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Having largely controlled the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese leaders are now dealing with a wave of crippling floods that has killed many and displaced millions in the central and southwestern regions of the country.
Flooding on the Yangtze River peaked this week in Sichuan Province and the s expansive city of Chongqing, while the Three Gorges Dam, 280 miles downstream, peaked since it began retaining water in 2003.
This year’s floods spread not as an herbal singles disaster, with massive loss of life and property, but as a slow and ruthless series of smaller ones, the combined number of which has continued to increase even as official reports have focused on government aid efforts. .
“The Chinese country has fought herbal errors for thousands of years, gaining valuable experience,” country leader Xi Jinping said Tuesday after a stopover in Anhui, another province flooded downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. to keep fighting. “
Xi called China’s crisis relief efforts “a practical verification of our army’s leadership and command system. “He spoke to relatives of three other people who died in the fight against the floods and on Wednesday spoke to officials from the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police. who participated in the relief efforts.
Public appearances in flood-affected spaces in Xi and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang underlined the severity of the crisis, which struck another blow to an economy still suffering from the pandemic.
Li traveled to Chongqing, where the Yangtze River overflowed for the fifth time this year and on Thursday afternoon surpassed the historic peak reached in 1981. Leaders have tried to reassure others that the government is doing everything possible, but some possibly would. has doubts.
“I believe that the Chinese public will deal with grass-based and man-made disasters, and even China’s style of government and its effectiveness,” said Wu Qiang, an independent political analyst in Beijing.
A resident of Chongqing, in a video of the floods that circulated on a social media platform, said, “The losses have been great for many companies, battling the pandemic in the first part and flooding in the part of the moment. “
Flooding had already caused at least $26 billion in economic losses this week. At a briefing in Beijing last week, Zhou Xuewen, general secretary of China’s flood headquarters, said at least 63 million other people were affected and 54,000 homes destroyed. at least 219 other people have died or disappeared, he said.
In Sichuan on Friday, a landslide caused by heavy rains killed at least six other people in a village near Ya’an, while another in the same domain left five other people missing.
Heavy rains are general in southern China during the summer, but this year has fallen stronger and longer than usual, flooding crops and entire communities over the next two months. Perhaps not by chance, Xi announced a crusade against food waste in the context of flooding, although officials insisted that there was no food crisis imminent.
This year’s heavy rains have revived the debate over the Three Gorges Dam, a task introduced in 1994 that forced the displacement of more than one million people, flooded entire communities and severely breached the surrounding environment.
The flow of water in the reservoir of the dam reached 75 million liters consistent with the second, beating the record of 61 million liters set last month, according to a report by the Ministry of Water Resources. Maximum capacity.
Since the flooding began in June, officials have continually relied on the dam to deal with what has been called flooding once a century. Some state media went further, claiming that the dam had almost in fact prevented even worse flooding in downstream cities, adding Wuhan, where the COVID-19 pandemic began.
On Friday, authorities said the flow into the Three Gorges dam had decreased some bit and they remained on alert.
“The tension of flooding in the middle and the decline of the Yangtze River has been reduced,” state news firm Xinhua said.
China’s other main waterway, the Yellow River, also experienced more flooding. The Ministry of Water Resources said in a statement that in Shaanxi Province on Friday, the river had reached the highest point since 1997. Nearly 700 smaller rivers and tributaries also flooded. the old dams and.
Flooding has threatened some of the country’s most prominent landmarks. In Sichuan, flooding rose at the base of the giant Leshan Buddha, a 1,200-year-old sculpture carved into the MOUNTAIN that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In Kong, flooding devastated Ciqikou, an ancient commercial port by the river near where the Jialing River merges with the Yangtze River. Xinhua reported that the waters reached the third floor of some buildings on the steep bank of the river. overwhelm vast expanses of the city’s coastline, adding Hongyadong, an 11-story design that is a popular tourist destination.
The layout is closed since Tuesday and they are cleaning the mud, which has reached its lowest levels.
“The pop-up water is too scary,” local manager Zhang said on Friday. “Humanity is insignificant in the face of catastrophe. “
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