It's finally done-The Three Gorges Dam

to give you an idea of the importance of this project. Every year, you are looking at hurricane katrina type of floods in southern China. And then, pla would be sent in to do the rescuing and such. Every summer, you are going to get relocation of southern Chinese people due to flooding. So, I don't think the relocation of 1.13 million people is a huge price really considering China's entire population and how many people this project will aid. At the same time, southerm China badly needs energy and hydro may not be the most environmentally friendly energy source, but it's 1000 times better than burning coal. If you ever visited my hometown, you would understand why. So, this project is driven by necessity rather than anything else.

i have a question. in the event a foreign nation attacks/destroys the three gorges dam, what will we expect the PLA/China's reaction to be? what by what magnitude will the damage be that we're looking at?

holy shiite such an old post...if a foreign state attacks the three gorgeous dam it'll prolly be considered as a nuclear attack. the damage is hard to gauge, the dam is situated behind a segment of a series of zigzag paths of the river, but the force of the flood might still get through, in that case what China usually do is blow up the dikes in the places with fewer population or less economic significance so they'll be flooded rather than big cities. it also depends on what kind of damage is sustained (they say a breached dam is still a dam lol) and whether such attack is anticipated ahead of time.

ravenshield936 said:

i have a question. in the event a foreign nation attacks/destroys the three gorges dam, what will we expect the PLA/China's reaction to be? what by what magnitude will the damage be that we're looking at?

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It might also depend on the timing.

Hypothetically, in 2030, if any country dare destroy China's three gorge dam, China would not hesitate to blow it into oblivion with hundreds if not thousands of nuclear bombs.

Basically it will be the equivalent response if someone dared to attack the Great Wall, except attacking and destroying the dam will result in heavy human civilian casualties.

HKSDU said:

Basically it will be the equivalent response if someone dared to attack the Great Wall, except attacking and destroying the dam will result in heavy human civilian casualties.

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china will be pissed if they attack the great wall, but not that pissed when compared to beijing, but ultimately, the 3 gorges dam

the reason i revived this old thread was cuz i was having a discussion with my dad, and he proposed the question, what i think will be china's response to such an attack.

my answer was it'd be the same as pla101rc have said. and i think the damage would be equivalent of a strategic nuke going off at the eastern seaboard, so of course if such an attack happened and was initiative by the US, then i guess beijing will return the favor to exactly where i've said.


and my thoughts are, if by ranking with 1 as targets that beijing will be concerned as priority, and 5 as lowest, this is my guess:

1. 3 gorges dam
2. beijing and other major cities with high population density
3. major military installations and troop concentrations
4. conventional military targets
5. targets of minimal value

Folks, the dam can be emptied when it looks like a conflict might break out. It takes several days to release the water.

Unless somebody attacks the dam (and gets through all the air defenses and missile defenses) right out of the blue with no provocation whatsoever, there is zero risk of a "dam break" scenario.

Yeah, I agree. The dam is sitting in the middle of China. Anyone who dares to attack it would have to go through hell to get there. And if (that's a BIG IF) they successfully attack it, China will definitely be EXTREMELY pissed, even more so than a nuclear attack. This is because a potential destruction of the dam would mean almost the entire east China could be flooded. Before the dam was built, China annually lost almost quarter of a million people to flooding in the area where the dam was eventually built. That was only a regional flood. If the dam was breached, all the downstream cities, including Shanghai could be threatened. That means casualties in the multi-millions. I would say China would be very pissed even little ACTUAL damage is done because of the potential and the malicious intent of the attackers. And China would retaliate with all they got. If it was a small nation that attacked it, yes, China will blow it into oblivion. If it was a big nation, that would probably mean WWIII. My guess...

IMO a WW3 type of enviroment must be in existence for an attack on the dam by a foreign power to happen, rather than the other way round. I also think its a legitimate target, when the object is to degrade ones opponents ability to wage war, by taking out its infrastructure. The Damage and the widespread loss of life could be horriffic, but it would be the lesser of the two evils if considers the use of tactical nucleur weapons.

Besides a possible attack on the dam could be signaled , and its up to the authorities to empty the dam as a precaution.

Or the attacking power may be quite content just damage the integrity of the dam so that it cant be operated at full capacity, as a warning perhaps to show what they can do with , using conventional weapons, so do they wish to carry on.


However with the concept of measured response in vogue, I dont think the dam would be one of the innitial targets, and if it is attacked, China must be inflicting some serious damage herself.

See we are really talking about 'what ifs' What if Pakistan collapsed and some of its nucluer weapons fell into anti china terrorist hands who used it to make a bomb and let it off in the vicinity of the dam.
Im picking some people may think it was poetic justice for China's contribution towards nucluer proliferation.

bladerunner said:

IMO a WW3 type of enviroment must be in existence for an attack on the dam by a foreign power to happen, rather than the other way round.

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I thought that is the scenario we are talking about, i.e. China's dam being attacked. China attacking others would only be a retaliation of an attack on the dam.

bladerunner said:

I also think its a legitimate target, when the object is to degrade ones opponents ability to wage war, by taking out its infrastructure. The Damage and the widespread loss of life could be horriffic, but it would be the lesser of the two evils if considers the use of tactical nucleur weapons.

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No, I think it would be worse than a nuclear attack considering the size of the affected area and number of people affected.

On the other hand, I think China must have done plenty to adequately protect the dam. It must know the potential damage that could be done if being attacked. Plus, the dam is in the earthquake zone. So the dam should have more than enough protection against earthquakes, which are generally speaking much more powerful than missiles. So a few missiles exploding on the dam won't even be able to scratch the surface, IMHO.