 After the 1949 Communist takeover , Mao Zedong supported the project , but began the Gezhouba Dam project nearby first , and economic problems including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution slowed progress . After the 1954 Yangtze River Floods , in 1956 , Mao Zedong authored " Swimming " , a poem about his fascination with a dam on the Yangtze River . In 1958 , after the Hundred Flowers Campaign , some engineers who spoke out against the project were imprisoned . 
