Beijing: China is grappling with its worst floods in the past sixty years, forcing millions to flee to safer areas while those trapped in waterlogged regions are being evacuated. The torrential rains, which began in southern China, have now spread to other parts of the country, wreaking havoc on a massive scale.

In eastern China, recent rainstorms have led to the evacuation of at least 242,000 people, submerging vast tracts of land. As various provinces struggle to manage the crisis, a dam breach in Hunan province has caused significant flooding in central China. Adding to the calamity, a tornado swept through Shandong province, resulting in fatalities and disrupting daily life.

Authorities have declared a “wartime” emergency in response to the extreme weather events. Despite their efforts to rescue and aid affected residents, the government faces criticism for its handling of previous flood disasters in 2023 and 2022, where many people saw their homes submerged and crops destroyed. One Weibo user questioned, "I'd like to know, among all the people living in flood storage areas across the country, how many of them know they are living in such areas?"

This year, the Beijing government revised the Emergency Response Law, which has been seen as an attempt to restrict media coverage of natural disasters. Katja Drinhausen, head of the politics and society program at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, commented, "The stated purpose is to increase accuracy and objectivity of information, but the new law further monopolizes state control over information flows."

The severity of the floods has sparked public outrage over corruption and abuse of power by Communist Party officials. Social media is flooded with images of bridges, homes, and people being swept away. Although the exact death toll remains unclear, reports suggest it is in the double digits in almost every affected province.

Criticism has also been directed at authorities for allegedly opening floodgates without warning. A social media user, using the pen name Northrop Gundam, claimed, “The floodgates were opened secretly to release water. No matter how many people died, no official would care. So the exact number of people who died in this flood will always remain a mystery.”

The relentless downpour has led to highway collapses, landslides, and building collapses. In April, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management reported that over 5 million people had been affected by heavy rains and other natural disasters. The situation worsened as major rivers exceeded danger levels, and a dyke breach at Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake, led to the evacuation of 6,000 people.

In Anhui province, over 242,000 people were evacuated, with nearly a million affected by the flooding. Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces in the south are among the hardest hit, with 54,000 people evacuated in Guangdong alone. Thousands of homes, croplands, and roads have been damaged, rendering civic facilities non-functional. In Jiangxi, 1.56 million people remain affected.

Many provinces are now at risk of mountain torrents. Authorities have issued red alerts for mountain torrents and rainstorms in some eastern and southern regions, while two northwestern provinces are on orange alert. The China Meteorological Administration has warned of urban flooding, flash floods, landslides, mudslides, and other secondary disasters, posing a high risk of further severe weather conditions as water levels in the Yangtze and other rivers continue to rise.