Local Communist party official Ni Yuefeng’s comments about the city of Zhuozhou and other flood-hit areas near Beijing being used as a “moat for the capital” have sparked anger among Chinese social media users. Ni, the Communist party secretary for Hebei, a province that borders the capital on three sides, made the remarks after visiting flooded areas earlier this week. Typhoon Doksuri has ripped through north-east China, destroying homes and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
Zhuozhou, home to over 600,000 people, has been particularly hard hit, with more than a year’s worth of rainfall coming in just a week. The city has suffered from widespread damage, with cars and buses washed away, bridges destroyed, and power supplies knocked out. The torrential rain turned roads into rivers across the region, affecting more than 134,000 residents.
Ni’s comments, published on Zhuozhou’s official WeChat channel, have since been deleted, and discussion of the topic appears to be censored on Weibo. A related hashtag, ‘#Zhuozhou,#has garnered over 80 million views by Thursday, according to Bloomberg.
Flood detention basins are facilities designed to store flood waters and release them gradually, reducing the damage wreaked by huge downpours. Weather tracker: Typhoons Talim and Doksuri batter China.
Some social media users continued to make coded references to Ni’s comments, with one saying “Hebei is just being used by Beijing” and another terming the secretary’s words “really shameless”. Many online comments about Zhuozhou were deleted by China’s censors.
On Thursday, Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of the state tabloid the Global Times, wrote on Weibo that the description of Beijing’s surrounding areas as a moat “mostly refers to politics and security, meaning that the social stability around Beijing is conducive to the social governance of the capital”. He called on people to assume the “good intentions” of party cadres.
Flood-hit Zhuozhou as Typhoon Doksuri Devastates Northern ChinaAcross Hebei, over 1.2 million people have been relocated, including over 850,000 from flood storage areas. China’s flood control network prioritises the capital and big cities such as neighbouring Tianjin, meaning that flood waters are diverted to rural areas and smaller cities such as Zhuozhou.
There has also been criticism of comments made by Li Guoying, the minister of water resources, who said that relief efforts should ensure the safety of Beijing Daxing airport and Xiong’an New Area, as well as people in flood detention areas. “Why only secure these two areas?” asked Fang Shimin, a science writer based in the US.
Xiong’an is a new metropolis being built south of Beijing, which is seen as a pet project of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, to build a new economic hub in the region. China’s central government has allocated 44 million yuan (4.8 million pounds) for disaster relief in Beijing, Hebei, and Tianjin.
Beijing has also suffered its worst rainfall since records began 140 years ago, with the city recording 744.8mm (29.3 inches) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday, according to the Beijing Meteorological Bureau. At least 21 people have died, and thousands more were being moved from their homes on Friday as more life-threatening deluges were expected.
The capital is particularly vulnerable to floods due to its rapid urban development, which has resulted in a concrete sprawl of buildings and roads and dwindling green space, limiting the city’s ability to drain water effectively.