China's Global Role / Articles

Bui Dam, now being built in Ghana with financial backing from China Exim Bank, is described by the project environmental assessment as having "minor" greenhouse gas impacts. In reality, it could end up becoming a major emitter of greenhouse gases, many times worse than a natural gas plant of a similar size.

Country's Economic Expansion Adds to Pressure on World's Rivers

by Peter Bosshard

(World Rivers Review, Volume 22, Number 3/September 2007) On August 27, Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing Rights, sounded an alarm on human rights abuses over Sudan's Merowe and Kajbar dam projects. "I have received numerous reports of violations of civil and political rights," Kothari warned. The violations included "the shooting of unarmed demonstrators, arbitrary arrests of activists, and repressive measures against the press."

China’s Charm Offensive in Southeast Asia Bodes Ill for Mekong Basin Rivers

Chinese corporations, financial institutions, and the Chinese government have shown an increasing interest in large dam projects in Africa. Civil society and dam-affected peoples’ movements are concerned that China’s own poor record on protecting human rights and the environment could mean trouble for African rivers now targeted for Chinese-built large dams.

The China Export-Import Bank agreed in April 2006 to finance the proposed Mphanda Nkuwa Dam on the Zambezi River in Mozambique. The river basin and its delta are already suffering major environmental impacts from numerous dams upstream, including two of Africa's biggest, Cahora Bassa and Kariba. The environmental degradation in turn affects about a