ABSTRACT
The Dahe dam’s migrants were not discouraged by the cracking down of grassroots governments, but continuously staged larger-scale petitions instead. Wanxian prefectural commission and Pingxian county government had to change their strategy and dispatched a working team to deal with the petitions at Shanyang township. On the one hand, the working team recognized dereliction of duty of some district and village cadres and made slight criticism on them. On the other hand, the working team focused on granting new grain allowance to and making economic compensation for the Dahe dam’s migrants. The latter measure was called “kai kou zi” (rule-bending). At that time, the government wasn’t adept at tactic of bending rules and not knowing how far the rules could be bent. Instead, this tactic triggered more contradictions among the migrants, between the migrants and the Dahe hydropower station, between the hydropower station and the district and village governments, and between the district and village governments and the county and prefecture governments.
