The Hidden Risks Behind China's Three Gorges Dam I China Insights

Recently, a leak scandal at Three Gorges Group caused a massive internal earthquake. As a senior executive was secretly taken away by the CCDI, a whistleblower leaked top-secret documents to overseas networks. These files reveal lethal scenario analyses conducted by the CCP itself. If the Three Gorges Dam collapsed, Yicheng would flood within six hours, Wuhan in 24, and Shanghai would be submerged within a week. 132 million people would be affected, with half of China's territory and its economic heartland wiped out instantly. Why would China conduct such scenario analyses internally? Has something happened to the Three Gorges Dam? And what did this executive who was arrested do? Why did this top-secret document leak at such a critical moment? After the dam collapse in Guangxi, what deadly connection is there between the authorities' horrific act of burning bodies with strong acid and the safety of the Three Gorges Dam? In today's 25 Minutes, let's take a look at this deadly crisis facing the Three Gorges. According to the CCD website, on July 21st, Wu Kiran of the Three Gorges Group Guangxi branch is under investigation for serious disciplinary and legal violations. Wu Kiran is no ordinary official. Born in 1972, he's a senior engineer and long-time Three Gorges veteran. Last February, he was assigned to Guangxi as the top leader. Ten days before his fall, he was conducting inspections in Baihai, Guangxi. The phrase, serious disciplinary and legal violations, suggests various possibilities. Corruption, political missteps, or indiscretion. Soon after, Lo Sheng, a whistleblower on X, received an insider tip-off from the Three Gorges Group. The tipster's inside info was explosive. He said Wu Kiran fell because he couldn't keep quiet. Known to be talkative at dinner, especially when drinking, he spoke his mind. So how many actually died in the recent flood in Hengzhou, Guangxi, China? At dinner, he vividly described the scene as if you were there. He said when the floodwaters rushed in, a mother, fearing separation from her children, tied herself to her three kids with a rope, hoping they would survive together. But in the end, all four were swept away by the torrent. He also said that at the bend where the floodwaters receded, hundreds of bodies were densely floating on the surface of the water. The rescue team simply couldn't keep up. So in the end, they brought in excavators to retrieve them. But when the bucket went down, they discovered there were even more bodies submerged beneath the surface. The official report said that 39 people died in the Hengzhou flood. But Wu Kiran revealed internally that the actual death toll in Hengzhou was as high as 17,000. Local officials, in order to keep their positions, suppressed the numbers and didn't dare to report the truth. To cover the scene, police sealed the area and blocked civilian rescuers. For the bodies, they first tried burial. But fearing evidence, burned them with diesel. When the smoke became too thick and slow, they used concentrated acid. These horrific scenes are chilling. But what's more shocking is still to come. He took several internal analysis diagrams, official simulations of the Three Gorges Dam collapsing. Inundation maps showed flood peaks reaching Yichang in six hours, Wuhan in 24, Ancheng and Zhejiang in 72, and Nanjing and Shanghai in 168 hours. Other diagrams showed flood speeds reaching 10 meters per second within a week, a population heat map, and a transportation disruption schematic. He warned there are already multiple seepage points at the Three Gorges Dam's base, some flowing at 30 cubic meters per hour. The 17,000 deaths in Hangzhou is just the start. The collapse of the Three Gorges Dam is inevitable, and the death toll will grow exponentially, affecting at least 470 million people. Is this revelation credible, my friends? Do you actually believe it? If you do, go ahead and give me a like to let me know. Regarding bodies being disposed of with strong acid, due to the CCP's information blockade, we can't independently verify this, but those leaked document images are likely authentic. Why is that? These dam break drills and simulations are routine measures by emergency and water management departments. All major reservoirs have specific contingency plans. The GIS base map data layering and color gradation match official CCP internal document standards. Overseas netizens couldn't have faked this from scratch. So, since this image is real, it means the whistleblower must be someone inside the Three Gorges project with sufficient clearance. So, other info is likely true. In fact, the project's political climate over the past six months supports this. Just four months before Wu Kiran's arrest, on March 23, Chen Wenfu, a senior consultant at Three Gorges Construction Group, was also taken by the CCDI. He was the technical lead for temperature control of the Phase 2 powerhouse and Phase 3 dam. In other words, he is one of the people who knows the health status of every single rebar and every cubic meter of concrete inside the Three Gorges dam better than anyone else. Why did he fall from power? The authorities have also been vague about it. Within half a year, two top experts from within the Three Gorges system have fallen one after another. Is this just a coincidence? To truly understand the crisis facing the Three Gorges today, we first need to look back 70 years. From the very beginning, the birth of the Three Gorges dam was never just a purely hydraulic engineering project. In February 1953, Mao Zedong sailed down the Anzhi. He called Water Resources Director Lin Yishan onto the ship, pointed at Sealing Gorge, and asked about damming the river. Lin shook his head, calling it too difficult. Mao waved his hand and said, if it's too hard, we won't build it for now. That year, the matter was put aside. But in 1956, Mao Zedong swam the Yangtze at Wuhan and wrote, Shui Diao Gei Chou, standing by Sijong's cliffs, blocking Wushan's clouds and rain, a vast lake emerges from the heights. From this day on, whether or not to proceed with the Three Gorges project was no longer a technical issue within the Chinese Communist Party, but a matter of political stance. To oppose it was to oppose Mao Zedong's calm. But were there any scientific voices at the time? Yes, Tsinghua Hydraulic Engineering Professor Huang Wenli spoke out first. He was a U.S.-educated Ph.D. and the son of former Education Minister Huang Yanpei. In 1957, at the forum on the Cementia Dam on the Yellow River, more than 70 experts present nodded in agreement to please the Soviet experts, but only Huang Wenli stood alone against them all. He said the high dam at Cementia violated the laws of nature, silt would build up upstream, and Henan's floods would shift to Shanxi. But no one listened to his warnings. He was labeled a rightist and suffered persecution. Soon after Cementia was built, silt piled up, the Wei Riverbed rose sharply, nearly flooding Xi'an, and the Soviet plan was scrapped and redone. Huang Wenli's warnings soon became reality. Friends, remember this peat hill? Later, you'll see that Huang Wenli was proven right again, and that time, the price paid wasn't just one city on the Wei River, but the entire Yangtze River Basin. By the 1980s, the Three Gorges project was being forcefully pushed forward again. At that time, Huang Wenli was in his 70s, but despite enormous political pressure, he sent three letters to the Central Committee. In them, he wrote a crucial prophecy. After this dam is built and the reservoir filled, gravel and sediment from the Jinsha River and Sichuan Basin will settle at Chongqing, blocking the port. The resulting backflow will flood towns like Hechuan and Jiangjin, risking hundreds of thousands of lives. This dam must never be built. Keep this in mind, 30 years on, sediment buildup at Chongqing port did occur, and new resettlement towns required further relocation due to geological disasters. Every word he said back then is slowly coming true. And back then, Huang Wenli wasn't the only one who opposed it. Sun Yuqi, head of the CPPC Economic Construction Group, and eight experts, including Chao Peixin and Qian Jiaxu, led over 400 scholars on a 38-day investigation through Chengdu, Chongqing, Wansian, Yichang, and Wuhan. Their work resulted in six reports on the Three Gorges project. In 1987, they co-authored an article called The Three Gorges Project, More Harm Than Good. It Will Deceive the Public and Bring Disaster to the Country. Expert Wang Changfu traveled from Nanning to Beijing to voice objections, but the meeting ended before he could speak. Refusing to give up, he wrote to Li Peng overnight, warning that the Three Gorges water level shouldn't exceed 160 meters. He warned that past 175 meters, it will cause irreversible catastrophe. Friends, remember the number 175 meters, this red line that the senior expert repeatedly urged must not be crossed. So how was it treated later on? By the end of this episode, you'll know the answer. Keep watching to find out what happens. Ultimately, Wang Changfu's opinion and Huang Wanli's letters were ignored. The Three Gorges Project was fast-tracked, bypassing standard procedures. In August 1991, state councillor Song Jian chaired a meeting and, claiming the project outline lacked approval, rejected the project's feasibility report. But the conclusion of the report that was rejected originally stated that the Three Gorges Project would do more harm than good to the ecological environment. Following the rejection, a second group was formed to rewrite the report. On January 24, 1992, they submitted a new version, concluding the Three Gorges Project's benefits outweighed the harms to the ecological environment. By changing just two words, the Three Gorges Project went from a non-starter to a must-do. Even more outrageous, on January 17, 1992, before NEPA had even approved the environmental impact report, Li Peng presided over the state council's 95th meeting and approved the project's launch. Under CCP environmental law, major projects require an approved impact report before initiation. So what Li Peng did was clearly illegal. In Li Peng's published Three Gorges Diary, the entry for January 17, 1992, when he approved the project, was deleted. His daughter, Li Shaolin, later wrote that her father kept a diary daily, so he surely wrote something then. But in the Three Gorges Diary, that day is simply missing. On March 18, Jiang Zemin addressed party officials at the NPC. He spoke for two hours, and his core message was, since the Central Committee voted in favor, representatives should too. Yet at the April 3, 1992 vote, a historic shock occurred. There were 1,767 votes in favor, 177 against, 664 abstentions, and 25 people refused to vote. Despite the pressure, one-third of the representatives still resisted by voting against or abstaining. In response, the renowned hydraulic expert Dr. Wang Weilu said that this one-third of abstentions and opposing votes is the greatest historical record of the Chinese people's pursuit of truth and freedom. But in the end, authoritarian power still crushed science and conscience. The Three Gorges Project was forcibly launched. Construction began in 1994, the main structure was completed in 2006, and by 2010, the water level had been raised to 175 meters. Friends, do you still remember the 175-meter limit that Mr. Wen insisted on not exceeding? As we mentioned earlier, the Three Gorges Reservoir exceeded 175 meters. After that, Mr. Wen's warning, that irreversible disaster, began to manifest over the next 20 years as a deeply hidden fissure and started to exact a price from the people living on this land. The first price was paid by the body of the Three Gorges Dam itself. In July 2019, a Japanese netizen took a screenshot of a satellite image of the Three Gorges Dam from Google Maps and was shocked to discover that the dam, which should have been a straight line, was actually bent and deformed. As soon as the news broke, the entire internet was in an uproar. CCP state media immediately jumped in to refute the rumor, calling it an illusion from the satellite image's resolution and distortion. Without expert analysis, most would have believed this. But hydraulic expert Dr. Wang Weiluo instead examined the Three Gorges Group's own public data and found the dam was indeed shifting. This displacement was continuous, not a one-time event. Wang Weiluo broke it down very thoroughly. The Three Gorges Dam isn't made from a single solid block of concrete. Instead, it's divided into four or five decameter sections, including the navigation dam section, the left bank powerhouse section, the central spillway section, the right bank powerhouse section, and the underground powerhouse section. Data shows the dam bases of these sections are displacing horizontally in different directions. Some blocks are sliding downstream while others shift upstream. Alarmingly, the top of the dam is also moving, and the dam top sway is greater than that of the base. To put it in plain language, the entire dam isn't moving smoothly or uniformly as a whole. Instead, it's like several giant Lego blocks pieced together, with each one twisting and shifting out of alignment in different directions on its own, just like a giant bone being slowly twisted into a spiral by some invisible force. Dr. Wang Weiluo warns the reservoir's water level fluctuates annually between 145 and 175 meters. This immense pressure acts like a giant hand, pushing the dam's foundation and crest to undergo elastic and plastic deformation. This long-term fatigue and twisting will shorten its lifespan and compromise structural safety. He assesses the Three Gorges Dam's safe lifespan may be only 50 years, not the officially claimed 100. Aside from deformation, what's even more deadly is leakage. According to data released by the Three Gorges Group itself, they've actually already acknowledged leakage in the dam. The maximum leakage rate once reached one cubic meter per minute. Currently, the authorities claim that the combined leakage from the left and right banks is still nearly one cubic meter per minute, which is about one ton of water continuously seeping off from the cracks in the dam. But as always, the official assessment and conclusion is that everything remains within safe limits. But the problem is, this so-called safety standard is set by them. And independent third-party monitoring data has never been made public in over 30 years. And this time, whistleblowers from inside the Three Gorges have revealed that there are already multiple leaks at the base of the dam, with some single-point leakage rates reaching as high as 30 cubic meters per hour. What does that mean? To put it another way, that means a single leak point is spewing out 500 liters of high-pressure water every minute. This number far exceeds the safety range publicly disclosed by the Three Gorges Group. While censorship prevents us from independently verifying the leakage rate at this point, combined with Dr. Wang Wailu's research on dam deformation and cracks, it is an undeniable fact that irreversible internal seepage and erosion are occurring within the Three Gorges Dam. So with such a massive structure that is constantly twisting and deforming, and with unstoppable seepage hidden inside, how much longer can it hold out? The answer to this question depends not only on the reinforced concrete of the dam itself, but even more on the sediment that is quietly accumulating behind it. This is exactly what Huang Wanli risked his life to warn about 30 years ago. Just two words. Sediment. Since 2003, sediment from the Upper Yangtze has continuously settled at the reservoir bottom. To justify the dam, CCP propaganda argued for storing clear and discharging muddy. They claimed they would release muddy water during floods and store clear water during dry seasons. After 80 years, this would supposedly achieve siltation balance, permanently retaining most of its capacity. But the hydrological data released by the Three Gorges Group itself completely tore apart this illusion. Data shows that after the Three Gorges Reservoir started storing water, the hydraulic gradient flattened, which caused coarse sand and stones from upstream to be trapped. When they reach the reservoir's tail near Chongqing Port, the flow slows and they settle on the riverbed. Over time, these sediments and stones gradually pile up underwater, forming a terrifying underwater stone dam. Then, the stone dam raises the entire riverbed, forcibly pushing up the upstream water level. Once the river water can no longer flow smoothly downstream, it backs up, flooding Chongqing Port, Qianjiang, and the towns of Chongjin. Isn't this just a modern version of what Huang Wanli said back then? If this dam is built, silt will block Chongqing Port, floodwaters will inundate upstream towns, and this dam should never be constructed. Three decades later, official internal reports on the Three Gorges Reservoir still acknowledge that geological and sediment risks will persist for a long time. Another easily overlooked cost is the most destructive—earthquakes and landslides. Reservoir-induced earthquakes aren't superstition. They have a clear physical mechanism. Massive reservoirs holding billions of tons of water press on the underlying bedrock. Simultaneously, water seeps into rock cracks, reducing friction. This destabilizes geological structures, reactivating old faults and triggering quakes. Also, the Three Gorges Reservoir fluctuates yearly between 145 and 175 meters. This 30-meter shift acts like a giant pump, storing and releasing water while soaking the surrounding mountains. This puts relentless strain on the geological structure. In June 2003, right after the Three Gorges began storing water, over 2,000 tremors hit within a week along the river in Badong, Hubei. This was documented in a research paper in a Chinese scientific journal. Then, in November 2008, a 4.1-magnitude quake hit Quyan Town, the reservoir area's largest since water storage began. Landslides are even more troublesome than earthquakes. A report in the journal Engineering Geology and the Environment notes over 5,000 landslides and unstable slopes have been detected in the Three Gorges Reservoir area since water storage began. Over 5,000 of these active geological bodies could collapse at any time. In July 2010, a massive mudslide struck Guajiaba Town in Hubei, destroying it. This was actually a new town built by the government in 1995 to resettle those displaced by the Three Gorges Project. Official data showed 909 high-risk disaster sites in this county alone, threatening nearly 100,000 lives. In Badong, Hubei's Huangtopo district, built for Three Gorges resettlers, foundations cracked and slopes shifted just years after construction. Consequently, 100,000 people faced a second forced relocation. Dr. O'Neill said the actual number of people displaced by the Three Gorges Project exceeds the official 1.3 million. It's a snowballing, bottomless pit. You move today, the mountain collapses tomorrow, and the day after that, you have to move again. This is no exaggeration. Last December, in Chongqing's Wanzhou district, a mountainside suddenly collapsed. The base roared into the river, and the footage quickly spread overseas. Experts say this confirms how constant soaking and pressure shifts from the Three Gorges Reservoir are softening mountain foundations. The mountain foundations submerged under the river are losing their grip at a rate visible to the naked eye. The mountains are collapsing, and the ground is shifting. And the millions of people living on both sides of the reservoir sleep every night on the edge of cliffs that could slide into the riverbed at any moment. The collapse of the Three Gorges Dam is only a matter of time. I don't know how you all feel after hearing this statement. Whether you believe it or not, or think it's just alarmist talk, please leave a comment and let me know. Let's take a look at how most people feel about this kind of statement. Over 30 years ago, dozens of water experts, CPPC members, and scholars surveyed the Yangtze, warning that the project's harm outweighed its benefits, and calling it a national disaster. But that report was forcibly invalidated. Over 30 years ago, leaders stood by the river, surveying the land and vowing to tame the clouds and rain of Wushan. Ignoring expert advice, they forcibly built this colossal structure, defying nature, over the Yangtze River. Those who once stood above everyone, claiming man can conquer nature, and signing off on the project, have now mostly retired or passed on. The political medals they left behind have turned into today's irreversible sediment buildup, unstoppable seepage at the dam crest, and geological crises that could erupt at any moment. When the arrogance of history fades away, all the hidden dangers and lies that were covered up ultimately turn into the mother and her three children tied together by rope in the Hangzhou Flood, into the mountainside that crashed into the river in Wanzhou, and into a sword hanging over the heads of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. A speck of dust from an era, when it falls on ordinary people, becomes a mountain. This massive dam, built on the backbone of the Yangtze River despite all warnings, who in the end is bearing its weight? All right, that's all for our discussion today. Friends, I believe that after hearing all this, you must have a lot of thoughts. Whatever you want to say, please share it with me in the comment section. Let's keep talking in the comments. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this show, please leave a like. To new friends, welcome to True Perspective, and please share this show with others. Don't forget about the fan-recommended hype feature. It can help my videos reach a wider audience. Thank you all for watching. We'll meet again at the same time on Saturday here at True Perspective. Don't miss it. Bye.