BRYAN TILT DAMS AND The Moral Economy DEVELOPMENT of Water and Power IN CHINA DAMS AND DEVELOPMENT CHINA IN CONTEMPORARY ASIA IN THE WORLD CONTEMPORARY ASIA IN THE WORLD DAVID C. KANG AND VICTOR D. CHA, EDITORS This series aims to address a gap in the public-policy and scholarly discussion of Asia. It seeks to promote books and studies that are on the cutting edge of their respective disciplines or in the promotion of multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research but that are also accessible to a wider readership. The editors seek to showcase the best scholarly and public-policy arguments on Asia from any field, including politics, his- tory, economics, and cultural studies. Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia, Victor D. Cha, 2008 The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online, Guobin Yang, 2009 China and India: Prospects for Peace, Jonathan Holslag, 2010 India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia, Šumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur, 2010 Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China, Benjamin I. Page and Tao Xie, 2010 East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute, David C. Kang, 2010 Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics, Yuan-Kang Wang, 2011 Strong Society, Smart State: The Rise of Public Opinion in China’s Japan Policy, James Reilly, 2012 Asia’s Space Race: National Motivations, Regional Rivalries, and International Risks, James Clay Moltz, 2012 Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations, Zheng Wang, 2012 Green Innovation in China: China’s Wind Power Industry and the Global Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, Joanna I. Lewis, 2013 The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan, J. Charles Schencking, 2013 Security and Profit in China’s Energy Policy: Hedging Against Risk, Øystein Tunsjø, 2013 Return of the Dragon: Rising China and Regional Security, Denny Roy, 2013 Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts, Tomohito Shinoda, 2013 Contentious Activism and Inter-Korean Relations, Danielle L. Chubb, 2014 BRYAN TILT DAMS AND DEVELOPMENT The Moral Economy CHINA of Water and Power IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2015 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tilt, Bryan, 1974– Dams and development in China : the moral economy of water and power / Bryan Tilt. pages cm. — (Contemporary Asia in the world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-17010-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-17011-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53826-8 (e-book) 1. Dams—Social aspects—China—Yunan Xian. 2. Watershed management— China. 3. Hydroelectric power plants—China. 4. Energy policy—China. 5. Economic development—Social aspects—China. I. Title. TC558.C5T55 2015 333.91'40951—dc23 2014017471 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover image: © Keren Su/Corbis Cover and book design: Lisa Hamm References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. The antagonists in such contests . know each other’s repertoire of prac- tical action and discursive moves. There is, in other words, a kind of larger social contract that gives some order and limits to the conflict. The limits and constraints characterizing conflict are never cut-and- dried to the participants. The antagonists are, all of them, continually prospecting new terrain—trying out new stratagems and wrinkles that threaten to change, and often do change, the shape of the “game” itself. —James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed Displacement is possible only because the hydropower development com- panies aren’t forced to look at the results of their actions. The hydropower development companies shouldn’t be allowed to keep their distance. They should have to be shut in a room with the villagers that they have dis- placed. They should have to look those villagers in the eye. —Dr. Li, Beijing-based sociologist CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Abbreviations xvii 1. THE MORAL ECONOMY OF WATER AND POWER 1 2. CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY: WATER RESOURCES AND DAMS IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA 27 3. THE LANCANG RIVER: COPING WITH RESETTLEMENT AND AGRICULTURAL CHANGE 55 4. THE NU RIVER: ANTICIPATING DEVELOPMENT AND DISPLACEMENT 83 5. EXPERTS, ASSESSMENTS, AND MODELS: THE SCIENCE OF DECISION MAKING 107 6. PEOPLE IN THE WAY: RESETTLEMENT IN POLICY AND PRACTICE 133 7. A BROADER CONFLUENCE: CONSERVATION INITIATIVES AND CHINA’S GLOBAL DAM INDUSTRY 165 CONCLUSION: THE MORAL ECONOMY REVISITED 191 List of Chinese Terms 207 Notes 211 Works Cited 227 Index 245 ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURES 1.1. Map of the Lancang and Nu River courses in China and mainland Southeast Asia 21 2.1. China’s national electricity generation by source 30 2.2. Current institutional structure of hydropower generation in China 50 3.1. Map of the Lancang River and study sites 57 3.2. A farming family’s house in Fengqing County 68 4.1. Map of the Nu River and study sites 85 4.2. A Lisu farming family’s house on the banks of the Nu River 90 4.3. Villagers cross the Nu River by zipline 91 6.1. Newly constructed housing for resettled villagers in Xiaowan Township 163 TABLES 3.1. Design and Operation Specifications for the Seven Dams in the Lancang Lower Cascade 61 3.2. Basic Characteristics of the Lancang River Study Sample 69 3.3. Agricultural Livelihoods and Income in the Lancang River Study Communities 71 3.4. Comparison of Reciprocal Behavior Between Resettled and Nonresettled Communities 74 X | ILLUSTRATIONS 3.5. Comparison of Villagers’ Attitudes Between Resettled and Nonresettled Communities 77 4.1. Design and Operation Specifications for the Thirteen Dams in the Nu River Projects 93 4.2. Basic Characteristics of the Nu River Study Sample 94 4.3. Agricultural Livelihoods and Income in the Nu River Study Communities 95 4.4. Local Knowledge of and Attitudes About Dams in the Nu River Study Communities 96 5.1. Selected Articles from the People’s Republic of China Environmental Impact Assessment Law 112 5.2. Biophysical Impacts Measured by the Integrative Dam Assessment Model 119 5.3. Socioeconomic Impacts Measured by the Integrative Dam Assessment Model 120 5.4. Geopolitical Impacts Measured by the Integrative Dam Assessment Model 121 6.1. Steps in the Social Impact Assessment Process for Dam Projects 138 6.2. Selected Laws and Policies on Land Requisition, Resettlement, and Compensation in the People’s Republic of China 158 6.3. Resettlement Compensation Levels by County on the Lancang River 161 7.1. International Union for the Conservation of Nature Categorization of Protected Areas 169 7.2. Fauna in the Three Parallel Rivers Region 171 7.3. Selected Dam Projects Around the World with Significant Financial or Technical Involvement by Chinese Institutions 185 PREFACE HIS BOOK examines the complex array of water-management deci- T sions faced by Chinese leaders and the consequences of those decisions for local communities in the southwestern province of Yunnan. It focuses in particular on the construction of large dams to provide hydroelectricity to fuel the national economy, a process that provides alternative energy to further propel China’s economic boom but also threatens sensitive ecological areas and displaces thousands of people who belong to economically and culturally marginalized groups. It is a story that involves natural-resource professionals, scientists and engineers, policy makers, domestic and international conservation orga- nizations, and rural villagers. The concept of the “moral economy,” which figures prominently in this book, can be freighted with diverse and sometimes unintended meanings, and I wish to limit the potential for misunderstanding at the outset. I use the moral economy concept as an analytical framework in this book not to advance a particular agenda or to advocate for cer- tain policy outcomes but rather to elucidate the normative choices that must be made when various important objectives—economic develop- ment, energy production, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of the rights of vulnerable people, among others—come into conflict. My aim is to show how different constituent groups use varying strategies, grounded in cultural and historical precedents, to advance quite different moral visions about how water resources should be managed. China is home to approximately 25,000 large dams, a figure roughly equal to the number of dams in all other countries of the world combined. XII | PREFACE The fact that China had become the global leader in dam construction had not escaped my attention as I worked on other topics, including pol- lution control and agricultural development, throughout the southwest region. In fact, during a field visit to southern Sichuan Province in 2006 I discovered that much of the out-migration in the township where I had done research for years was driven by the construction of the Jin’anqiao Hydropower Station on the Jinsha River, as the upper portion of the Yangtze is called, which for a time absorbed huge amounts of unskilled labor and allowed many villagers to send remittances back home to their families. It was around that time that I discovered shared interests with scien- tists, both American and Chinese, from many other disciplines—including engineering, economics, geography, and hydrology—about dams and their effects on ecosystems and communities.