A recent report by The Wall Street Journal, targeting several China-built global mega-projects, was filled with distorted facts, one-sided stories, and unfounded accusations -- an attempt to discredit the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

What's the real picture of these projects? Are they really "falling apart" as sensationally claimed by the WSJ? Xinhua reporters traveled there, studied the cases and talked to authorities, experts and engineers.

Here is what we found.

QUITO/ISLAMABAD/KAMPALA/LUANDA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Adriana Carranza, a resident in the San Luis village in northern Ecuador, has fond memories of her days working with a Chinese company at the Coca Codo Sinclair (CCS) hydroelectric project from 2012 to 2015.

"Thanks to the work I had done for (a subcontractor of) the Sinohydro Corporation, I was able to save money," the former cook at the company told Xinhua. The job was well paid with good working conditions.

Carranza is among the thousands of Ecuadorians who have worked at the Chinese-constructed project, some 150 km east of the capital Quito. As the country's biggest hydropower project, the 1,500-megawatt CCS has been running smoothly for over six years, generating around 42 billion kWh of clean and renewable hydroelectricity, becoming the largest power source for Ecuador.

However, a recent report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which also spoke to Carranza, painted a gloomy picture of the CCS project with distorted facts and unfounded accusations.

This undated aerial photo shows the intake dam of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant between Ecuador's provinces of Napo and Sucumbios. (Sinohydro/Handout via Xinhua)

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). With infrastructure construction a key priority, 81 Chinese central state-owned enterprises have been involved in over 3,400 projects in countries along the Belt and Road by January 2021. The cumulative amount of China's direct investment in these nations reached 161.3 billion U.S. dollars from 2013 to 2021. A World Bank report estimated that when fully implemented, the BRI could help nearly 40 million people in relevant countries leave poverty behind.

Turning a blind eye to such achievements, the WSJ article dated Jan. 20 criticized several Chinese-built mega-projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa in an attempt to smear the China-proposed initiative.

FALSEHOODS & MISREPRESENTATION

"The 14-hour days were long, and her Chinese boss didn't speak Spanish," wrote the WSJ about Carranza's experience working for Sinohydro's sub-contractor.

Contrary to what was described in the report, Carranza told Xinhua she was well paid for working extra hours. During her pregnancy, her boss and colleagues treated her "as if I was their daughter."

"We usually want to work (extra hours)" and "I'm satisfied with my salary," said Graciela Quirina, who also worked in a Sinohydro kitchen.

The WSJ's misrepresentation went further. Citing unnamed government engineers, the U.S. daily alleged that the CCS plant has thousands of cracks in its "eight turbines" due to "faulty steel imported from China" and boldly speculated that it could soon "break down."

Miguel Calahorrano, Ecuador's former Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, receives an interview with Xinhua in Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Guorong)

In an interview with Xinhua, Miguel Calahorrano, Ecuador's former Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, said the WSJ article lacks veracity and "has a political intention."

"How can a plant that is of no use to us have come to produce almost 42,000 gigawatt hours of energy? I'm sure these people don't even understand what 42,000 gigawatt hours of energy means," the former minister said.

"It clearly has the political intention of trying to devalue the relationship" between China and Latin American countries, he said.

Regarding the cracks, Sinohydro and the Ecuadorian State Electricity Company hired the German testing agency TUV SUD in 2018 as an international independent third party, which concluded in its risk assessment report that these cracks will not affect the operation and safety of the plant for its design life of 50 years.

This undated photo shows the hydroelectric power generators of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant between Ecuador's provinces of Napo and Sucumbios. (Sinohydro/Handout via Xinhua)

As to the suitability of the steel, the TUV SUD report indicated that the base materials are within the values required by the specifications.

Furthermore, the WSJ associated erosion along a section of the Coca River and the disappearance of a waterfall with the Chinese-built project to hype up its environmental consequences.

Ecuadorian government-commissioned research conducted by Swiss consulting company Lombardi concluded that the disappearance of the waterfall was a natural phenomenon and had nothing to do with the construction of the CCS -- a view shared by many geologists, local media reports said.

Ecuador has never lodged the issue with Sinohydro, which was tasked with the construction, according to the Chinese company.

Calahorrano said that the CCS plant has managed for the first time in the country's history, together with other hydropower plants, to raise hydroelectricity in the electrical matrix to more than 93 percent, reducing the use of fossil fuels, saving the country about 1.3 billion U.S. dollars a year from fossil fuel imports and cutting carbon dioxide by about 18 million tons a year.

ONE-SIDED STORY

Under the sensational headline "China's Global Mega-Projects are Falling Apart," the WSJ article went on to bring in Pakistan's Neelum Jhelum hydroelectric project, and again blamed "flaws" in Chinese construction for its shutdown in July 2022.

The accusation is far from the truth. The quality of the Chinese construction, as evaluated by local authorities during its handover in 2018, was impeccable and up to standard.

Sajjad Ghani, chairman of the Pakistan Water & Power Development Authority, told Xinhua that the WSJ report is unjustifiable.

"The quality of construction of the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project has been fair," said Ghani.