L'eau comme enjeu de pouvoir : l'exemple de Tianjin dans la première moitié du XXe siècle

Abstract

Water as an issue of power : the case of Tianjin in the first half of the twentieth century. This paper deals with the control of the water supply being at stake in Tianjin city from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. The traditional way of providing water to the inhabitants of the city was partly in the hands of the local ruffians who controlled the water carriers. The creation of a modern water supply system, first installed by the Westerners only in the city foreign settlements and later widened to the entire city after the Boxers rebellion, resulted in a struggle among different city groups (the settlements municipal councils, the Chinese municipality, the Waterworks companies, the merchants and manufacturers, the water shops keepers) for the control of this public utility and the water resource. Political and economical control was at stake and depended on the circumstances. It is only after the communists victory over the nationalists, when the country being once again politically reunified and the situation in the Tianjin region being stabilized that the water supply ceased to be at stake in the struggle for power of many city groups.