ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL STRESSES ON THE RISE IN THREE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000269

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM AND EB
NSC FOR CHRISTINA COLLINS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/26/2017
TAGS: ECON EAGR ELAB PGOV SENV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL STRESSES ON THE RISE IN THREE
GORGES

REF: A) 06 CHENGDU 1161; B) CHENGDU 0035

CHENGDU 00000269 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: James Boughner, Consul General, Chengdu,
Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: The Three Gorges Reservoir area of Chongqing
may be under increasing environmental and social strains. Local
authorities are devoting increased attention to the problems of
landslides and erosion in resettled areas and recently formed a
"specialized research group" to study "geological disasters."
Many resettled farmers feel they have not received the
compensation they are due and complain of the three nos: "no
jobs, no land, and no social benefits." Early policies of
concentrating resettled farmers in urban housing projects appear
to have heightened social tensions and facilitated the formation
of criminal gangs. End summary.


2. (SBU) Congenoff and LES Economics Assistant recently traveled
through the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of the Municipality of
Chongqing, from the city of Chongqing to Wanzhou by rented car
and then by boat from Wanzhou to Wushan.

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RISING WATER LEVELS, UNSTABLE SOILS
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3. (C) Chongqing Southwestern University Assistant Professor of
Geology Jiang Yongjun (strictly protect) told us Chinese
authorities have in recent months been paying increased
attention to the threats of landslides and geological stability
in the reservoir area. A special concern is the situation of
new cities built near the reservoir, where the weight of
construction coupled with unstable flooded soil has caused
geological stability problems. He mentioned areas of
"fissuring" around and near the relocated county seat of Fengjie
as being especially dramatic.


4. (C) (Note: In apparent confirmation of Jiang's observation,
the next day we observed a large banner over the Fengjie docks,
proclaiming "The China Rail Construction Group Will Contribute
Greatly to the Control of Fengjie's Geological Disasters." And
a statement on the Fengie County website said that, due to its
"complicated" geology, the county had experienced "geological
disasters" in 529 locations as of the end of 2006, including
landslides, cliff collapses, fissures, and cave-ins, and
affecting transportation, infrastructure, and scenic areas. End
note.)


5. (C) While he said he was not personally involved in
reservoir-related research, Jiang told us the Municipality of
Chongqing recently created a "specialized research group" of
scholars to focus on the threat of "geological disasters." In
addition, he said the Institute of Mountain Hazards and
Environment Chinese Academy of Sciences (located in Chengdu) was
also researching the problem. (Ref A describes a 2006
conversation with one scholar associated with that Chengdu
research group.)

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RISING TENSIONS TOO
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6. (C) Prominent labor rights attorney Zhou Litai (ref B)
(strictly protect),with offices in Chongqing and Shenzhen,
opened a third office in September of 2007 in Wanzhou, about
four hours by car east of Chongqing. Zhou told us that unlike
the Chongqing and Shenzhen offices, his Wanzhou site would
emphasize cases related to the rights of the area's resettled
farmers, noting that many of them had not received the benefits
promised to them.


7. (C) According to Zhou, resettled farmers refer to themselves
as suffering from the "three nos: no jobs, no land, no social
benefits." Although Zhou expressed the opinion that the central
government had allocated funds sufficient to deal with many of
the farmers' material problems (especially housing and other
social benefits),he also felt most of those funds had been
mismanaged or diverted by local governments. He said local
governments often took farmland on the outskirts of developed
areas in order to resell it at a hefty profit to developers,
increasing the number of displaced farmers.


8. (C) Another complication, according to Zhou, was the
inability of many resettled farmers to adapt to life in new
surroundings - not only factors such as dialect, food, and
living conditions, but also loneliness arising from the

CHENGDU 00000269 002.2 OF 002


disruption of extended family networks. As a result, said Zhou,
many resettled farmers find ways to move back to areas closer to
their original homesites, resulting in even more desperate
living conditions.

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POVERTY AND CRIME
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9. (C) Zhou arranged interviews with men he identified as
resettlement clients. One man about 45 years of age told us he
had farmed on the outskirts of Wanzhou before being resettled
into an apartment-style housing project located in the Shuanghe
Resettlement District. He told us that, with the loss of both
their land and farming livelihoods, migrants' life in Shuanghe
was "miserable." He claimed that initial cash payments of RMB
11,500 (USD 1500) to each resettled household had been spent
quickly, and that even though the housing projects were provided
with natural gas, electricity, and running water, residents did
not use them, since they were too poor. He said he had
collected signatures from over 300 resettled migrants on a
petition he had submitted to the State Council in Beijing,
complaining about living conditions and treatment by local
authorities.


10. (C) Another man in his late 30s introduced himself as a
resettled doctor who ran a small clinic in the Shuanghe project.
He said that after he tried unsuccessfully to collect a 500RMB
(USD65) debt from a local resident, a gang composed of migrants
broke into his clinic and smashed his equipment, extorting 1000
RMB (USD130) in the process. He claimed that the mass
resettlement of unemployed rural residents into housing projects
had resulted in rampant crime, drug use, and prostitution, and
local law enforcement authorities were unable or unwilling to
deal with the problem.


11. (C) Zhou later took us to see the cluster of squalid
apartment buildings that formed the Shuanghe Resettlement
District, where he claimed approximately 80,000 people lived.
He expressed the view that the project was an example of an
early "strategic mistake" by the authorities, since
concentrating so many poor, unskilled, and unemployed migrants
into such a concentrated area was bound to lead to crime and
discontent. He told us more than half of Wanzhou's population
of over 500,000 is now composed of resettled farmers and other
migrants.


12. (C) The downstream city of Wushan appeared somewhat more
prosperous than Wanzhou, apparently due to the flow of tourists
passing through on their way to the "Little Three Gorges" scenic
area. Likewise, central government funds had paid for the
construction of a new Communist Party training center, a high
school, and a prison. However, several locals there told us of
rampant crime, which they claimed had resulted in a "strike
hard" campaign by law enforcement authorities in October. They
said that following that campaign and the arrest of numerous
gang members, the situation had improved somewhat, although a
female cab driver told us that it was still unsafe for her to
drive after dark. And others seemed to see the area as
especially sensitive: during our visit to Wushan, our activities
were carefully (and obviously) monitored by plainclothes
security personnel.

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COMMENT
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13. (C) Despite the numerous high-end cruise boats plying the
waters of the Yangtze, the situation of many locals in the Three
Gorges reservoir area appears bleak. Thick air pollution during
our visit added to the air of gloom. Although the central
government seems to be spending extensively on geological
stabilization and infrastructure construction, the overall
impression is that the area is one of the most troubled in the
consular district, with social problems that will likely take
years to resolve.
BOUGHNER