What propaganda? Can you be specific please.
Days of heavy rain have caused severe flooding in China’s leading grain-producing region in the northeast, killing 14 people and raising concerns about food security as floodwater inundated farmlands.

25 rivers flooding during tsunami season seems reasonably likely. Is there a conspiracy theory I’m missing?

@Forever_Free – it’s the CCP, there’s always propaganda. Let’s start with the notion that only 14 people were killed. When you see the videos of the bridges collapsing, cars washed away, villages inundated and sinkholes swallowing buildings, not to mention the flooding through the capital city you don’t seem to be aware of, it would seem like the numbers must be much higher.

@KNOWITALL – the Chinese communist party IS a conspiracy. They always downplay things, from their expulsion of foreign aid, to physically blocking the views of infrastructure collapse.

Plus mulriple ‘officials’ died. And theyre dicerting water away from Beijing and flooding villages instead. All that’s true.

They have such a huge population that the absence of a couple of dozen (or even a couple of hundred) people killed by the floods won’t be noticed.

They (the Chinese government) kill or imprison hundred of Ughyurs every month. I don’t see theme shedding too many tears for some Pekingites.

^Harsh

^but true

If by “bad” you mean the death rate then it may go up when the floodwaters clear but there is no reason to think the figures are inaccurate. Extreme weather has caused trillions of dollars of economic damage in the last half century but the human death toll has fallen dramatically due to better early warning systems and better disaster management particularly in developing countries.

China’s struggling economy and plummeting property prices are a bigger cause of concern.

I believe deaths from the floods are more likely over 100. @Smashley is correct…they always downplay anything that might make them look bad.

I knew nothing about it. I haven’t been watching much news.

Oh, I get it now. Are you following the floods.
Yes, In a boat!

I’m NOT following the floods. The only thing I’ve seen so far is when a sinkhole opened up & swallowed an SUV. I find my mental health to be much better when I avoid watching the nightly news. The sinkhole story came up in a news feed & I watched it or I wouldn’t have heard that much.

During my lifetime, China has ALWAYS lied & downplayed, so I tend to IGNORE their propaganda…even when it’s the truth. Their population is so large & their leaders so corrupt that nobody seems to care including the citizens who expect NOTHING from their government. A building collapses & their government does NOTHING. It’s the people who rush in to try & save their neighbors & family. With ALL the propaganda going on in the US, I don’t have any desire to add China to my worries. I can’t fix the problems here & I sure can’t fix them in China!!!

@JLeslie – Honestly I haven’t seen much coverage at all on the news, even though it’s the worst flooding in basically forever.

@flutherother – “bad” does mean death count, but it also means property and crop destruction, making an already desperate situation that much worse. I suppose I was also wondering if anyone thought there might be repercussions for the party, or if not, then what would it take? How much mismanagement can even an authoritarian system sustain?

@LadyMarissa – well at this point it IS the people trying to save things, while the government actively breaches floodwalls and ineptly blocks rescuers who lack the appropriate documentation. I think you might find your own sense of satisfaction with the imperfect but robust systems we have in developed democracies, would be buoyed by bearing witness to how bad it can get in countries under governments of zero accountability.

I think you might find your own sense of satisfaction with the imperfect but robust systems we have in developed democracies, would be buoyed by bearing witness to how bad it can get in countries under governments of zero accountability.

I HAVE witnessed how bad it can get in countries with zero accountability & that is WHY I’m feeling the NEED to fight for my OWN country as it appears to be free falling into the abyss!!! I feel a LOT of sadness for the people of China, but it is impossible for me to fix what ails them & I feel I need to concentrate on my homeland!!!

I’ve been worrying about the starving kids in China or the political prisoners in China ALL my life & haven’t even made a dent in their problems. I can only deal with so much stress & the stress of my OWN country is just about ALL I have left at this point in my life!!!

@LadyMarissa – fair enough

@smudges – I think you’re being fairly optimistic on that number, actually, and I’m only talking about direct deaths. The economic devastation will kill far more.

@Smashley Oh I agree, but since I really can’t predict whether the deaths will be in the 500s, 1000s or even more, I stuck to being conservative. ;)