorges Project.
The reason for Jiang Zemin’s haste to take a stand is partly to align himself with Li Peng, but also because of the limitations and ambitions of Jiang Zemin’s own thinking.
Jiang Zemin as general secretary is the result of a reverse elimination. It is several old people they recommended Jiang Zemin, which especially has Li Xiannian, Wang Zhen their recommendation, eight old people agreed. Although at that time may be a temporary an excess, they did not think this a choice is dead, but they may change at any time, because they are temporary can not find someone.
The person Jiang Zemin, despite being a reverse elimination to the top, he himself felt that it was heaven sent to him, reverse elimination means not to choose the good, but to choose the bad. The company’s main goal is to create a reputation for itself and to leave a name in history.
Jiang Zemin himself was influenced by his Education, his values were Stalinist thinking, and he was a Sovietist. Stalin wrote a large part of the socialist political economy is about man’s determination to win. Man has to transform nature, and by what? It is by reservoirs to transform nature. The reservoir is a good thing, it can store all the flood water, and then release it in the dry period, both to prevent flooding and drought. Stalin said this is the result of our transformation of nature. Jiang Zemin belonged to the Soviet faction, and his head was heavy with Soviet thinking, so he thought that the construction of the Three Gorges Project reflected the superiority of socialism. It was his own values that determined his preference for the Three Gorges Project.”
The Three Gorges Project and Jiang Zemin’s “Muffled Fortune”
Wang also noted that many Communist Party officials supported the Three Gorges Project, not because it was a good project. “Jiang Zemin himself ruled a very important thing in his means, that is, why so many cadres from the central to the local level supported the Three Gorges Project. The Three Gorges Project actually created an opportunity for a large number of cadres from the central to the local level to make money, and an opportunity for promotion. With so much money invested in the Three Gorges Project, the Chinese people are only dependent on the National Audit Office’s review of the investment in the Three Gorges Project. It is a self-checking thing, you simply can not reveal the corruption inside the Three Gorges Project. So this is the same as Jiang Zemin’s slogan “make a fortune by muffled voices”. Jiang Zemin’s slogan, “Sulking and making a fortune,” gained the support of many cadres from the central to the local level. Jiang Zemin said, “We all get rich, he doesn’t care what you are greedy for, as long as you listen to my words.”
The Three Gorges Project was eventually built during Jiang Zemin’s administration.
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