Five days of mass protests around the upper Yangtze River failed to stop China Three Gorges' planned Xiangjiaba hydropower project last week, and the corporation's website still lists June 2012 as the expected start date of electricity generation. Some 2,000 villagers blocked a main road and a bridge over the Yangtze and hurled bricks and stones at police to protest the valuation of the forcible land acquisition for the 40,000 people who are being displaced to make way for the dam, joining green groups that have long opposed the project. China's environmental protection minister said last year that environment-related "mass incidents," such as the 1,000 person demonstration over pollution from an aluminum plant, have been rising at a rate of 30 percent per year. There were 51,000 pollution-related protests in 2005 and 600,000 environmental complaints in 2006. For the full story, see http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/china-three-gorges-hydropower-project-proceeds-as-planned-after-protests.html. For background on the demonstration, see http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ioAH7U1wEyDeq3BDFEX DpQV_BGzw?docId=CNG.583450bebb349b36f3b01e5eb1000e5f.391. For the story on the aluminum plant protests last year, see http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/07/15/us-zijin-leakage-idUKTRE66E0P620100715.