My Take | We still don’t have the full picture about the latest Beijing floods
Two years after the last heavy flooding hit the Chinese capital, familiar complaints about a lack of information are once again emerging
In the past week at least 40 people have died – 30 of them in the capital – and tens of thousands have been displaced, according to reports by state media.
Flooding has grown increasingly frequent in recent years across China’s typically arid north – a problem intensified by worsening global warming, which some Chinese meteorologists have described as nature’s “revenge” on humanity.
Climate change has clearly intensified the monsoon rains that have wreaked havoc nationwide – from coastal tech hubs to inland regions and the south of the country – submerging towns and farmland across large areas of the country.
Although it has been raining heavily in the region for almost a week, the public did not learn of the “heavy casualties and property losses” that had occurred in Beijing, as well as the provinces of Hebei, Jilin, and Shandong, until the state news agency Xinhua issued a bulletin on Monday night that cited President Xi Jinping’s instructions on tackling the floods.