CHN33885 – Three Gorges Dam – Protests

Home , Jingzhou, Yichang, Zaoyang, Zigui County

Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: CHN33885 Country: China Date: 16 October 2008

Keywords: China – CHN33885 – Three Gorges Dam – Protests – Bilharzia

This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein.

Questions 1.What is the measurement “mu”? 2. Information about the Three Gorges Dam, and forced acquisition of land, including compensation payable to displaced migrants. 3. Information about the worm parasite – Bilharzia. 4. Information about Hong Yunzhou, Tan Guotai, Chen Yichun, Zhou Zhirong and Fu Xiancai. 5. Is there any record of protests re the displaced migrants?

RESPONSE

1.What is the measurement “mu”?

A mu is a land measure equal to 0.067 hectares. Thus 100,000 mu is 6,700 hectares (‘China quintuples arable land use tax’ 2006, China Daily, 6 December http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/06/content_6303895.htm – Accessed 16 April 2008 – Attachment 1).

2. Information about the Three Gorges Dam, and forced acquisition of land, including compensation payable to displaced migrants.

The Three Gorges Dam, located in Hubei Province, is the world’s largest dam and will be fully operational in 2009. Some 1.4 million people have reportedly been forced to resettle from the submerged areas and another four million are said to have been “encouraged” to move by 2020. The government has now stated that the latter relocations are not related to the dam. Massive corruption has long been alleged in the resettlement programme. Many displaced people have been forced to leave rural areas and live in cities without adequate

1 compensation or training (‘Final protest as village cleared for China’s Three Gorges dam’ 2008, Agence France Presse, 24 July – Attachment 2).

The Three Gorges Dam area, between Chongqing and Wuhan, is highlighted on the attached map. Also highlighted on the map are the locations of the Three Gorges Dam, Yichang, Jingzhou (two locations), Zaoyang, Wuhan and Chibi (Puqi). Liushanhu Town, although not highlighted on the map, appears to be in Chibi County (‘China [Extract]’ 2003, Collins, Rev. Ed., London – Attachment 3; Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) 2008, ‘Hunan Human Rights Activist Zhou Zhirong Released’, China Human Rights Briefing, 1-15 April, p.4 http://brighton.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17567.pdf – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 4).

Brief technical details of the dam may be found in: ‘Millions forced out by China dam’ 2007, BBC News, 12 October http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7042660.stm – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 5.

A 2008 report, published by Transparency International, provides the following information on the dam, resettlement and compensation in Hubei:

When it is finally completed, perhaps by 2009, the Three Gorges Dam will be the largest river-based hydropower project in the world. Stretching more than 2 kilometres across the Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway, the dam also led to the largest resettlement project in dam-building history. Originally estimated at 1.13 million, the number of people displaced by the dam reached 1.4 million in 2007. Resettlement expenditures have been estimated at one-third of the total project cost of ¥200 billion (US$26 billion).

The embezzlement of resettlement funds by Chinese government officials has emerged as one of the main hindrances to resettling displaced people. In 2005 dam officials announced that 349 people had been convicted for misusing resettlement funds since construction began in 1994. By the end of 2003 ¥58.7 million (US$7.1 million) had been embezzled, misappropriated or illegally used. Of that, ¥43 million (US$5.2 million) had been recovered, and all the embezzlers, including 166 officials, had been ‘severely punished’.

This endemic corruption has caused numerous problems. Resettlement compensation has been reduced, the quality of life for displaced people has suffered and migrants have protested at the corruption and a lack of adequate compensation, leading to arrests of demonstrators. In July 2006 residents of Hubei Province protested at a local government office because they had received only ¥5,000 (US$700) of the promised ¥38,000 (US$5,000) in up-front ‘settlement fees’ for having their land expropriated (Heggelund, Gørild M., ‘The disappearance of homes and money: the case of the Three Gorges Dam’ in Transparency International 2008, Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector, pp.99- 100 Transparency International website http://www.transparency.org/GCR2008_complete_text.pdf – Accessed 30 September 2008 – Attachment 6).

The estimates for the payments to Hubei residents given above are sourced to the Asia News article: ‘People displaced by dam on Yangtze River to protest against corruption’ 2006, Asia News, 7 December http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7951 – Accessed 24 December 2007 – Attachment 7).

In the Asia News article it was reported that residents of Hubei province were planning to protest at the Zigui county government building to denounce corruption among local officials

2 as displaced residents had received a fraction of the compensation money pledged by the government. On the compensation it stated:

Residents claim they should each get an up front lump sum of 38,000 yuan, a “settlement fee” for their expropriated land in accordance with a central government document released in 1995. So far, they have received only 5,000 yuan. They are also entitled to an annual living expenses subsidy of 600 yuan, which, with the settlement fee, could add up to more than 50,000 yuan per person by 2026, when the annual payments will end. So far though, they have been paid practically nothing (‘People displaced by dam on Yangtze River to protest against corruption’ 2006, Asia News, 7 December http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7951 – Accessed 24 December 2007 – Attachment 7).

In 2007 government authorities announced that at least four million people were to be moved from the area around the Three Gorges Dam to Chongqing City at the western end of the reservoir. According to BBC News the vice-mayor of Chongqing city was quoted as saying that the relocations were necessary to “‘protect the ecology of the reservoir area’, which ‘has a vulnerable environment’”. The BBC News noted that many of those to be moved to Chongqing over the next 10-15 years had already moved once. However, sources also indicate that the government has now stated that these relocations are not related to the dam (‘Millions forced out by China dam’ 2007, BBC News, 12 October http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7042660.stm – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 5; ‘Final protest as village cleared for China’s Three Gorges dam’ 2008, Agence France Presse, 24 July – Attachment 2; ‘One dam thing after another’ 2007, The Economist, 1 November http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10064467 – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 8; Yardley, Jim 2007, ‘Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs’, The New York Times, 19 November http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/world/asia/19dam.html?pagewanted=print – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 9).

On relocation Yardley continued in The New York Times:

Problems have been evident for several years. As far back as 2000, the central government had already started changing national policies to address environmental decay. The clue had been the horrific floods along the Yangtze, which claimed thousands of lives in 1998. Deforestation and soil erosion along the upper reaches of the Yangtze had abetted the disaster; silted riverbeds became elevated highways for the raging currents.

Beijing ordered a national ban on timber cutting and began reforesting millions of acres along the Yangtze, including in the Three Gorges region. Many farmers who had moved uphill now were told to plant a stabilizing green belt along the shoreline. To further ease pressure on the land, Three Gorges officials changed the relocation policy, promising free land and financial help for people who moved to other provinces.

Thousands Return

But leaving the region was not a good solution for many farmers – or a permanent one. More than 100,000 people left, but thousands have since returned, despite no longer holding local residency permits. In 2002, a group of 57 villagers left the village of Daqiao above the Yangtze for a village in Jiangxi Province. Today, all 57 have returned.

“We tried to grow rice in Jiangxi,” said Lin Shengping, 51, whose adult children had stayed in Daqiao. “The harvest was really small. So we all came back. We don’t have money, either in

3 Jiangxi or here. But at home, I can take care of my grandchildren so my son and daughter-in- law can go out to work.”

Now, though, officials want people to move again. On Oct. 12, the Xinhua news agency confirmed that a new resettlement plan had been approved: At least four million people in Chongqing Municipality would have to be moved by 2020, including at least two million living in the reservoir region.

Chongqing officials quickly tried to deflect any suggestion that the plan represented another dam resettlement. Instead, they said, it represented a national experiment approved by Beijing in June. Chongqing would become a “pilot reform city.” Just as Beijing used “special economic zones” like Shenzhen to kick-start the country’s economic reforms during the 1980s, Chongqing would become a laboratory for trying to eliminate the urban-rural income gap (Yardley, Jim 2007, ‘Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs’, The New York Times, 19 November http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/world/asia/19dam.html?pagewanted=print – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 9).

In July 2006 The Epoch Times, a newspaper associated with Falun Gong, reported in relation to Chibi:

Chinese State Council’s decision to survey the Three Gorges reservoir in the late 50s caused nearly 10,000 locals of Chibi City, Hubei Province to relocate. The immigrants in Puqi County were forced to move to Liusanhu Town. The Chibi City officials illegally seized the immigrants’ land embezzled a hundred million yuan through taking the immigrants’ compensation, disaster relief funds and welfare, leaving 13,000 immigrants impoverished.

In addition, over 70 percent of these immigrants have contracted schistosomiasis, also referred to as snail fever. Though these immigrants spent 30 years appealing, they received nothing but violence, arrests, detainment and sentences (Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7-17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

The Epoch Times article continued:

In early 1967, three communities of Puqi County – Shikeng, Damei and Jingquan – had 22 military units and 135 production units totaling about 9,900 people who, by order of the government, were forced to leave their homes and move towards the barren lands of Dongfanghong Farm in Liushanu Town. This town now is home to six villages – Baotashan village, Liushanhu village, Lalishan village, Tuanshan village, Wujiamen village and Yijiadi village – and contains over 13,000 people…(Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7-17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

3. Information about the worm parasite – Bilharzia

Information in the Concise Colour Medical Dictionary indicates that Bilharzia is also known as Schistosoma (Concise Colour Medical Dictionary 1996, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.589 – Attachment 11).

The entries in the dictionary for Schistosoma and schistosomiasis are:

Schistosoma (Bilharzia) n. a genus of blood *flukes, three species of which are important parasites of man causing one of the most serious of tropical diseases (see schistosomiasis). S. japonicum is common in the Far East; S. mansoni is widespread in Africa, the West Indies, and South and Central America; and S. haematobium occurs in Africa and the Middle East.

schistosomiasis (bilharziasis). n. a tropical disease caused by blood flukes of the genus *Schistosoma. Eggs present in the stools or urine of infected people undergo part of their larval development within freshwater snails living in water contaminated with human sewage. The disease is contracted when *cercaria larvae, released from the snails, penetrate the skin of anyone bathing in infected water. Adult flukes eventually settle in the blood vessels of the intestine (S. mansoni and S. japonicum) or the bladder (S. haemotobium); the release of their spiked eggs causes anaemia, inflammation, and the formation of scar tissue. Additional intestinal symptoms are diarrhoea, dysentery, enlargement of the spleen and liver, and cirrhosis of the liver. If the bladder is affected, blood is passed in the urine and cystitis and cancer of the bladder may develop. The disease is treated with various drugs, including stibophen and other antimony-containing preparations, praziquantal, and niridazole (Concise Colour Medical Dictionary 1996, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.589 – Attachment 11).

The dictionary’s entry for fluke is:

fluke n. any of the parasitic flatworms belonging to the group Trematoda. Adult flukes, which have suckers for attachment to their host, are parasites of man, occurring in the liver (liver flukes; see Fasciola), lungs (see Paragonimus), gut (see Heterophyes), and blood vessels (blood flukes; see Schistosoma) and often cause serious disease. Eggs, passed out with the stools, hatch into larvae called *miracidia, which penetrate an intermediate snail host. Miracidia give rise asexually to *redia larvae and finally *cercariae in the snail’s tissues. The released cercariae may enter a second intermediate host (such as a fish or crustacean); form a cyst (*metacercaria) on vegetation; or directly penetrate the human skin (Concise Colour Medical Dictionary 1996, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.253 – Attachment 11).

Sources indicate that schistosomiasis is transmitted in Hubei Province and was in the province in 2006 (Zhou, Xiao-Nong, ‘Working Paper 1. Research needs of the national schistosomiasis control programme in China’ in World Health Organization 2006, Report of the Scientific Working Group meeting on Schistosomiasis, Geneva, 14-16 November, 2005, p.29 http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/tdr-research-publications/swg-report- schistosomiasis/pdf/swg_schisto.pdf – Accessed 13 October 2008 – Attachment 12; ‘Malaria, other vectorborne and parasitic diseases’ in World Health Organization (undated), The Work of WHO in the Western Pacific Region, 2007-2008, p.8 http://www.wpro.who.int/NR/rdonlyres/EE12A3B9-53D1-4A5E-A03B- 462FA30DBC08/0/dcc.pdf – Accessed 13 October 2008 – Attachment 13; Lyn, Tan Ee 2006, ‘INTERVIEW-China to remove cattle to combat “snail fever”‘, Reuters News, 17 October – Attachment 14; ‘China to Renovate Toilets in Rural Areas to Curb Bilharzia’ 2006, Xinhua News Agency, 16 September http://china.org.cn/english/environment/181387.htm – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 15).

Also, in respect of Liushanhu Town, a July 2006 article in The Epoch Times noted that:

…Liushanhu Town is a hotbed for snail fever [also referred to as schistosomiasis] because of the polluted water and farmland. Roughly 70 percent of the residents have snail fever, but have no money to seek treatment – resulting in 200 deaths already. Many people in the village have large stomachs and are unable to walk (Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July

5 http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7-17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

4. Information about Hong Yunzhou, Tan Guotai, Chen Yichun, Zhou Zhirong and Fu Xiancai.

Hong Yunzhou

In July 2006 The Epoch Times reported:

Hong Yunzhou, the 50-year-old human rights representative of Baotashan villagers in Chibi City, explained that snail fever is concentrated around the Three Gorges reservoir district, and Hubei Province is one of the most severely affected areas, with currently 30,000 some people battling this disease, which amounts to over one-third of the world’s snail fever patients (Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7-17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

Another Epoch Times article, dated 10 October 2006, reported that Hong Yunzhou, together with Zhou Zhirong, organised the demonstration “Kneeling Appeal on Tiananmen Square” on 26 September 2006. It stated:

On September 26 [2006], 32 farmers representing refugees from a reservoir project in Chibi, Hubei Province, held banners and kneeled on Tiananmen Square for 10 minutes. They were protesting the ongoing embezzlement of their land compensation over the last 30 years by the local authorities.

Because they did not receive their just compensation, these farmers suffered severely, being forced to relocate without any funds. Not only did their standards of living decrease, they also lost social status.

They have appealed in many other ways previously but always ended up being arrested.

On October 6, June 4th Tiangwang, a mainland rights advocacy website, published news that Zhou Zhirong, who organized the “Kneeling Appeal on Tiananmen Square,” had been arrested by the local police and has not been heard of since. The police also issued an arrest warrant for another organizer, Hong Yunzhou, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

The authority claims that these two people instigated the farmers to kneel at Tiananmen Square without just cause. But rights advocates have replied that the real reason behind the arrests is that the “Kneeling Appeal” attracted some publicity and thus embarrassed the offending government agencies. … The host of June 4th Tiangwang website, Huang Qi, said that the farmers’ “Kneeling Appeal” embarrassed the Chibi authorities.

Huang said, “Even inside the ruling system of the Chinese communist regime, the appeal triggered some attention. International media also reported on the event. It also has had a great impact in the areas around Chibe City. Immediately after the incident, Beijing authorities ordered the local Chibe government to escort the farmers back to Chibe. The local Chibe government was extremely embarrassed.” (‘Men Arrested for Organizing “Kneeling Appeal” on Tiananmen Square’ 2006, The Epoch Times, 10 October http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-10-10/46883.html – Accessed 19 April 2007 – Attachment 16).

In 2007 information sourced to Radio Free Asia (RFA) by Human Rights in China (HRIC) states that Hong Yunzhou, together with Zhou Zhirong and Tan Guotai, was sentenced to over a year in prison. The report stated:

Hong Yunzhou, Zhou Zhirong and Tan Guotai were sentenced to more than a year in prison on April 9 [2007] on charges of “gathering crowds to disturb public order” in Hebei Province. They had held a kneeling protest against the rights violations caused by the Three Gorges construction last September. The lawyer of the trio said they were prepared to appeal. (RFA) (‘Trial developments’ in ‘News Roundup: Mid-February 2007-April 2007’, Human Rights in China (HRIC) website, p.15 http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.2.2007/CRF-2007- 2_Roundup.pdf – Accessed 13 October 2008 – Attachment 17).

Tan Guotai

In 2007 information sourced to Radio Free Asia (RFA) by Human Rights in China (HRIC) states that Tan Guotai, together with Zhou Zhirong and Hong Yunzhou, was sentenced to over a year in prison on charges of “‘gathering crowds to disturb public order’”. The report stated:

Chen Yichun

Chen Yichun who was reportedly one of five petitioners, including Fu Xiancai, representing 500 residents of Yangguidian village, taken off a bus by police officers while attempting to travel to Beijing in August 2005 (‘Chinese villagers prevented from petitioning Beijing about pollution, Rights Group says’ 2005, Associated Press, 9 August http://www.enn.com/to day.html?id=8466 – Accessed 11 August 2005 – Attachment 18; Human Rights in China (HRIC) 2005, ‘Three Gorges Petitioners Impeded, Harassed’, Human Rights in China (HRIC) website, 9 August http://iso.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=23910&item%5fid=23896 – Accessed 13 October 2008 – Attachment 19).

On this appeal HRIC stated:

Sources in China told HRIC that the petitioners represent more than 500 residents of Yangguidian Village, Hubei Province, who moved to the village in 1993 to make way for the Three Gorges Dam project. Sources say local factories owned by Zigui County Sibao Paper Company Ltd. and Huafamei Pharmaceuticals Ltd. have seriously polluted the Maoping River, which is the major water source for the village’s residents. Residents have complained of skin allergies after wearing clothes washed in the river water and foul-smelling air caused by factory exhaust. The number of villagers dying from kidney disease is also reported to have risen dramatically in recent years.

7 Local activists had collected detailed information on the village’s pollution problem, and having failed to engage the interest of local officials, they planned to send the materials to the international community in hopes of publicizing their concerns to the outside world. However, sources say that when the activists went to Yichang City to send the information, they were followed by police officers, who instructed post offices and Internet cafés not to allow the villagers to disseminate the materials.

Sources say that early in the afternoon of August 6, activists Fu Xiancai, Wang Kaifen, Chen Yichun, Yan Kehua and Gong Wanjun prepared to take a train to Beijing to petition the central authorities over the village’s situation and find a post office and Internet café where they could send their materials to the international community. However, after the activists set off by bus for the Yichang train station, they were intercepted by more than 40 police officers led by local officials and the head of the Zigui County Public Security Bureau. Sources say police forced Fu Xiancai and the other activists to leave the bus, after which they were taken to nearby Jiuli Village. There the county deputy Party secretary, Luo Quanfeng, instructed the activists not to attempt to petition Beijing, and promised a response to complaints over the village’s pollution problem before August 20 (Human Rights in China (HRIC) 2005, ‘Three Gorges Petitioners Impeded, Harassed’, Human Rights in China (HRIC) website, 9 August http://iso.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=23910&item%5fid=23896 – Accessed 13 October 2008 – Attachment 19).

Zhou Zhirong

In describing the situation of immigrants in Liushanhu Town The Epoch Times refers to Zhou Zhirong as a social justice and pro-democracy advocate (Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7-17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

Another Epoch Times article, dated 10 October 2006, reported that Zhou Zhirong, together with Hong Yunzhou, organised the demonstration “Kneeling Appeal on Tiananmen Square” on 26 September 2006. It stated:

They have appealed in many other ways previously but always ended up being arrested.

8 The host of June 4th Tiangwang website, Huang Qi, said that the farmers’ “Kneeling Appeal” embarrassed the Chibi authorities.

A report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders also writes on the 26 September 2006 protest and the detention of Zhou Zhirong:

…Likewise, on September 26, 2006, 32 peasants from the town of Chibi, Hubei province, went to Beijing to call for an inquiry into acts of corruption related to the compensation they should have received after being evicted from their homes because of a dam-construction project. Following the refusal of the authorities to grant their request, the peasants decided to kneel in Tiananmen Square in order to draw attention to their cause. The police then immediately sent them back to Chibi, and their leader, Mr. Zhou Zhirong, was detained until October 1, 2006 (Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 2007, 2006 Annual Report: Steadfast in Protest, FIDH website, p.341 http://www.fidh.org/article.php3?id_article=4108 – Accessed 17 July 2007 – Attachment 20).

In 2007 information sourced to Radio Free Asia (RFA) by Human Rights in China (HRIC) states that Zhou Zhirong, together with Hong Yunzhou and Tan Guotai, was sentenced to over a year in prison. The report stated:

According to China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), Zhou Zhirong was released from prison in March 2008:

On March 31 [2008], Hunan human rights activist, Zhou Zhirong (周志荣), was released from Shahe Prison in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province after serving 18 months in prison for “gathering crowds to disturb social order.” Zhou, a veteran activist, was believed to be imprisoned for assisting villagers in Liushanhu Township, Chibi County, Hubei Province to fight against land appropriation without proper compensation by the local government (China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) 2008, ‘Hunan Human Rights Activist Zhou Zhirong Released’, China Human Rights Briefing, 1-15 April, p.4 http://brighton.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17567.pdf – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 4).

9 Fu Xiancai

Fu Xiancai, a campaigner for people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam, had petitioned officials in Beijing to investigate where his compensation money had gone. In June 2006 he was beaten up while returning home after being summoned by Hubei police. He was paralysed as a result of the beating (‘China activist ‘beat himself up’’ 2006, BBC News, 27 July http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5219890.stm – Accessed 1 August 2006 – Attachment 21; Anderlini, Jamil 2007, ‘Sold down the river’, Financial Times, 1 November, International Rivers website http://internationalrivers.org/en/node/2756 – Accessed 8 October 2008 – Attachment 22).

Two reported protests involving Fu Xiancai were:

• August 2005. Fu Xiancai was one of five petitioners, representing 500 residents of Yangguidian village, taken off a bus by police officers while attempting to travel to Beijing. The other petitioners were Wang Kaifen, Chen Yichun, Yan Kehua and Gong Wanjun (‘Chinese villagers prevented from petitioning Beijing about pollution, Rights Group says’ 2005, Associated Press, 9 August http://www.enn.com/to day.html?id=8466 – Accessed 11 August 2005 – Attachment 18).

On this appeal HRIC stated:

• 26 October 2004, Zigui County, Maoping Township. Fu Xiancai led a group of 650 villagers to organise appeals to various levels of government to obtain appropriate compensation for village land claimed by the Three Gorges Dam project (Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2005, Virtual Academy: Forced Eviction Chart, http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/rol/forcedevictionchart.php – Accessed 25 February 2005 – Attachment 23).

5. Is there any record of protests regarding the displaced migrants?

Sources indicate that there have been numerous protests concerning the Three Gorges Dam project.

According to an article published by the Dui Hua Foundation (a US-based human rights organisation):

Among China’s development projects, the massive Three Gorges Dam, which is slated for completion in 2009, has been the main target of citizen unrest. No matter how fierce their

10 opposition, most people affected have submitted to relocation. Chinese officials are unwilling to talk much about rights in this case. To the contrary, the value of the Three Gorges Dam project to social stability can be seen by a number of detentions, arrests, and prison sentences given out to some who have protested it. Officials have been more pliant in dealing with citizen unrest over other dam projects. For example, plans for a series of dams along the Nu River in Yunnan Province were scrapped in 2004 after a vast contingent of local community members and environmental activists, including several Chinese and foreign NGOs, fought the project on environmental grounds. Wen Jiabao’s intervention to help suspend the project received a great deal of extensive publicity, but the government line seemed as concerned about stomping out the controversy as protecting the environment (‘Environmental Rights defenders in China battle ecological, legal crises’ 2008, Dialogue, Dui Hua Foundation website, Winter, Iss. 30, p.2 http://www.duihua.org/work/publications/nl/nl_pdf/nl_30.pdf – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 24).

In July 2006 The Epoch Times reported:

Throughout these 30 years the immigrants have never stopped appealing to the government and have already appealed well over a hundred times. Their appeals to Hubei Province in 1974 and 1976 were both suppressed by the officials. During the appeal to the central government in 1981, four immigrants received sentences ranging from one to four years. Two years later, in another appeal to central government, two immigrants received sentences ranging from one to three years.

The immigrants have appealed multiple times to over a dozen various authorities, including over a dozen times to Liushanhu Town and Chibi City officials, Xianning City officials, Hubei Province officials and Shenglin Province Forestry Hall. They have even appealed once each to premier Wen Jiabao and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo (Changle, Feng 2006, ‘Hundreds of Appeals in 30 Years Encounter Only Violence’, The Epoch Times, 17 July http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-7- 17/44005.html – Accessed 9 October 2008 – Attachment 10).

In respect of the protest held on 26 September 2006 at Tiananmen Square, The Epoch Times article, dated 10 October 2006, writes in the following terms:

They have appealed in many other ways previously but always ended up being arrested.

11 … The host of June 4th Tiangwang website, Huang Qi, said that the farmers’ “Kneeling Appeal” embarrassed the Chibi authorities.

A report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders also states on the 26 September 2006 protest:

According to an Agence France Presse news article there were protests in Gaoyang when the last of the 1.4 million people displaced by the dam were removed in July 2008 (‘Final protest as village cleared for China’s Three Gorges dam’ 2008, Agence France Presse, 24 July – Attachment 2).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources:

Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/ Human Rights in China (HRIC) http://www.hrichina.org/public/index World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/ World Health Organization http://www.who.int/en/

Databases:

FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIAC Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Research & Information database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue

12 List of Attachments

1. ‘China quintuples arable land use tax’ 2006, China Daily, 6 December http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12/06/content_6303895.htm – Accessed 16 April 2008.

2. ‘Final protest as village cleared for China’s Three Gorges dam’ 2008, Agence France Presse, 24 July. (FACTIVA)

3. ‘China [Extract]’ 2003, Collins, Rev. Ed., London. (MRT-RRT Library)

4. Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) 2008, ‘Hunan Human Rights Activist Zhou Zhirong Released’, China Human Rights Briefing, 1-15 April http://brighton.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_17567.pdf – Accessed 9 October 2008.

5. ‘Millions forced out by China dam’ 2007, BBC News, 12 October http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7042660.stm – Accessed 8 October 2008.

6. Heggelund, Gørild M., ‘The disappearance of homes and money: the case of the Three Gorges Dam’ in Transparency International 2008, Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector, pp.99-101 Transparency International website http://www.transparency.org/GCR2008_complete_text.pdf – Accessed 30 September 2008.

7. ‘People displaced by dam on Yangtze River to protest against corruption’ 2006, Asia News, 7 December http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7951 – Accessed 24 December 2007.

8. ‘One dam thing after another’ 2007, The Economist, 1 November http://www.economist.com/world/asia/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10064467 – Accessed 8 October 2008.

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