Water Conflict Chronology in China

China floods rebel peasants

Date: 1642 Parties: China; Ming Dynasty Basis: Military tool Violent: Yes

The Huang He’s dikes breached for military purposes. In 1642, “toward the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), General Gao Mingheng used the tactic near Kaifeng in an attempt to suppress a peasant uprising.”

China floods Yellow River to defend from Japan

Date: 1938 Parties: China and Japan Basis: Military tool; Military target Violent: Yes

Chiang Kai-shek orders the destruction of flood-control dikes of the Huayuankou section of the Huang He (Yellow) River, in order to flood areas threatened by the Japanese army. West of Kaifeng, dikes are destroyed with dynamite, spilling water across the flat plain. Even though the flood destroys part of the invading army and mires its equipment in mud, Wuhan, the headquarters of the Nationalist government is taken by the Japanese in October. Floodwaters cover an area variously estimated as between 3,000 and 50,000 square kilometers, and kill Chinese estimated in numbers between “tens of thousands” and “one million.”

Chinese protestors block canal

Date: 2001 Parties: China Basis: Development dispute Violent: Yes

In an act to protest the destruction of fisheries from uncontrolled water pollution, fishermen in northern Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, dam a large industrial wastewater canal for 23 days. The wastewater discharges into the neighboring Shengze Town, Jiangsu Province, killing fish and threatening public health.

Dam protester executed in China

Date: 2006 Parties: China Basis: Development dispute Violent: Yes

Chinese authorities execute a man who took part in protests against the Pubugou dam in Sichuan province in 2004 (see China 2004 entry). Chen Tao was convicted of killing a policeman, but is executed before legal appeals are completed.

Chinese protestors challenge Japanese factory for discharging contaminated wastewater Date: 2012

Parties: Qidong, Jiangsu Province, China Basis: Development dispute Violent: Yes

In July, thousands of protesters take to the streets in Qidong, Jiangsu Province to challenge a pipeline from a Japanese owned paper factory that would discharge contaminated wastewater into the sea, potentially pollute a nearby fishery, and contaminate drinking water. Demonstrators clash with police and there are reports of damages to government buildings, cars, and other property. Fourteen people plead guilty to encouraging the riot in which dozens of police are injured and the local Communist party chief is stripped half-naked.