The View from the Riverbank: Pluralization without Democratization in China’s Rural West

UC Berkeley presents Kristen McDonald's talk on how the Chinese government's development projects in the Nu River valley may trigger increased civil unrest.

Kristen McDonald, Director, China Rivers Project

China’s increasingly pluralistic development process opens up new arenas for public controversy and to some degree, dissent.  But vulnerable populations continue to be left out of development decision making, particularly in ethnic, rural regions of the country.  A The Nu River proposal to build 13 dams on the Nu River in western Yunnan Province has resulted in a public debate that pits the region’s cultural and biological diversity against China’s needs for clean energy for sustainable growth.  This talk will present field research showing that local opinion on the dams diverges significantly from the terms of this debate, yet is critical to reaching a satisfactory outcome. Local communities’ opinions of the dams--both favorable and unfavorable--are built on long standing relations with each other, the local government, and the natural resources they depend upon, while local officials are largely concerned with increasing government revenue.  The talk will conclude that while the people of the Nu River valley have long been subject to the will of more powerful neighbors, it is their own prefecture government’s “dams as poverty alleviation” agenda that may trigger increased civil unrest.