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).