World Bank China Western Poverty Reduction Project

 

June 17, 1999

The World Bank and China are planning a project involving the resettlement of 57,775 poor mostly Chinese farmers into autonomous Tibetan and Mongolian areas of Qinghai Province, and the conversion of a fragile arid ecosystem into intensive agricultural production. This project violates the World Bank's policies on environmental assessment, indigenous peoples, resettlement and information disclosure among others. The rush to get this project approved before China loses its IDA funding status at the end of the month has pushed the World Bank to ignore and violate numerous of its policies. There are serious social, environmental and political concerns about this project, including:

Environmental Degradation

• Due to the fragility of the ecosystem of this high plateau, there is a great risk that the intensification of the agricultural production will lead to the desertification of the area and to the destruction of the local economy.

• The project's environmental impact has not been adequately assessed. Bank staff have miscategorized the project as a 'Category B' project, avoiding the more rigorous environmental impact assessment required under 'Category A'. According to the Bank's environmental assessment policy, projects such as this one, involving resettlement, two dams, extensive irrigation and land conversion are supposed to be analyzed as Category A projects.

• According to the Bank's environmental documentation, 100% of the people surveyed in the move-in area are concerned about the destruction of the environment if this project is implemented, especially given that the project will double the population of that area.

   

Cultural Dilution

• By promoting the transfer of Han and Hui Chinese into an autonomous Tibetan and Mongol prefecture, this project will serve to dilute the local population and destroy the traditional culture and way of life. Tibetans and Mongols have already been reduced to 23% and 14% of the population of the area, respectively, by policies carried out under Chinese rule, and the Bank's project would further reduce this to 14% and 7% respectively.

• Approximately 2,500 nomads will lose their land and be forced onto farms. Under the Involuntary Resettlement Plan, these people will only be given 1/11th of their original land. This forced sedentarization violates the Bank's policy on indigenous peoples.

• If the World Bank approves the $160 million financing, of which $40 million is to directly finance this resettlement component, it will legitimize, facilitate and provide international financial and institutional support for China's policy of colonization in Tibetan and Mongolian areas.

• In addition to the tension between the incoming Chinese settlers and indigenous ethnic minorities, the beginning of the century was marked by violent ethnic conflict arising from the Muslim Hui attempts to colonize the indigenous Tibetan and Mongol peoples' land. Moving even more Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims into a Tibetan and Mongolian area is likely to lead to increased ethnic tension, conflict and possibly violence over scarce natural resources.

• Human rights groups have received letters from Tibetans in the area, which state that, "in the event the resettlement project is carried out with World Bank financing, the World Bank will have participated in passing a death sentence."

   

Ulterior motives

• Dulan County is rich in natural resources such as oil, natural gas and other minerals. Moving Chinese farmers to the region is seen as the establishment of an agricultural base for future industrial development.

• Dulan County has one of the highest concentration of prisoners in labor camps in China. Although the Chinese government has promised not to involve prison labor in the project, there are serious concerns that prison labor will be used to produce goods and services for the incoming settlers.

 

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• Proceed to the full text of the Request for Inspection: China Western Poverty Reduction Project
  
• Proceed to the Preliminary Analysis of World Bank Policy Violations in the China Western Poverty Reduction Project
  

For more information, please contact CIEL at info@ciel.org.

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