I
On the morning of May 8, 2000, Wang Chunlai, an inspector at the Three Gorges Project Office of the Hubei Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, was on duty when staff from the International Tendering Co., Ltd.—a subsidiary of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation—came to report for inspection: "A batch of imported hot-rolled steel plates from Japan has arrived; we request prompt inspection. The left-bank power station site will soon be put into use."
According to the briefing, this batch of steel plates was mainly intended for fabricating the 12.4-meter-diameter water diversion penstocks, directly connected to the spiral case section of turbine units No. 7–14 on the left bank, and would be permanently embedded in the concrete dam body. An expert on the Three Gorges Project said, "This is the main artery feeding the heart of the Three Gorges Project, and it bears directly on the project's intrinsic quality—the owner attaches great importance to it at every level. In particular, it must withstand the enormous pressure of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of tons generated by the 39.3 billion cubic meters of water in the reservoir, so the four key technical requirements for the plate quality—yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, and impact toughness—are extremely demanding." To this end, at the beginning of the year the project owner used international tendering, through the Japanese exporter Mitsui & Co., to select the best of the best: low-alloy carbon structural steel plates produced by Sumitomo Metal Industries, a giant of Japan's steel manufacturing. The total contract volume reached 4,000 tons, worth over 1.7 million USD, with all of it required to arrive at the Three Gorges dam area in May and enter use in June. This first batch reported for inspection comprised 60 plates weighing 669.408 tons, valued at over 280,000 USD. Per the construction schedule, if the plates passed inspection they would immediately be shaped by a giant plate-bending machine into one-third arcs, then hoisted to the construction site and welded into the water diversion penstock passage.
The left-bank power station is the core project of the Three Gorges Phase II works. Its powerhouse base was poured in 1998, and it was expected to be completed and generate power in 2006. This year is the critical period for installing the turbine generator units of the left-bank station; any single day's delay could ripple through the interlocking chain of Three Gorges construction.
The next morning, Wang Chunlai reported the situation to Yu Liang, director of the Three Gorges Office of the Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, arrived early at the meeting place, and joined representatives from several units under the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation related to this import, the Northwest Hydraulic Design Institute (the supervision unit), and Sumitomo Metal on the Japanese side to discuss the inspection of the plates. Following Wang's recommendation, they settled on an inspection procedure, then went together to the plate storage site to draw samples.
Sampling inspection showed each plate was about 13.15 meters long, 1.72–2.03 meters wide, all 58 mm thick, averaging 11 tons each. The sampled plates met the contract requirements for dimensions and appearance quality.
On May 11, Wang, together with the project owner's side, cut 250×60 mm sample billets from the 5 plates and sent them to the State-owned Plant 403 laboratory for chemical composition and physical performance tests—a steel laboratory recognized by China's inspection and quarantine authority.
However, the test results were unexpected. The report showed that, among the four tested items—yield strength, tensile strength, elongation, and impact toughness—the impact toughness of specimens No. 1–4 fell short of the contract requirements and was far from the technical data provided in the Japanese side's certificate of conformity.
II
"Unqualified? Impossible!"
"Japan is the world's number-one steelmaking power; no country compares with it in variety, specification, or quality precision. How could there be a problem?"
"Look how detailed their in-plant inspection certificate is, listing the test data for every technical item. These results far exceed our contract requirements…"
"This is special steel. Could it be that our lab conditions failed to meet requirements, and that's why it tested unqualified?"…
Being the first to detect quality problems with the Japanese steel sparked all kinds of speculation and comment, placing enormous pressure on the inspection and quarantine staff at the Three Gorges Office. "To treat 'qualified' as unqualified would delay the Three Gorges construction schedule—the inspection and quarantine department could not bear that responsibility, and its own reputation would be ruined; to treat 'unqualified' as qualified, once a quality problem arose in the Three Gorges Project, the inspectors would become eternal sinners!"
Director Yu Liang of the Three Gorges Office and inspector Wang Chunlai put their heads together and decided to expand the sampling ratio for a second round of testing—adding 5 more plates to the original 5, and re-running the full four-item test, focusing on impact toughness and elongation.
From May 30 to June 6, Yu Liang led Wang in keeping watch at the laboratory day after day, organizing repeated, careful testing…
During the tests, they also invited the project owner's supervision unit to track and witness every step from sample preparation to testing, with full-process video recording—further proving that China's inspection and quarantine department conducted this steel inspection conscientiously, scientifically, and rigorously, and that the lab's processing conditions, personnel quality, technical standards, and testing methods all met the requirements and were fully capable of undertaking this non-sophisticated, routine experiment.
The second test report came out, showing the samples were still unqualified. They also found that many data points were not clustered in a relatively concentrated range but highly dispersed, further indicating that the overall plate quality was uneven. The inspectors at the Three Gorges Office again concluded the batch had quality problems. Yu Liang and Wang, without pausing to think further, quickly reported this major situation to the leadership of the Yichang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. After study, it was decided to immediately notify the project owner of the test results.
In accordance with Chinese inspection and quarantine requirements, the relevant side of the project owner gave a brief notice of the test results to Mitsui & Co. and Sumitomo Metal Industries on the Japanese side, asking them to send personnel to handle the matter as soon as possible.
Who would have thought the Japanese side would reply with an arrogant tone: "Impossible, impossible! We are a world-class, prestigious enterprise; such a quality problem could never occur. Your test data swings high and low—it is simply unbelievable!" In the end they stated they wanted to see China's inspection and quarantine official result certificate, otherwise they would not come to talk.
To be prudent, on June 13 Yu Liang and Wang rushed with the relevant materials and sample billets to the Hubei Provincial Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to give a special report. Bureau leaders instructed that the two problematic heats and 4 specimens be sent to the Wuhan Iron and Steel Research Institute for retesting of impact toughness and tensile properties. The results showed that 3 of the specimens still failed impact toughness!
One set of sample billets, two laboratories, three rounds of testing—all came back unqualified. There is no doubt the batch had quality defects.
On June 19, based on the three test results, the Three Gorges Office drafted a Quality Non-conformity Certificate numbered 420004100002808, which was reviewed and signed by the provincial bureau's competent deputy director, giving the Japanese side a clear and definitive answer.
III
After receiving the non-conformity certificate issued by China's official inspection and quarantine authority, the Japanese side seemed to sense trouble and quickly formed a large negotiation team, dispatching Mitsui & Co. headquarters representative Yuta Hiroyuki, Wuhan office head Kawashima Seiichiro, Sumitomo Metal Industries technical lead Onishi Kazushi, Shanghai office's Watanabe Taro, and other experts to Yichang for direct talks and negotiations.
On the morning of June 22, the Chinese and Japanese sides sat down face to face for the first time to negotiate the steel quality problem. As the third party in the talks, China's inspection and quarantine department first informed the Japanese side of the test results and gave a comprehensive, detailed account of the entire inspection process.
However, the Japanese side dismissed this, repeatedly interrupting the Chinese inspectors' remarks and aggressively questioning them again and again—now claiming the Chinese sampling was nonstandard, now that China's lab conditions were too crude, now that the test standards might be unscientific… All of it boiled down to one point: they doubted and could not accept the result. They also repeatedly emphasized that their steel had been produced strictly in accordance with the contract requirements.
Facing the Japanese side's unreasonable sophistry, our inspection and quarantine personnel did not back down, responding and refuting each point with composure, reason, and evidence…
The two sides each held their ground, neither yielding, trading blows back and forth. In the end, seeing that all its tricks could not overawe the Chinese, the Japanese side had no choice but to request a re-inspection from the Yichang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, and, together with the Three Gorges Office, conducted joint sampling on site with Mitsui and Sumitomo. This time, 12 plates were drawn from all heats (including the previous 10), and 300×85 mm sample billets were cut from them. The Japanese side also took the specimens from heats No. 2 and No. 9 back to Japan for testing.
At the Japanese side's request, the relevant parties began a review of the inspection results behind the certificate. Under the re-inspection procedures stipulated in the implementing regulations on commodity inspection, with guidance and help from the provincial bureau, the Yichang Bureau specially appointed Liu Zhongnan, director of the provincial bureau's Chemicals and Minerals Division, as head of the expert panel, with senior engineer Liu Dingfa and steel section chief Deng Fuqiang as members, to form a re-inspection expert group responsible for the re-inspection of this batch and the review of the certificate. After careful selection, the experts decided to send the sampled billets to the CCIBLAC laboratory of the Quality Inspection Center of the Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, accredited by the China Certification Committee for Import and Export Commodity Inspection.
Just as the expert group was preparing to start work in Wuhan, the "stay-behind" Japanese representatives Kawashima Seiichiro and Watanabe Taro, acting on headquarters' "instructions," made one improper demand after another: first, they insisted on choosing the laboratory in Wuhan themselves; after China refused, they asked to participate in the entire testing process, being present from sample billet processing to specimen testing.
The experts saw right through this Japanese "trick"—how could the re-inspection lab be swayed by Japan? This was a matter of principle touching right and wrong, and an expression of a nation's dignity and sovereignty in international trade. Director Liu Zhongnan stated sternly and righteously: "Our re-inspection is conducted lawfully in accordance with international practice and our national laws, on the principles of scientific fairness and seeking truth from facts. We will not take one side's word over the other, nor be influenced or controlled by any party. Since you entrusted us with the re-inspection, we have the right to select the laboratory as prescribed and to be responsible for the results. No fair appraisal institution in any country in international trade would accept or agree to these demands of yours."
These words left the Japanese representatives utterly embarrassed, and they raised no further "ideas."…
On July 4, the expert group's re-inspection report was formally faxed to the Yichang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau: "Entrusted by the parties, and in accordance with the provisions of the State Administration's 'Measures for the Re-inspection of Imported Commodities,' regarding the Quality Non-conformity Certificate No. 420004100002808 issued by the Three Gorges Office, and per contract TGT-TGP/EM200001JP, we reviewed the standards, methods, and procedures on which the inspection of this batch of imported steel was based, and find the entire inspection conforms to the contract requirements. For the 12 re-inspection samples jointly drawn by the Three Gorges Office and the Japanese side, the expert group formulated a test plan based on the contract-specified standards and decided the experiment would be conducted at the Wuhan Steel CCIBLAC laboratory. The expert group supervised the entire experiment; the procedure complied with the standards, and the test results are in the CCIBLAC laboratory report. Based on the report, the expert group holds that the test results of Certificate No. 420004100002808 are correct."
IV
The critical moment to lay all cards on the table with the Japanese side had arrived!
On July 12, the Chinese and Japanese sides gathered again at the Three Gorges dam area for the second round of negotiations. This time, the Japanese side sent a five-person negotiation team led by senior expert Nagayoshi Akihiko, chief of the heavy plate section at Sumitomo Metal's headquarters.
China first announced the re-inspection results to the Japanese side, then pressed them on key questions: why the quality problem occurred, how to explain their in-plant certificate of conformity, the responsibility Japan bore for the schedule delay of this Three Gorges project item, and how to promptly make due compensation to China and guarantee future supply quality.
This time, the Japanese side was like a different people from the previous round—not only friendly and polite to the Chinese, but showing unusual deference. In the end they stated very earnestly: "We are fully convinced by the re-inspection report of China's inspection and quarantine department!" They also admitted that, because they had adopted an immature "new" production process, deviations appeared in the steel quality, and went on to give a series of "explanations."
Later, China learned that its inspection and quarantine re-inspection results were highly consistent with the test results of the samples the Japanese side had taken back home.
After the meeting, the Japanese representative Nagayoshi Akihiko had no choice but to stand up and express heartfelt thanks to China's inspection and quarantine for all the work done in inspecting this batch; he offered a profound apology for the impact on the Three Gorges construction caused by their steel quality problem; he promised to replace in full the detected non-conforming heats; and for the remaining 14 plates from 2 heats where no quality problem had yet been found, he offered to assist China in inspecting them one by one, returning any that failed as well. For future supplies, they would absolutely guarantee steel quality. As for the losses caused to China, the Japanese side "will soon send personnel to discuss further and actively make compensation."
After the negotiations, per the outcome and at the request of both Chinese and Japanese sides, the inspection and quarantine personnel sampled and tested the plates from the other two heats one by one; the results still failed to meet the agreed acceptance ratio. Thus, the first batch of 60 plates sent by Sumitomo Metal of Japan was judged wholly non-conforming and processed as a full return.
All parties of the Three Gorges project owner highly commended the Chinese inspection and quarantine personnel for the rigorous, truth-seeking, fair, and scientific attitude they showed, and the spirit of daring to match skills and wits with a developed country, across the two-and-a-half-month inspection, certification, and negotiation of the imported penstock steel. Their dutiful, strict gatekeeping and the substantial work done to ensure the smooth construction of the Three Gorges Project and the quality of this great undertaking for millennia were also fully affirmed.
Speaking of this, Shen Shanliang, deputy director of the Plant and Dam Department of the Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, was full of praise: "We are so grateful to the comrades of China's inspection and quarantine! Thanks to their strict gatekeeping, the steel quality problem was found in time. Otherwise, if these plates had been used in the penstock, a major accident could have occurred!"
Then, just how severe could the possible accident have been?
The professor-level senior engineer then vividly described it to the reporter:
The water diversion penstock for the turbine generator units is designed for permanent use without repair, so the quality requirements for the steel plates are quite high. Because water surges down from a sluice over 110 meters high through the penstock like a landslide, at a flow of 1,020 cubic meters per second, generating a thunderous, enormous inertia with an impact force of hundreds of thousands of tons. This requires the penstock wall's compressive capacity to reach at least an extreme value of 1.75 MPa, and the absorbed impact energy to exceed 40 joules, to ensure the diversion conduit does not rupture. Otherwise, using plates with such severely substandard impact toughness, far from guaranteeing centuries or millennia without trouble, even a trial run could trigger a catastrophic penstock burst. If that truly happened, the accident would be disastrous and incalculable. For a burst penstock is like a pipe blowout—how could the two or three meters of concrete poured above the conduit withstand such titanic force? Moreover, closing the giant gate at the penstock intake inside the dam would take at least 3.5 minutes. In that very instant, the entire left-bank powerhouse and its 14 units would be destroyed; the direct loss from destroyed equipment and lives would reach billions, even tens of billions of yuan. Repair would take at least a year. In that time, the penstock would first have to be dug out and the powerhouse and units dismantled; repair and reconstruction would cost far more in manpower, material, and money than the original build, and would affect the national and regional economy. Because China's inspection and quarantine department held the "gate," the possibility of such a catastrophic accident was ruled out. They rendered great service to the Three Gorges construction, safeguarded the interests of the motherland and its people, and defended the dignity of the Chinese nation!
