Deadly floods and blistering heat grip China in dual climate crisis

China is facing a dual weather crisis as torrential rain and a searing heatwave strain infrastructure and threaten lives.

In the wake of Danas, now downgraded from a typhoon, more tha 6,000 residents were evacuated from Yibin in Sichuan province following 14 hours of nonstop rainfall.

In nearby Zhaotong, more than 7,000 were displaced and five people reported missing after extreme rainfall overwhelmed the region. One county recorded nearly 228 millimeters of rain in a single day — the highest since 1958.

Meanwhile, China's coastal tech hubs in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces braced for up to 300 millimeters of rainfall. Emergency flood alerts were issued in key port cities like Fuzhou and Xiamen as authorities warned of flash floods caused by saturated rivers and urban overdevelopment.

Farther west, flash floods near Tibet’s Himalayan foothills forced hundreds to evacuate after a river burst its banks in Gyirong.

At the same time, a relentless heatwave continues to bake the $19 trillion economy’s northeast and central regions, including Shanghai, Wuhan, and Changsha.

Residents have been urged to stay indoors and hydrate as reports of heatstroke-related deaths rise. China, which does not officially publish national figures on heat-related fatalities, faced a record 79-day heatwave in 2022. A 2023 Lancet study estimated more than 50,000 people died from heat-related causes that year alone.

With climate change intensifying extreme weather patterns, experts warn the country’s ageing infrastructure and limited cooling resources could leave millions vulnerable to recurring disasters.

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