There’s been some chatter on Twitter and in overseas news outlets…

After speaking with Feng Tian, a Chinese YouTuber, who is a critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and goes by the handle Li Yiping (李一平), on Tuesday (June 30) said that the floods this year are on pace to surpass those seen in 1998 and predicted that if an earthquake occurs at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, it could cause one of the smaller dams to collapse.

He warned that if this were to occur, it could lead to a domino effect, with one dam failing after another until finally, the Three Gorges Dam itself would be under such a tremendous amount of strain from the resulting catastrophic floodwaters that it too would collapse. Li also pointed out that the Three Gorges Dam sits on two major fault lines, the Jiuwanxi and Zigui-Badong, and that massive changes in water pressure in the dam’s reservoir due to flooding could lead to earthquakes, a phenomenon known as reservoir-induced seismicity, which in turn would lead to landslides that would at the very least exacerbate the flooding in the area and potentially threaten the integrity of the main dam.

June 29 Three Gorges Dam discharges water first time in 2020, in response to potential flooding risk.
三峡大坝今年首次开闸泄洪 腾出一定库容迎接近期可能到来的洪水 pic.twitter.com/eIKHQ1kxvb

— Eva Zheng 郑怡斌 عائشة (@evazhengll) June 29, 2020

Never believe a rumor until it’s officially denied…