The Cost of Carrying Water for Xi Jinping

The Chinese-funded Lower Sesan 2 Dam in northeastern Cambodia has displaced thousands of indigenous and ethnic minority people and destroyed the livelihoods of many others, according to an Aug. 10 report by Human Rights Watch. HRW faulted Beijing and Cambodia for failing to provide adequate compensation to villagers for widespread harm done in building the dam, a project under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of investment in infrastructure. The environmental damage and the troubles of the displaced villagers also showed that BRI funding comes with “no oversight,” the New York-based rights group said. Cambodia accused HRW of trying to “subvert Cambodia’s development to nurture conflict to serve a real political agenda.”