HANYUAN, China, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- The banks of the Dadu River have been the site of desperate stands and tragic deaths in Chinese history from the ancient Three Kingdoms period 1,800 years ago to a month ago.
Information began trickling out of southwestern China's Sichuan Province in early November concerning clashes involving between 20,000 and 100,000 villagers versus police, paramilitary and military units at the Pubugou hydroelectric dam project in Hanyuan County.
Reports vary as to the number of people killed, injured, and arrested in the uprising and its immediate aftermath.
Despite the imposition of an official news blackout, United Press International was able to travel to the region and report about the incident.
The county of about 340,000 people is located 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the provincial capital, Chengdu. Villages in the region are ringed by steep mountains rising an average height of more than 2,000 meters from a valley carved by the Dadu (Big Crossing) River.
Self-sufficient rural farmers account for 310,000 of the total population, which includes minorities such as the Yi and Tibetan peoples as well as the dominant ethnic group, the Han Chinese. The county name means "Fountainhead of the Han."
All of the scarce arable land is farmed intensively by hand. Villagers grow maize, sweet potatoes, and fruit. Since most of Hanyuan is on steep inclines, small settlements on mountain uplands are used to graze cows and goats as well as for fodder and firewood collection.
Hanyuan carries the official designation of a poor county in Sichuan, meaning more than 70,000 of its residents have an average income of less than 850 yuan (about $104) per year. Up to 20,000 people from the county's labor force of 170,000 leave the area to work as unskilled laborers.
According to China's statistical bureau, there is a floating population of approximately 130 million migrant workers nationwide.
In September 2004 Zhongguo Guodian (China National Electric) Corp., one of the country's largest power generating companies, made an initial bond issue of 4 billion yuan ($483 million) to finance three hydroelectric power projects for the energy starved country; two in Sichuan and one in Xinjiang.
The project at Pubugou (meaning Cataract Ravine), located about 20 kilometers from Hanyuan, is the largest dam currently under construction in the province.
Scheduled for completion in 2011, the $362 million power station will have an installed capacity of 3.3 million kilowatts and annually generate almost 14.6 billion kilowatt hours.
A project official was quoted in one media report saying the land of some 100,000 farmers in 40 townships spread throughout three counties would be submerged by the Pubugou project.
Accounts vary on when demonstrations at the dam site guarded by local police began, either Oct. 27 or Oct. 28. Observer estimates range from 20,000 to 100,000 protestors involved in what became a violent incident.
The protestors had one clear objective: halting construction until they were assured of receiving adequate recompense for the expropriation of their land and the cost of moving. The height of the dam and subsequent reservoir water level is an important concern to some participants.
"The government took land from people to build a dam, and compensation for those who have to be relocated is very, very small," one local told UPI.
Asked who was providing the payment, the government or the power company, another resident said, "The government. Officials took the money, so the compensation left for farmers was very little, 300 yuan ($36) per square meter."
"People were asking for 600 yuan. Altogether compensation should be tens of thousands (of yuan) for each household," UPI was told.
Demonstrations at the dam site continued until Oct. 29, when senior local officials persuaded rural residents to return home, pledging not to begin construction until their concerns were addressed.
Reports state that locals marched on the Hanyuan County government offices that day carrying the corpse of a protestor. There are contradictory accounts as to whether the young male farmer was killed in a motorcycle accident or beaten to death by police officials.
Several independent local sources who claimed to be eyewitnesses to the initial protests and subsequent events gave UPI differing accounts of the deaths, injuries and numbers arrested.
However, their accounts did corroborate one thing: the figures on people killed, hurt, and detained are much higher than those given in reports that have come to light.
Sources varied between "over 20" and "maybe more than 10,000 dead, it can't be estimated." The fantastic gap is best explained by the vantage point of the individual speaking in relationship to what they saw on steep terrain. Mountain roads and pathways offered vastly different vistas.
Everyone UPI spoke with said that both the police and the military had shot unarmed protestors.
Hanyuan residents gave guesses as to how many were injured ranging from hundreds to thousands; accounts on how many were arrested was in the tens to hundreds.
While individuals in the area don't know precisely what happened, it is clear that Chinese officials do not want actual figures made public.
Efforts by UPI to contact officials in Hanyuan and the provincial capital of Chengdu have proven unsuccessful.
The situation in Hanyuan has stabilized only within the last two weeks, local sources told UPI. "It's quiet now. There are soldiers everywhere and you'll be safe," a resident said.
On one pass through Hanyuan, UPI saw a roadside tent city sheltering units of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police, a paramilitary organization composed of discharged soldiers.
Machine gun toting guards holding riot shields stood at entrances to the garrison. Several five-man squads patrolled along the perimeter of the half-mile long encampment.
In town UPI read more than 25 red and white or yellow and red banners strung across Hanyuan's main artery and side streets spouting slogans in Chinese characters.
They came from the Public Security Bureau, Propaganda Department, PLA, Politics and Law Commission, plus from the local civilian police whose officers were posted throughout Hanyuan.
Banner messages said: "The government is greatly concerned about reservoir area people"; "Safe construction of the dam will help our civilization"; and several variations on the theme of "Firm and unshakable support for building the Pubugou Dam."
On the two-lane road hewn halfway up the mountainside at the Cataract Ravine project site, UPI photographed a China National Electric billboard showing a dam with "Pubugou Hydroelectric Station" written on it, flanked by visions of future benefits.
The caption read: "Water enables a rising country. Electrical power is dedicated to serving the country."
Waters of the Dadu trapped warring armies between the first and 19th centuries and were the scene of two harrowing escapes by the Red Army during the Long March 70 years ago.
In late 2004 a new page of the river's history was written, illustrating the downside of China's energy development taking place in the absence of honest local government and effective institutional mechanisms for protecting the rights and interests of its most vulnerable citizens.
The Hanyuan incident was the largest known disturbance in the last 30 days as a spate of major protests swept across the country. We may never know what truly transpired.
