Chapter 23 Reservoir Immigrants Say Lu Yuegang

"Out of the Three Gorges", written by Jin Yongquan, will be published by Sanlian Bookstore, and the preface has not been included for some reason. The history of reservoir immigration in China for more than half a century is a sad and sad history.Tens of millions of reservoir immigrants (almost all farmers) have been forced to abandon their homes in the past, present and foreseeable future. For the happy life of some people, for the primitive accumulation of China's modernization, for disaster prevention and mitigation, and for political movements, Pay the price for great success, blind command and decision-making, bureaucracy, and corruption, and continue to pay the price.We can see this scene in Jin Yongquan's photos of the resettlement of the Three Gorges Reservoir.The dazed and sad eyes, the unreversible muddy waters of the river, powerless and helpless, all in silence.

When we searched and sorted out this history, we couldn't help but feel heavy. First look at how the reservoir was built. Since the early 1990s, I have studied the Three Gorges Project and China’s water control. Only then did I know that in 1958, the general mobilization of the whole people included a “Great Leap Forward in Water Conservancy” and a “Small Leap Forward in Water Conservancy” in the early 1970s. . "Great Leap Forward" plus "Little Leap Forward", how many reservoirs were built in total?According to statistics at the end of 1973, there were 70,364 reservoirs over 100,000 cubic meters nationwide, including 238 large reservoirs, 1,802 medium-sized reservoirs, and 68,279 small reservoirs; 100,000 reservoirs were under 100,000 cubic meters.In other words, from around 1958 to 1973, in more than 15 years, China built at least 170,000 reservoirs!Of course, quite a few of these reservoirs could not be operated after they were built, or they collapsed, or were abandoned due to danger. By 1990, there were only 83,387 reservoirs left in the country, including 366 large reservoirs with a storage capacity of more than 100 million cubic meters, 1,000 There are 2,499 medium-sized reservoirs with a storage capacity of 10,000 to 100 million cubic meters, and 80,522 small reservoirs with a storage capacity of less than 10 million cubic meters.Whether it is 170,000 seats or 83,387 seats, it is the first in the world.

Due to geographical and astronomical reasons, China is a country prone to flood disasters.Judging from the results, the huge reservoir construction since 1958 is an overreaction of the ruling party to the flood disaster.The internal reason, I think, is probably that the catastrophic floods of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River in 1954 triggered social unrest and left a memory of extreme fear for those in power who had just seized power.Therefore, since the 1950s, the general strategy of China's water control has been to "mainly focus on storage, while simultaneously raising funds for storage and discharge", coupled with a strong self-confidence in conquering nature and transforming society, consolidating the new political power, and attempting to solve the problem of flood disasters once and for all.A large number of reservoirs are built, and a large amount of land is naturally submerged, and the problem of reservoir immigration arises from this.

my country has the most reservoirs, how many reservoir immigrants are there?According to official data, there are 15 million immigrants from the reservoir, which is estimated to be the largest in the world. Among them, the number of immigrants from the Three Gorges Project, according to the latest official disclosure, can reach 1.2 million, accounting for about one-tenth of the total number of immigrants in the past half century.It can be affirmed that there is no one like the Three Gorges Reservoir resettlement before, and there must be no one in the future.What needs to be pointed out is that the 1.2 million immigrants from the Three Gorges Reservoir (the number of immigrants in the preliminary design report of the Three Gorges Project approved by the National People's The resettlement migration level and the 182-meter resettlement and construction line were approved, but the Three Gorges Reservoir is a river-type reservoir, and the water storage line is a curve that gradually rises. Some people calculate that the water level rises by about 7 meters every 100 kilometers.The reservoir is 493.9 kilometers from Sandouping Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei to Lidu Town in Fuling, Chongqing. The second phase of the project is 135 meters above sea level. When it reaches Lidu Town, the water level rises to 169.7 meters above sea level, with a drop of 34.7 meters. If the altitude is 175 How big is the drop in rice storage?Academician Pan Jiazheng, director of the Three Gorges Engineering Technical Committee, said that the drop "is a natural drop," and it doesn't matter whether the Three Gorges is filled or not.Academician Pan Jiazheng's statement can be interpreted as: After the Three Gorges Reservoir is impounded, the water surface is not a curved surface, but a flat surface; the tail of the reservoir will not be raised by backwater.However, the official figure of 135 water storage proves that Academician Pan Jiazheng's statement cannot be established.

The next question is, when the water is stored at 135, the water level of Lidu Town is 169.7 meters. If the water is stored at 175, what is the water level of Lidu Town?Also, what is the water level in Changshou District and Chongqing City, which are farther away from Lidu Town?Or 177 meters?As long as the immigration migration line of 177 meters is exceeded, the number of immigrants will increase, and the immigration fee will increase.The essence of the problem is that the immigration migration line at an altitude of 177 meters is an unshakable horizontal line. The 1.2 million Three Gorges Reservoir immigrants are calculated according to this horizontal line. If it is tilted up, the submerged water level in most areas will be far above the 177 immigration migration line.In this way, we can draw a conclusion: the immigrants of the Three Gorges Project must have exceeded 1.2 million!That said, more people are being forcibly immigrated than the world realizes, and that could dilute the overall cost of immigration.

Like all confused accounts, the exact number of immigrants from the Three Gorges is also a confused account.Is it because the interest groups deliberately confused accounts, or because things are so complicated that they can't figure it out at all, so it is doubtful.Based on my exploration of the decision-making history of the Three Gorges Project and my long-term follow-up after the start of construction, I am more inclined to the former. I have discussed with Li Boning, deputy director of the Three Gorges Construction Committee and director of the National Immigration Bureau more than once, how to move the one million or hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Three Gorges Project?He is an advocate and vigorous promoter of the "Three Gorges development-oriented immigration", and even said that the Three Gorges immigration is the "Li Boning Project".Hubei, Sichuan, and Chongqing all have opinions on him, saying that the old man is too subjective and does not understand the actual situation in the Three Gorges reservoir area. The immigration method of the "Three Gorges development-type immigrants" is to "rely on the spot and rely on", that is, people go to higher places.Li Boning patted his chest and said that the immigrants from the Three Gorges will definitely be resettled on the spot.Many people oppose this immigration policy, saying that the Three Gorges area is full of high mountains and valleys, and the living capacity is limited, so it is impossible to accommodate so many immigrants.Xiao Yang, who once served as the secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee and later served as the governor of Sichuan Province, criticized Li Boning's Three Gorges immigration policy many times in front of my face. find a way.However, it is wrong to say that the old man does not understand the actual situation.Li Boning used to be the secretary of the provincial party committee of the proposed Three Gorges Province. During the preparation period, he organized the filming of "Appeal from the Poor Mountains", which made a lot of shock in Beijing by talking about the poor living conditions of farmers in the Three Gorges reservoir area.

It is wrong to say that Li Boning does not understand immigration work and history. He has been in charge of immigration work in the Ministry of Water Resources since the early 1950s, and he has never left water conservancy and immigration issues in his life.He has a "three-thirds" evaluation of the more than 10 million reservoir immigrants after 1949: one-third lives well, one-third barely survives, and one-third is not resettled well.In fact, only one-third of them are actually well placed.Then why did Li Boning insist on the Three Gorges immigration policy of "residing on the spot" and "resettlement on the spot"?Why "do what you know you can't do"?In fact, today, a large number of migrants from the Three Gorges have moved out, which seems to prove that Li Boning was wrong.It's not that simple.Anyone who is familiar with the history of reservoir immigration in China knows that forced relocation does not mean no relocation. The history of relocation of reservoir immigrants is also the history of relocation of reservoir immigrants.I don't have specific data on relocation, but insiders say it's not a small number.There is no need to find evidence in history. The return of immigrants from the Three Gorges to Hainan, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang and other places is a clear proof.In many cases, the reason for relocation is not necessarily related to the survival capacity.

I have not discussed the origin of the "development-oriented immigration" policy in depth with Li Boning, but I believe it has something to do with the history of immigration and its shadow over history.He once recalled with lingering fear that during the "Cultural Revolution", the main force of the movement was the immigrants who had not been resettled in reservoirs in Xin'anjiang and other places, especially the immigrants who had moved out and returned. The leaders of the Ministry of Water Resources were the most vicious. people.Since the construction of Xin'anjiang Reservoir (1957-1960) in 1949, it is also the first large-scale reservoir resettlement in China's history, with a total of 306,000 immigrants.The Xin'anjiang Reservoir is divided into three stages: the pilot stage from 1956 to 1957, the large-scale migration stage from 1958 to 1960, and the adjustment stage after 1961.The problem was after 1958.At that time, the government’s immigration slogans and methods were: “Bring more good ideas, less old furniture”, “Militarize your organization, militarize your actions, collectivize your life, march on foot with a hoe and a bedclothes” (Mou Mo Cai Wenmei, "New A Historical Review of An Giang Migration").As a result, immigration fees have doubled, leaving problems to this day.Some people say that the beautiful Qiandao Lake is formed by the tears of immigrants from the Xin'anjiang Reservoir.

Before Gezhouba was built in the early 1980s, there were three major dams in China. In addition to Xin'an River, there were Sanmenxia Reservoir and Danjiangkou Reservoir.Sanmenxia Reservoir (1957-1960) and Danjiangkou Reservoir (1958-1964) were both officially launched in 1958. The number of immigrants was 410,000 for the former and 380,000 for the latter. In 2003, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was launched, and the dam of Danjiangkou Reservoir was raised, increasing the number of migrants by 224,000.Among the 224,000 migrants, many are second or even third migrants from the Danjiangkou Reservoir.By the way, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was proposed no later than the Danjiangkou Reservoir. In a sense, the Danjiangkou Reservoir was built for the realization of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, but obviously the planning was insufficient and increased immigration.The fate of these immigrants from the two major reservoirs is the same as that of immigrants from the Xin'anjiang Reservoir, with very little compensation, brutal and hypocritical mobilization, and forced relocation without discussion.How is the situation now?I went to the Danjiangkou Reservoir area in 2001, and there can be summed up in two words: "poverty".And decades of poverty.

The situation at Sanmenxia Reservoir is even worse.The Sanmenxia Reservoir was once "the first dam in Asia", designed by the Soviets commissioned by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.This reservoir may be the most tragic reservoir in the history of human modernization. It is almost synonymous with arrogance, vanity, conceit, and emulativeness leading to disasters. In 2003, the Weihe River was flooded. The amount of flood was not large, but the Guanzhong Plain was devastated. The root cause of the disaster was the Sanmenxia Reservoir, and there was even discussion about whether to blow up the Sanmenxia Reservoir.Searching the process of brewing, debate and construction of the Sanmenxia Reservoir today, I was suddenly moved and made me believe in the saying of "destiny".The possible disasters caused by the Sanmenxia Reservoir were all foreseen at that time, including the immigration problem caused by the "dam high water level plan". ").

Forty-eight years have passed. For the time being, we will not care about water control ideological issues such as whether the Sanmenxia Reservoir should be built, but first investigate the Sanmenxia immigration issue.After I processed the materials, I found that the number of migrants in the Sanmenxia Reservoir has been determined to be a large number of doubts. We know that half a year after the construction of the Sanmenxia Reservoir started, Wen Shanzhang, a technician who just graduated from university, opposed the high dam plan with a water storage level of 360 meters, and proposed a plan of "low dam and small reservoir, flood detention and sediment discharge" and a normal water storage of 335 meters. Inundation, less immigration, less money, and the letter to the Central Committee and the Ministry of Water Resources, received Zhou Enlai's attention, and he instructed the Ministry of Water Resources to organize experts to discuss this "young youth plan."This discussion, which lasted for half a month, was actually a big debate around major issues such as the idea of ​​water control of the Yellow River, the water level of the Sanmenxia Reservoir, and whether to discharge or retain sand. Regarding immigration, the number of immigrants in the 335-meter plan did not exceed 150,000, and the number of immigrants in the 360-meter plan was 900,000. After Zhou Enlai presided over the revision of the plan, the number of immigrants dropped to 318,900. Due to the large-scale landslides in the reservoir area and the raising of the water level, the number of immigrants increased to 403,800.The official information we have seen so far is determined to be 410,000.The Sanmenxia reservoir area submerged Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, mainly Shaanxi.According to the latest data, by 1989, the number of immigrants in Shaanxi Province alone had reached 430,000, and it is unknown whether they included 150,000 return migrants (Shang Wei's "Forbearance Crying to the Yellow River")!And immigrants live in extreme poverty.Hundreds of thousands of impoverished peasants were born in the Guanzhong Plain in the "Land of Abundance", and serious social problems still exist today.However, many parties have not received due historical investigation and conscience condemnation. We also have to face the consequences of past bad decisions today.Most of the reservoirs I know have serious "immigration sequelae". Whether it is macro decision-making or technical arrangements, they have not taken the "big deal" of reservoir area immigration seriously. When you come to the immigration, there is no discussion, and you don't have a place to negotiate; if you don't leave, you will be kicked out, and if you resist and petition, you will be arrested.Reservoir immigrants in China are quite unlucky. The water conservancy projects from 1958 to 1970 encountered institutional arrogance with great achievements. Now it is better, and what they encountered is institutional arrogance and corruption.I went to the Three Gorges Reservoir area twice in 1992 and 1997. Many cadres I know who are in charge of immigration have problems, and they are all related to corruption.An official in charge of immigration in Chongqing City told me that immigration funds are "Tang monk meat", and everyone wants to bite.Not counting the supporting investment, the national immigration investment alone is nearly 100 billion. With so much money, it is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.I once had dinner with a secretary of the municipal party committee of a prefecture-level city in the Three Gorges reservoir area. He was so angry that he just answered a phone call saying that some immigrants had petitioned the city government. He instructed on the phone: "Arrest them all! Capture them all!" I roughly sorted out the history of Chinese reservoir immigration for more than half a century. I just wanted to tell readers and remind those in power that the Three Gorges Project will be completed in two years. Start.I also want to tell readers what kind of historical and institutional background Jin Yongquan described in the Three Gorges migrants. Their fate is controlled by many intangible things.There was nothing they could do.They can only accept their fate.The title of Jin Yongquan's book is "Exodus from the Three Gorges", which has the artistic conception of "Exodus". However, I believe he must know that the person who led the immigrants from the Three Gorges down the river and left their hometown was not Moses; For centuries, there is no Moses in the ranks of 15 million reservoir immigrants. Jin Yongquan is my colleague.He has photographed immigrants from the Sanmenxia, ​​and has followed and photographed immigrants from the Three Gorges for several years. "Out of the Three Gorges" is the culmination of his painstaking efforts for many years.I was moved by his compassion.He has a famous photo: On an immigrant boat, a bare-backed immigrant turns his back to the camera - the place where he moved into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, looking at his hometown that is gradually moving away.I can't see his expression.I guess what he was thinking.I really want to know what he's thinking. April 2, 2005 in Huahugou, Shuangquanbao, Beijing