About 10,000 people in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state staged a massive protest Thursday against the controversial Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam and recent calls by China for the suspended project to resume, RFA reported.

Kachin activists, leaders from Kachin political parties, religious leaders, local civil society groups, Buddhist monks, and residents of Waingmaw and Myitkyina townships marched in the state capital Myitkyina demanding the complete halt of the hydropower project.

The U.S. $3.6-billion dam was put on hold in 2011 because of widespread opposition to its environmental and social impacts, much to the dismay of China, which has since been pushing the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government to allow it resume.