Water politics: disputes about the “Yellow River-Huai River diversion proposal” in the 1930s

Abstract

ABSTRACT Between the Southern Song and the Republican era in China, the Yellow River recurrently changed its course and inundated the Huai River, often resulting in disastrous flooding and millions of refugees in the northern Anhui Province. In early 1933, those Anhui natives living in Tianjin sent a communication to their countrymen back home, informing them that the Construction Bureau of Henan Province was contemplating a plan to divert the Yellow River into the Huai River via northern Anhui Province. This news brought wide-spread panic to northern Anhui and triggered two-year long disputes concerning the relevant proposal. At the time, both the Nanjing Nationalist government and the Henan provincial government insisted that the proposed project was only intended for local irrigation purposes, posing no risk to northern Anhui. As a matter of fact, “diverting the Yellow River into the Huai River” had long been an important plan for the Nationalist government. It was expected to improve the soil quality in eastern Henan province, increase the national tax revenue, relieve Henan Province of the perils caused by the Yellow River and develop the local irrigation system. Located in the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River, both Anhui and Jiangsu provinces had been the victims of the course-changing Yellow River and both provinces ought to have a common interest in questioning the desirability of the proposed plan by the Henan provincial government, or at least in theory. However, the officials of Jiangsu Province collectively chose to keep silent, concerned about national interests such as ensuring the implementation of the Huai River Diversion Project and the collection of the salt tax, as well as attending to local interests.