If you've spent any time on military meme subreddits or the more feral corners of 4chan, you might've seen a stealth bomber demanding to be fed the Three Gorges Dam like it's a hydroelectric sacrificial goat.

What sounds like a war crime dressed up as a shitpost is part of a long-running internet joke with real geopolitical roots. So why are people joking about one of the world’s largest dams getting B-2'd into oblivion, and how did it become a meme? Here's a meme history.

What's The Three Gorges Dam and Why is it Considered a Potential Military Target?

The Three Gorges Dam, completed in 2012 on China’s Yangtze River, is the largest hydroelectric power station on Earth, generating over 22,500 megawatts of electricity. Built to control flooding, aid navigation, and generate power, the dam came at a high cost: over 1.3 million people were displaced, and experts have warned of serious environmental risks, like landslides and ecosystem damage.

Given its size and role in China's infrastructure, the dam is occasionally floated as a theoretical target in wartime scenarios. In particular, it has been discussed as a potential pressure point in a hypothetical China–Taiwan conflict, and more recently, in U.S.–China tensions. Some military analysts have noted that destroying the dam could cripple China’s energy grid and cause massive flooding downstream. But others argue it's a strategically unsound move, and that attacking the dam could kill millions and provoke a nuclear retaliation.

When Did People Start Joking and Sharing Memes About the Three Gorges Dam?

The idea of attacking the dam started with doomer speculation on 4chan's /k/ board. One early post from May 16, 2016, mused about the feasibility of targeting the dam in a U.S.-China conflict.

Then came the B-2 Spirit. On July 20, 2022, a 4chan user famously posted "feed me the 3 gorges dam" alongside an image of the stealth bomber. The phrase stuck. A Redditor later screenshotted and posted it to /r/greentext on January 25, 2023, earning over 500 upvotes.

Meanwhile, Reddit's /r/NonCredibleDefense adopted the dam as a recurring bit. On January 10, 2022, user /u/Thotslayer4447 posted a meme about a rogue pilot bombing the dam, getting over 3,500 upvotes.

How credible is an unsanctioned raid on the 3 gorges dam? byu/Thotslayer4447 inNonCredibleDefense

What Set Off the Newest Round of Memes About the Three Gorges Dam?

In early April 2025, the U.S. and China ramped up a bitter new round of trade disputes, slapping each other with aggressive tariffs. When China didn’t cave to economic pressure, frustrated Twitter (okay, "X") users began reviving the Three Gorges Dam meme as a tongue-in-cheek "solution."

One tweet that went viral came from user @cimmerian_v on April 8, 2025, who posted a dramatic image of the dam, gathering over 8,000 likes in just three days.

Another X user, @Triggeredal, responded with a meta-critique: "a uniquely American culture trait is threatening the lives of millions of uninvolved innocent people because they don't get their way." That one blew up even more, with 29,000 likes in a day. But other internet users were unrelenting, and jokes about attacking the Three Gorges Dam continued apace on Twitter.

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For the full history of memes about Attacking the Three Gorges Dam, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.