Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) ordered an all-out effort to find 59 paramilitary police officers who were swept away when a typhoon hit the country's coast, though hope was fading that they would be found alive, state media reported yesterday.
Typhoon Longwang slammed into southeastern China late on Sunday night with winds of 119kph. It was downgraded on Monday to a tropical storm, but not before raining havoc on low-lying coastal areas.
The 59 paramilitary police officers, members of the armed forces in charge of domestic security, were in a training school barracks in Fujian Province when the violent floods hit Sunday night, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Two buildings at the Fuzhou Command School of Armed Police were washed away in a mudslide.
With rumors swirling that the death toll could be higher, local media at the scene said they had been instructed not to report the incident, with details only being released through Xinhua.
The school said none of the missing had been found but refused to comment further.
"We haven't received any instructions to release information on our relief work," said a staffer in the academy's head office.
Confirmed deaths -- not including the missing soldiers -- stood at 15, Fujian's anti-flood headquarters reported on its Web site.
Chinese authorities had evacuated more than 500,000 people from coastal areas ahead of the storm, forcing boats to return to harbor and closing tourist sites.
As Typhoon Longwang churned inland, it destroyed 5,400 homes in Fujian and wiped out 12,500 hectares of crops, Xinhua reported.
It was raining lightly in parts of Fujian yesterday, and top wind speeds had slowed to 72kph, the local weather bureau said.
State television said life was returning to normal in Fujian, and rail services out of Fuzhou had resumed.
Xinhua said 730,000 people in all had been evacuated to protect them from the 19th typhoon to hit China this year, in the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong.
Meanwhile, in the central province of Hubei, authorities evacuated about 24,000 people from along the banks of a tributary of the Yangtze River, in what Xinhua said was the worst flooding since 1981.
More heavy rain is expected to fall in the next two days in Hubei and the local government is on alert for further flooding along the Hanjiang River, Xinhua said in an overnight report seen yesterday.
"The flood is still under control though it still seems severe," Cai Qihua, deputy director of the Yangtze flood control headquarters, was quoted as saying.
There was no mention of any casualties.
The China Daily said three people have been killed by floods which have swept through central Shaanxi Province since late last month.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to