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Choking on the Three Gorges 阻塞的三峡 Chinas government at last owns up to problems atits monster dam 中国政府最终承认巨型大坝导致的问题 RAIN along the middle and lower Yangzi River this week has helped alleviate the regions worstdrought in 50 years. But it has not doused a storm of criticism of the Three Gorges damupriver, including allegations that it contributed to the disaster. Opponents of the colossaledifice have been emboldened by rare government admissions of environmental and otherurgent problems caused by the dam. 这周在长江中下游沿线的降雨缓解了这一地区近50年来最恶劣的干旱灾害。但这并没有平息对三峡大坝上游潮水般的批评，包括其造成此次干旱的断言。政府罕见地承认三峡大坝诱发了环境和其他紧急问题，这使得反对这一巨型工程的人们声势愈烈。 In private, officials have worried about the project for some time and occasionally their doubtshave surfaced in the official media. But the government itself has refused to acknowledgethem. When the project was approved by the rubber-stamp parliament in 1992, debate wasstifled by the oppressive political atmosphere of the time, following the Tiananmen Squaremassacre three years earlier. Last July, with the dam facing its biggest flood crest sincecompletion in 2006, officials hinted that they might have overstated its ability to controlflooding. On May 18th, with the dam again in the spotlight because of the drought, a cabinetmeeting chaired by the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, went further in acknowledging drawbacks. | 
