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A "Broken China" Update.

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Today's Broken China Update deals with the Three Gorges Dam. I don't have ANY hard evidence but a lot of circumstantial chatter. So this is just my Spidey Sense screaming at me.

There haven't been any official water levels published since late July. The TGD is now firmly into its annual rainy/flood season. The dam's operating range is between 145 and 175 meters above mean sea level. Generally the level of the reservoir is lowered to around 145 meters at the start of the rainy season. The water level was kept higher this year, about 155m, to enable increased electrical generation. This has forced increased released of water to protect the TGD.

The last official water level I have is 161.8m from late July. Since then there have been at least two typhoons strike southern China. The rumored current water level is somewhere around 170-171m with up to 55km³/sec of water entering the catchment. So far as I know there are still eleven spillways open. This is only the second time this has happened in the dam's history. Max flow from the spillways is 44km³/sec.

FWIW - The count is now up to 329 rivers that have been above flood level somewhere along their length this summer. The extra/unplanned/unannounced releases of water from the nation's dams has been significant. The flooding downstream of the dams on these rivers has been devastating.

WWG1WGA

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

I used to research Three Gorges all the time. But, it's hard to get new reliable info. Last time I looked at it the dam had moved and was not stable underneath and was leaking. Quite frankly I thought it would broken apart long before now,how its still standing I have no idea.

Historically, the dam was build with poor materials with every politician in the region tapping it for money out of the budget. that alone led to a budding disaster which IMHO is long over due.

Here's a release of water from the Dam:

Once it does break apart and that could happen any time,IMHO it jeopardizes a zillion issues down stream. From where our medicines are made to several cities with millions living there are all at risk. The cities have historically already had massive flooding from time to time and when it goes it will be big news, so big China won't be able to hide it.

From what I have seen China is broke and spends little on its people which is why they riot all the time. The riots are well hidden from the media but they happen.

I recently saw a MAGA-type mil spokesman saying that Taiwan is untouchable because they have the missile technology to take out TGD if attacked, with extremely devastating consequences to China.

Add this to China’s foundational geopolitical vulnerability to the interdiction of oil imports by the U.S. Navy, which, btw, Trump’s Golden Dome will further protect from missile attacks (if it even needs this).