China hit by worst rainstorm in a decade after heatwave

At least 20 people have died after Beijing and its surrounding areas suffered the worst torrential rain in more than a decade with four days of flooding.

More than 50,000 people were evacuated from their homes as roads were flooded and streets were blocked with mud, with Beijing’s western suburbs the hardest-hit.

Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, moved northwards along China’s eastern coast after it hit the southern province of Fujian last Friday. The storm, which measured almost 900km across, swept through the Philippines and Taiwan before crossing into mainland China, where it has weakened since the weekend.

After the storm reached Beijing on Saturday, the city got almost as much rainfall in 40 hours as it usually gets during the entire month of July. By Tuesday morning, the western suburbs of Mentougou and Fangshan had seen more than 40cm of rainfall, more than half of what they normally see in an entire year.

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President Xi Jinping on Tuesday ordered an all-out search-and-rescue operation to find those who are still missing or trapped by the floods.

“The affected individuals should be properly resettled, and the damaged infrastructure such as transportation, communication and electricity should be repaired as soon as possible so as to restore the regular production and living order,” he said, according to the official news agency Xinhua.

[ Thousands flee homes as remnants of Typhoon Doksuri lash China’s capital ]

[ Beijing airport flooded as China hit by extreme weather ]

As hundreds of flights were cancelled and rail and subway stations closed, more than 1,900 people were stranded on two trains outside Beijing. Amid Chinese media reports that some passengers had been without food for 30 hours, military helicopters delivered food, water and clothing.

The torrential rain and flooding follows a heatwave in northern China that saw temperatures rise above 40 degrees as the country reported more high-temperature days in July than in any single month for more than 60 years. Although Storm Doksuri is expected to weaken further in the coming days, China is already braced for the arrival on its east coast of another big storm, Typhoon Khanun, which battered the southwestern Japanese island of Okinawa on Tuesday.

The extreme weather events could affect China’s faltering economic recovery, which has disappointed expectations since the lifting of zero-Covid restrictions last December. Manufacturing activity shrank in July as new orders weakened, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

[ Typhoon Doksuri: Rain hits northern China as weaker storm rolls inland ]

The Caixin China General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reported the first contraction in manufacturing activity in three months. The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party signalled last month, after a meeting chaired by Mr Xi, the need for new policies to boost domestic demand and to help private businesses.

“At the moment, the economy is facing new difficulties and challenges − mainly insufficient domestic demand, difficulties in the operations of some enterprises, risks and hidden dangers in key areas, and a complex and severe external environment,” the official account of the meeting said.