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The Three Gorges Dam and the Earthquake in China
Written by Robert Vance on June 2, 2008 – 11:30 pmOfficial state media reports in China estimate that over 4 million people have been left homeless in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake. While the Chinese government has been quick to reassure these destitute people that they will be taken care of, many of my Chinese friends have expressed doubt in recent days that the Chinese government has the financial or human resources to provide any substantial help to all of the earthquake survivors.
“The Chinese government doesn’t have that much money,” a friend recently remarked to me. He said that he was afraid that the total destruction that was wrought upon some parts of Sichuan coupled with the limited funds that the government has would probably leave millions of people ‘fending’ for themselves.
The lack of confidence that some of my Chinese friends seem to have in their government comes as a surprise for me. After all, it would seem that by now, Beijing should be an expert at providing assistance for displaced people. We are talking about a government that recently has completed the Three Gorges Project, the world’s largest dam, and in the process has had to relocate up to 4 million people. Many of these people, through no choice of their own, were sent to brand new cities that the Chinese government quickly constructed as the dam’s resevoir began to fill. Countless other people were forced to relocate to other provinces in China were they where supposedly given some compensation by the government to help them start their new lives.
The cost of the Three Gorges Dam alone should be enough to assuage people’s fears about the Chinese government’s financial capabilities. At least 25 billion US, and probably much more, was spent on the dam, much of which the Chinese government had to finance itself because of fears by foreign investors that the project was an environmental hazard. The idea that the Chinese government is ‘poor’ and unable to deal with the tragedy in Sichuan is simply false; it has plenty of money.
The construction of the Three Gorges Dam along with other dams that have been built throughout China show that if the Chinese government is determined to complete a project, neither money nor massive relocation will stand in its way. If so much money was invested into the Three Gorges Dam and so much compensation was given to the Chinese people who lost their land, surely the Chinese government should make the same effort to help the survivors of the earthquake.
The one wildard however, that may ruin Beijing’s good intentions and did in fact hamper the construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam, is the ongoing problem of corruption in China. As I wrote in another post recently, corruption has already ‘reared its ugly head’ in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake. Reports are coming out of the affected regions that the best tents and other supplies are being used by local government officials and that donations of money are not finding their way to the earthquake survivors. If the Chinese government is going to be able to live up to its promises in Sichuan, it is going to have to take a much tougher stance against the misuse of public funds by corrupt local officials.
Thus, the only force that can seriously weaken the Chinese government’s assistance to the affected people in Sichuan is the Chinese government itself. The government is more than capable of cleaning up the destruction in Sichuan Province and bringing new hope to its devestated people. But the government must treat this phase of reconstruction with the same determination that it would treat one of its massive public works projects. The Chinese people deserve at least this amount of consideration.
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NPR report recently suggested that many Chinese complain about their local government officials but retain quite alot of confidence in their national govt.
NPR has done extensive reporting from China this last month….projects that were already in progress before the earthquake…..Melissa Block and Robert Seigal just happened to be in Sichuan province when the earthquake occurred…so theyve doen quite a lot of extra work reporting………..
China is only a developing country, and the earthquake is so big and so sudden, I think the government do a lot of work to save the people and spend a lot of money to make people suffer from the disaster. People’s afraid of china’s financial situation is reasonable because our country is not wealthy enough to face such a big disaster without the the aid from other country,but the aid from the government of other country especially from europen and america countries is surely poor compared with the Indonesia’s Tsunami, less than its 0.2 percent.why this happened, don’t you think we too is the member of human being?
please forgive my poor english , and i’m a chinese, I work for a our write these words aid of dictionary, I hope you can understand these words.
do more thing for the people suffer from the disaster than you do currently is what i hoped! my friend! hope you a good day!
@Yang,
Thank you for your comments. I’m glad that you took the time to participate.
I have heard many Chinese people condemn the United States government for giving too little to the relief efforts. Actually, I am not sure if your figures are quite accurate if you include the non-monetary support that the U.S. provided in the form of aircraft and supplies. But even if those figures are true, you are discounting the donations of the American people. Forget about our government for a moment. Do you have any figures on the amount of money that was given by the American people to the earthquake relief effort? I bet it’s a lot of money…look into that first before you talk about how stingy the Americans are!
thanks a lot for your reply!
but please you look this figures:
2004 Indonesia’s Tsunami donation:
US government :350,000,000$
American people: 337,000,000$
2008 512 earthquake:
US government : 500,000$ and 700,000$ in form of supplies
american people(red cross group): 10,000,000$
american enterprise: 12,000,000$
added up: 23,200,000$( figure of 5.17)
current figures are not clear,but from these figures(China government officially published) you surely can see something:
all of donation from our country and other country current is 52,478,000,000 China Yuan(about 7,496,860,000$)
all of donation from foreign related enterprise(include jointly-funded enterprise and enterprise of TaiWan ,Hongkong, Macao) : 3,776,000,000 Chian Yuan(about 539,429,000$),thank to Mircrosoft and CoCaCola and other US enterprise,but do you think this is all from US?
I surely thank all the donators, but does the US be the strongest and democracy country in the world? why you always us political eye to look at our people?
Most of our country people not wealthy to afford car,computer, someone still could not afford their food if our government do not help them.but our government is in difficulty now! 8.0 degree earthquake, is it not a big disaster?
The Three Gorges Dam is huge projects, and it need a lot of money indeed, but it can be a benefical projects if it succeed,it may produce large amout of clean electric energy,and it can reduce flood disater of Changjiang river. Don’t say it is true or wrong to begin the projects, just look that we afford about twenty years effort, and next year the projects will complete , do you still think it should be stop right now?
If you surely want to help our people, please not say that. please just stand on our point to look things!
@Yang,
First, I think that the figures that you provide are still way off. You are assuming that all of the donations given to the earthquake relief effort by the American people were made through the American Red Cross. That’s a false assumption. I gave money to the relief efforts but not to your government or through the Red Cross. I gave my money through another charitable organization which was on the ground in Sichuan assisting the survivors. Yes, the Red Cross did provide 10 million dollars in aid but millions more were donated through other charitable organizations by the American People. There is no exact figures on how much the American public has donated but it is certainly more than you think.
You also make another error when you list monetary donations given by the US to the Tsunami relief effort. You make it sound as if the US gave all of that money to Indonesia alone. Again, not true! Did you forget that the Tsunami occurred in multiple countries, not just Indonesia? The US donations were earmarked for a few countries, not just one. Of course you would expect us to give less to one country!
By the way, how much money did Chinese companies and people give to the US during Hurricane Katrina? Have you ever checked up on that? That was one of the biggest disasters in US history. I didn’t hear anybody complaining about the lack of help from the Chinese people and companies during that disaster.
Americans know that no matter what we do, we are always going to be criticized by the Chinese. But we still give because we care about people who are suffering and who need help. Instead of comparing how much we gave to you with how much we gave in the Tsunami, could you stop for one second and be happy for the help? Your attitude is what makes Americans even less willing to give.
I was not criticizing the Three Gorges Dam Project. I have criticized it before but not in this post. I was simply pointing out that it is hard to believe that the Chinese government doesn’t have enough money to help its own people. I think you should read my post more carefully.
I admit the figure could be “way off”, but you also point out that the exact figure is difficult to make clear. But one thing is clear ,you are not believe our government, you afraid your money can not reach earthquake area. if you are sure american public donated during other channel, I just say sorry here.
I think you also have misunderstand a fact, Chinese government donate 5 million dollars to US during Hurricane Katrina and other form supplies,not include the enterprise and personal donations,I still remember there are some donation programe on tv . Our country is only a developing country, the GDP per people only less than 4% of US, I think this figure is surely express our feelings to help the people in the disasters. figure can not express everything ,but I still feel you are hurting our feelings when I know the donations from US government is less than half of it. why we only criticize americans and not other countries?
Finally , I must point out I was not government officials, and I can not receive one cent from the donations because I am only a little teacher outside of earthquake areas,and I do not have bias on american before, on the contrary ,I hope to go to america for a educational promote because of its strong and democracy. but now I feel not happy to see west world just look at earthquake accident instead of give a hand.I donate a month’s income, but it can be nothing to help! I have try my best, and everybody around me have try their best to help people suffering. I hope Americans also help them ,because they may do more ,and I would thank them.But I think if you want help, you hand have already stretched out, and there would be no criticities.I think there are still some misunderstand between people in the two countries.
about Three gorges dam project, I only want to point out that it is planed about twenty years ago, and it’s fund is also allocated before,now it can not be stop, but the earthquak is so big and so sudden, we still need help, not like you have said.
finally , I appologize for my poor english again, I found it is promoting,^_^
@Yang,
Thanks for your comments. I think your English is improving.
Actually, you did not answer my question. Everyone knows that the Chinese government donated 5 million dollars to the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We appreciate that. I cannot speak for why my government has not given more the earthquake victims other than to say that the money they have given so far may just be an initial pledge. More may be coming depending on the need. You also need to remember that the U.S. had already pledged a lot of money to Mynamar recovery effort so some funds were tied up in that.
However, I was specifically asking about how much money the Chinese people and Chinese companies donated to Katrina. Donations by people and companies are truly representative of how a nation feels about another country, not what our government does. To be frank, I could only really find information about one company in China that made any substantial donation to Katrina. That was Lenovo (a partner of the US IBM company) which reportedly donated 2 million dollars. I could not find any information about contributions given to the U.S. from the Chinese people. I’m sure there was some, but apparently not really enough to show up on the radar. Should America then condemn China because its people and companies didn’t give very much in Katrina?
Forget about the American government for a moment. Governments have their own reasons for how much money they do or do not donate. If you focus on the donations of the American people you can see our true hearts. We do care about the people who are suffering in Sichuan. The earthquake in our minds goes far beyond politics. Stop trying to equate our government’s donations with the American people’s feelings about the earthquake.
As to your statement that “But one thing is clear ,you are not believe our government, you afraid your money can not reach earthquake area”… have you talked to your own people about this? Please read another post that I wrote called http://www.teachabroadchina.com/china-earthquake-donation-money/ in which I talked about the mistrust that many CHINESE people have of their own government. Many of my friends here in China did NOT give money to the government because they were afraid that the money would not reach the earthquake area. Criticize them first before you criticize me for simply echoing what many Chinese people are saying.