Relentless rains were swelling rivers to record levels in south and central China yesterday as the nation braced for more flood-related disasters that have already taken the lives of 235 people.
Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei (陳雷) warned regional officials that their jobs were at stake if they failed to protect people from the effects of the deluge, his ministry said on its Web site.
Workers and soldiers in central China’s Hunan Province meanwhile scrambled to shore up dykes as waters reached record levels along the Xiang river as it passed through Changsha city, where over six million people live.
PHOTO: AFP
After water levels on the Xiang surpassed danger marks by 2.5m on Friday — the highest in a decade — flood prevention experts were bracing for “historic highs” in the coming days, China National Radio reported.
In the heart of Changsha, Zhuzizhou island, a famed tourist spot immortalized in a poem by revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was largely submerged by the swollen Xiang, it said.
Television footage showed small towns and rural areas upriver from Changsha deluged with water as residents evacuated low-lying areas and scrambled to higher ground carting food and other supplies.
At least 235 people have died and 109 have been reported missing in flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rains that have pounded south and central China since June 13, the civil affairs ministry said.
The rains have caused 53 billion yuan (US7.8 billion) in economic losses, with over three million people forced to evacuate, it said.
According to the national meteorological center, rains continued to fall yesterday on the hard-hit provinces and regions of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was