VZCZCXRO5091
RR RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0269/01 3300914
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 260914Z NOV 07
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2658
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3220

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. 
 
----------------------------------- 
RISING WATER LEVELS, UNSTABLE SOILS 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶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.) 
 
------------------- 
RISING TENSIONS TOO 
------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
----------------- 
POVERTY AND CRIME 
----------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶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