1. Three Gorges Dam Yuen-ching Bellette Lee
Department of Political Science
University of Chicago
1/12/2019

2. Introduction The Yangtze River The Three Gorges Dam project
Controversy over the Dam
Global boycott: tension between developmentalists and environmentalists
1/12/2019

16. Human rights at the Three Gorges – global capital vs
Human rights at the Three Gorges – global capital vs. transnational environmental lobby
Involvement of western financial companies to raise fund for the $25 billion project
Campaign of transnational environmental groups against financing the dam
Human rights as the focus of argument
1. Environmental human rights
2. Economic, social and cultural rights – right to water and natural resources
3. Political and civil rights
– beating, detention, and imprisonment of demonstrators
-- petitioners charged with “disturbing the Three Gorges resettlement” – an inverted logic of justice
-- state power and institutions mobilized to quell resistance
1/12/2019

17. Human rights at the Three Gorges – national government vs
Human rights at the Three Gorges – national government vs. transnational civil society
Global environmental lobby: human rights defined upon the natural rights theory rooted in a Euro-American tradition
China: define rights upon particular Chinese circumstances – rights of subsistence as primary; economic development is the pre-requisite to all human rights
1/12/2019