With so many blogs on foreign investment and construction in Asia, I investigated this huge, new phenomenon, especially since it applies to so many blog topics: economics, aethetics, the environent, and culture. Of these projects, the Three Gorges Dam is the most awesome. Costing near $29 billion, and expected to form a resevoir 412 miles long, it will displace something like 1.2 million people from archaeological important sites. While the dam has already been partially constructed, it still remains to be seen how the Chinese government has weighed the significant costs of the dam (both in money and social unrest) against its potential power--18,000 megawatts, equivalent to the output of 7 nuclear plants. In several articles I read, from the Washington Post to environmental pages, the issue being raised the most has been the considerable foreign investment in this project. Merrill Lynch alone has bought up $225 million in bonds, even while worldwide banks, like the World Bank and the U.S. import-export bank, have moved away from the project due to environmental concerns. The question then is, with so much potential to be gained in the East, and so few barriers to this investment, how will U.S. and other foreign companies develop a system to investigate the effects of these projects? China, dealing with so much internal strife over this project in particular, finds it easy to put responsibility on the hands of external companies. With this in mind, and with China's propensity to modernize just hitting its peak, who will be held accountable for any damage done now, or in the future? Check out these links to see what you think:
http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article165.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/yangtze/yangtze.htm
http://www.chinaonline.com/refer/ministry_profiles/threegorgesdam.asp