by Hans Chen | May 25th 2011
Think the Chinese Communist Party never admits a mistake? Think again.
The rare occurrence happened earlier this week, when China’s State Council, the country’s Cabinet, said in an official statement that while the Three Gorges Dam “provides huge comprehensive benefits, urgent problems must be resolved regarding the smooth relocation of residents, ecological protection and geological disaster prevention”. This was the first ever official acknowledgement of the dam’s negative impact.
Some background information: Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest capacity hydroelectric dam (total generating capacity of 18,200 MW) located in the mid stream of Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia. Also, it is probably the most controversial water project in the history of mankind, as political, humanitarian and environmental issues were brought up constantly by the opposition.
One would argue that such gigantic hydro power project is not really “clean energy” because the construction itself often has a negative impact on the environment, not to mention the CO2 emission just to produce all the concrete needed. That is a valid argument, of course. But when a country with 1.3 billion people generates 75% of its electricity via coal-fired thermal power, hydroelectric power looks pretty clean.
Many people view the Three Gorges Dam as Chinese Communist Party’s crown jewel in the economic reform era (since 1978). It perfectly matches China’s image of the past few decades: grandiose, huge capacity, rapid development, etc. It may look easy for the ruling Party in a totalitarian government even to make a decision of building a huge dam on Southern China’s lifeline. But realistically, it was difficult to decide, and maybe more difficult to admit the negative side of the decision. Three Gorges Dam was brought to the Party’s agenda as early as 1953. It was constantly mentioned (and argued over) after the end of Culture Revolution, until the decision was finally made in 1992.
That’s a decision almost 40 years in the making (not to mention that the Republic of China also explored the idea of building the dam in the 1940s until the regime was overthrown by the Communist Party). The point is, this dam didn’t happen overnight because of some officials were trying to impress the world with grandiose projects.
Back to the admission this week, some environmentalists in China argued that the government’s stand was finally shaken by furious waves of opposition in the public. I would say otherwise. I believe that the Party was never really adamant that the dam would be 100% beneficial in all aspects (although it is often proposed as such in propagandas). Growing public opposition only made the government compelled to “say something” about the issues, thus a statement was made.
In other words, the Party was very much aware of all the negative impacts the dam may have, but finally the thirst for more energy to boost the economic reform won over other reasoning.
“Our economy is more fragile than the environment.” We’ve certainly heard that before. China just took a small step to admit this mistake. Ironically, it’s regarding a “renewable energy” project—a hydroelectric power plant.
This would probably make people wonder, how should we really define “cleantech”? Does the fact that the power source is renewable make the technology clean, regardless of its other impacts? Another example: polycrystalline silicon producers are often criticized for disposing harmful wastes, but they are still cleantech companies by popular definition.
For those who want to read something about cleantech rather than some giant water project, please allow me to finish with some final remarks.
If you board a ship sailing from downstream of the Three Gorges Dam, you’ll cross three provinces and one municipality before reaching the coastline:
Hubei, where numerous LED and lighting technology companies are located. The “Optics Valley of China” is located in the province’s capital, Wuhan.
Jiangxi, where some major upstream solar PV companies are found, including LDK Solar, one of the world’s largest crystalline silicon ingot and wafer manufacturers.
Jiangsu, the most cleantech-intensive province. You’ll find SunTech, Trina Solar, China Sunergy and industrial zones dedicated to cleantech in this rich province.
And finally, Shanghai, the icon of China’s success story in the 21st Century.
The Three Gorges Dam guarantees their prosperity by providing sufficient power, but at the same time damages their collective interest by creating long-lasting humanitarian and environmental issues. This is a dilemma that China has to face, and the Party’s admission is only a tiny step forward.
Think gigantic water projects have nothing to do with cleantech? Think again.
