II. From the Grand Canal to the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Prior to making any rational analysis, I want to tell two more stories, so as to help my readers gain a better understanding of China.

The first is about the Grand Canal of China.

On June 22, 2014 at the 38th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the Grand Canal of China was officially added into the List of World Heritage Sites, becoming China’s 46th World Heritage Site. The Grand Canal of China includes 58 heritage points of ancient watercourses, canal waterworks remains and canal subsidiary remains.

The Grand Canal is the longest artificial river in the world, and one of the oldest canal. First built in 486 BC, it consists of three major sectors – the Sui-Tang Canal, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and Eastern Zhejiang Grand Canal. With a total length of 2,700 kilometers, the Grand Canal passes through 6 provinces – Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang – and 2 municipalities directly under the central government – Beijing and Tianjin. It connects 5 major river systems in China: the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River. The Grand Canal served as an artery of southnorth transportation in ancient China, and 1,442 kilometers of its length are still open to traffic, including 877 kilometers that are open to traffic for the entire year.

The Grand Canal was a great water conservancy project of ancient China, as well as a strategic measure for state governance.

Anyone who is familiar with Chinese history will know the significance of Caoyun – the transportation of grain by water from southern China to the capital city in northern China – in securing the material basis for China’s central government. Caoyun was typically important when China’s economic center moved southward, resulting in the unequal distribution of political center, economic center and military center. So Caoyun played a key role for different dynasties in terms of political and military significance. The goal in constructing the Grand Canal was to create a main watercourse to carry grain between southern China and northern China. Emperors of different dynasties all attached great importance to Caoyun, leveraging its function of regulating the supply of goods. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the significance of Caoyun was raised to a much higher level. The grain and other goods transported by Caoyun helped supply the needs of residents of the capital city and maintain the normal operation of the bodies of the central government. Caoyun also played a significant role in China’s defense system, as troops stationed in different parts of China relied heavily on the logistics support provided by Caoyun to protect China’s long borderline or to suppress the rebellions. Emperors of different dynasties also used the supplies provided by Caoyun to regulate market supply to offset the negative efforts caused by heavy taxation, natural disasters, price fluctuations and other factors that might threaten social stability. The Grand Canal was so important that “half of China’s grain and other goods collected through taxation were transported by Caoyun.”

The Grand Canal also facilitated closer integration between northern China and southern China in terms of trade and cultural exchanges, typically economic development in the regions traversed by the Grand Canal. The Caoyun water conservation project also helped boost local agricultural development. The large-scale Caoyun activities taking place along the Grand Canal also enhanced the circulation of goods along the Grand Canal. The opening of the Grand Canal and its steadily increasing capacity created plenty of trading opportunities, attracting clusters of merchants and vendors along its banks. A large number of cities and towns were established along the Grand Canal, each of them prosperous and bustling. Only after the rise of railways, highways and other transport channels in modern times did Caoyun gradually lose its influence, as did the cities and towns along the Grand Canal.

It goes without saying how significant the Grand Canal was for rulers of different dynasties in governing China; and it is not hard to understand the importance of great courage, a comprehensive strategy, and an ambitious blueprint in governing a nation.

The second story is about the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

China has witnessed the completion of a series of large-scale strategic construction projects in modern times, and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is one of them.

China is a vast country, and the climate in northern China is very different from that in southern China. In particular the distribution of water resources in different parts of China is extremely uneven. Water scarcity is a serious problem in northern China, with the volume of water per capita below even the standard in Israel, a country with the worst water crisis in the world. As the world climate changes, the water crisis in northern China worsens, jeopardizing economic development in this part and seriously impacting the daily lives of local people. Is there any effective countermeasure to deal with the water crisis in northern China and maintain the ecological balance between the north and the south? This question turns out to be a significant one vital to national governance, and Chinese leaders naturally have devoted enormous efforts to finding a strategic solution.

Diverting water from the south to the north became the ultimate solution to solve this problem for good.

As early as in 1952, during an inspection tour of the Yellow River, Mao Zedong said, “The south of China has rich water resources while the north is troubled by water scarcity. If it is possible, we can divert water from the south to the north.” This was how the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was conceived in the first place. In 1959, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Electricity and Water held a work meeting in Beijing, formulating the guiding principles for this giant project. These principles included the effective and efficient use of water resources, diverting water from the south to the north, and coordinated and balanced regional development.

After the conclusion of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was once again put on the agenda of the central government. In 1979, the First Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress approved the Government Work Report, confirming for the first time that “water from the Yangtze River will be diverted to areas north of the Yellow River.” Then in April 1991 the Fourth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress included the South-to-North Water Diversion Project into China’s Eighth Five-year Plan and the 10-year Overall Plan. In December 1995 a comprehensive feasibility study was carried out, and in June 2000, after carrying out an extensive field survey and analyzing 50 proposals, scientists and engineers reached consensus on the overall plan for the project. On December 23, 2002, the State Council officially approved the Master Plan for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project; and on December 27, 2002 construction work began.

The project was designed to channel 44.8 billion cubic meters of water to the areas along the Yellow River, Huaihe River and Haihe River, with a planned population of 438 million. The master plan covered three diversion routes – the eastern, central and western routes – connecting four major river systems of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huaihe River and Haihe River. This configuration would divert water from the upper stream, midstream and lower stream of the Yangtze River to the north, the Huaihai Plain and the northwest of China, balancing the distribution of water resources across China.

The eastern route draws water from the main stream of the Yangtze River, somewhere near Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province, and transports it by way of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and other parallel watercourses. Hongze Lake, Luoma Lake, Nansi Lake and Dongping Lake are connected together as a giant collective regulating reservoir. The pump stations raise the water step by step until into the Dongping Lake, where the water passes in two different directions. The first direction heads north, passing through the Yellow River and flowing to Tianjin, with the total length of the channel from the Yangtze River to Dagang Reservoir in northern Tianjin exceeding 1,156 kilometers; while the second direction heads eastward by joining the newly constructed water diversion channel from the Yellow River to Qingdao, providing water to eastern Shandong.

By transporting water northward through a gradual lifting system, the eastern route offers daily water supplies on the Eastern Huanghuaihai Plain, in eastern Shandong and in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, covering 25 prefecture-level cities. In line with a research report in 1998, the eastern route provides water supply to over 118 million people and 8.8 million hectares of farmland. The total investment for phases 1, 2 and 3 of the eastern route amounted to RMB42 billion. On December 27, 2002 construction started on the Sanyang River-Tonghe River-Baoying section in Jiangsu Province and the Jiping Canal section in Shandong Province, marking the very beginning of the entire South-to-North Water Diversion Project. And on November 15, 2013, phase 1 of the eastern route was operational.

The central route starts from the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the middle and upper reaches of the Hangjiang River. The Danjiangkou Reservoir is an upgraded version of Danjiangkou Dam, after the water level is raised and the water storage capacity increased. The water is fetched from the Danjiangkou Reservoir and first released at Taocha Canal in Zhechuan County in Henan Province, and then travels along the Tangbai River in southwestern Henan, passing across the Fangcheng Pass, the watershed between the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers, and then the western edge of the Huanghuaihai Plain and the Gubai Ferry to the west of Zhengzhou before reaching its final destination in Beijing along the western side of the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. The central route is designed to provide water supplies for Henan, Hebei, Tianjin and Beijing, covering more than 20 major cities, as well as water for agriculture and environmental protection along the line. The trunk canal for the central route has a total length of 1,267 kilometers, while the Tianjin-bound trunk canal has a length of 154 kilometers.

The western route is designed to divert water from the Yangtze River to the upper stream of the Yellow River, by building dams at Tongtian River located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and two tributaries, the Yalong and Dadu rivers, and transporting the water through a tunnel that passes through the Bayan Har Mountains, the watershed of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. The western route project is mainly located to the southeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covering Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi, with the altitude of the proposed dams ranging between 2,900 to 4,000 meters. The western route is positioned to address the water crisis in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi, as well as middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Central Shaanxi Plain along the Weihe River. Supported by other water conservation projects along the tributaries of the Yellow River, the western route can even provide water to the Hexi Corridor in Gansu and to the lower reaches of the Yellow River if necessary. The large-scale project is mainly located in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a high-altitude region with a complex geological structure and seismic intensity, and involves the construction of a 200-meter-high dam and a 100-kilometer-long tunnel through the local mountains. It is indeed a large-scale investment project that is technically challenging. The project will undergo three phrases for implementation, and its basic construction plan was passed in 2001. At present the relevant authorities have not yet approved the construction plan, and the project is still undergoing feasibility research.

Ultimately, the entire South-to-North Water Diversion Project will carry 44.8 billion cubic meters – 14.8 million cubic meters from the eastern route, 13 billion cubic meters from the centrtal route and 17 billion cubic meters from the western route. As planned, the combined length of the trunk lines for the entire project will reach 4,350 kilometers. The total length of the trunk lines for the eastern route and phase 1 of the central route is 2,899 kilometers, and that of the branch canals built in six provinces along the routes reaches 2,700 kilometers. It is expected that the entire project will take 40 to 50 years.

At present, the central route and phase 1 of the eastern route have been completed and are providing water to northern China; while the western route is still at the planning stage. On December 12, 2014, after 11 years of work, the 1,432-kilometer-long central route entered service, providing water from the Yangtze River to Beijing. It is estimated that the central route can provide more than 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year, which is equivalent to one sixth of the Yellow River volume, basically ending water scarcity in northern China.

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a large-scale infrastructure project of strategic significance to China. It involves the largest investment in infrastructure since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and is vital to the long-term prosperity of the country.

When considering the ancient Grand Canal and the modern South-to-North Water Diversion Project, we have to admire their enormous scale, innovative design, and far-reaching influence, and at the same time we understand better the complexity of governing a country as large and populous as China. A great many challenging tasks in China require strategic thinking; we must beware of ignorance and shortsightedness, and we must not fail to look at the whole picture.

Based on our historical experience, our need to facilitate social and economic development, and our need to meet the aspirations of the general public, it is very important for China to launch super projects or grand measures to support the long-term prosperity and well-being of Chinese people; and an effective strategy has become a top priority for the country to speed up its development.