'Shun bonds' call goes to Three Gorges opponents

Anti-dam campaigners in the United States have taken out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times urging investors not to buy bonds in the Three Gorges Dam.

The advertisement, placed by the International Rivers Network and Friends of the Earth, USA, said: 'An exclusive bond offering: here's your chance to invest in a grand monument to China's authoritarian regime. Don't fund China's Three Gorges Dam.' On November 4, the two organisations and 44 others from 14 countries wrote to the US underwriters urging them to stop underwriting bonds for the State Development Bank of China. In January, six organisations underwrote a US$330 million (HK$2.55 billion) bond issue for the bank, leading creditor of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation.

A bond issue in Japan for the bank was cancelled this year, allegedly because it was discovered that it would help finance the Three Gorges Dam.

The advertisement said the dam was opposed by scientists and people who feared an economic and ecological catastrophe.

'The Three Gorges Dam is a political project inspired by Mao Zedong as monument to the pride of an authoritarian government,' it said.