XI Jinping has summoned officials to devise a strategy to mitigate the effects of this year’s disastrous flooding. The flood has caused severe damage across the country with scores of people dead, massive damage inflicted on crops, homes and infrastructure, including in and around Beijing.
The state media reported that at least 90 rivers have risen well above warning levels while 24 had already overflowed their banks, threatening Northeastern China with flooding, including the Songilao Basin, north of the capital, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometres harbouring a population of almost 100 million. “As China is still in the main flood season, rainstorms, floods, typhoons and other disasters still occur frequently in many places across the country,” the Xinhua News Agency reported, surmising conclusions of Thursday’s meeting of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee presided over by President Xi.
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Xinhua added that participants “urged relevant localities and departments to always prioritise the safety of people's lives and property, and keep doing a good job in flood prevention and disaster relief.”
The meeting deemed reinstating dams and efficient use of disaster relief funds to “repair damaged infrastructure such as transport, communications and electricity, and restore farmland and agricultural facilities” extremely crucial. They further underlined that schools, hospitals and nursing homes must be soon restored alongside damaged housing, to ensure that the effected residents are able to return to their homes or move to new homes before winter.
Large parts of the central and eastern parts of the country were also affected this year, both in the semi-tropical south and the northern plains. Most of China is experiencing a particularly damp summer, with 142 people killed in floods in July and dozens more this month.
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Meteorologists had predicted thunderstorms, gales and hail to affect parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin in the north, along with Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian to the centre and southeast.
Residents have since been directed to seek shelter and reduce outdoor activities. The country witnessed a major dip in economic growtto 0.8 per cent, in June, down from 2.2 per cent in January-March, over the three months of catastrophic weather conditions. Equivalent to a 3.2 percent annual rate, marking it as China’s weakest in decades.
A survey registered a spike in unemployment among urban workers aged 16 to 24 to a record 21.3 percent. The statistics bureau stated that this week it would withhold updates to refine its measurement.
In a speech published by the party’s top theoretical journal, Qiushi, Xi assured that his party is trying to reverse the deepening economic slump, and urged the people to have patience and faith in them. This news broke hours after data showed consumer and factory weakening further in July despite official pledges to support struggling entrepreneurs. However, the government skipped an update on a politically sensitive spike in unemployment among young people.
