Heavy rain and thunderstorms have been wreaking havoc across China, with floods along major rivers destroying bridges, blocking roads and railways and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate, state media reported yesterday.
State TV said 241 rivers in 24 provinces had flooded over the past few days, causing direct economic losses totaling 25.9 billion yuan (US$3.87 billion).
Weather authorities forecast more downpours throughout the country yesterday, with floods and landslides expected in southwestern Sichuan Province.
Heavy rain and flooding hits much of China this time every year, often with hundreds killed, but the number of casualties this year has been relatively low, at least in the early summer, with one province reporting 15 dead.
The Chinese National Meteorological Center said rainfall could exceed 8cm per hour in some regions yesterday.
It also warned of floods in the northeast and called on authorities to halt outdoor activities and watch out for collapsing structures.
The flood-prone Yangtze River, which runs from Yunnan Province in the southwest to Jiangsu Province and Shanghai on the east coast, has seen a massive increase in water volume, causing flooding in many of its tributaries and increasing the water volume in the giant Three Gorges reservoir close to record levels.
State-run Xinhua news agency on Friday reported that more than 10 highways in Sichuan were inaccessible as a result of flooding and a bridge across Sichuan’s Min River, a Yangtze tributary, had collapsed.
Floods in the province had caused damage totaling about 2.4 billion yuan by Thursday, said the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management, which had sent emergency relief teams to Sichuan and neighboring Gansu Province.
The nearby city of Chongqing had evacuated more than 80,000 residents by Friday, Xinhua said.
Heavy rain has also caused the Yellow River, which runs through northern China, to burst its banks, blocking a section of a railway line in northwest Shaanxi Province.
Gansu, also in the northwest, reported 15 people killed, four missing and more than 1 million affected by a week of heavy rain and flash floods, the official China News Service said yesterday.
The normally arid region of Inner Mongolia, which had suffered weeks of drought, also issued a flood warning on Friday.
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