Southern China Hit by Record Flood, at Least 9 Dead | China in Focus

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Heavy rains are pooling in southern China, causing record high floods and killing at least nine people. Many are still missing, while local reports reveal the artificial factors may be adding to the disaster. From water to fire in other parts of China, deadly heat waves are scorching cities, with some rural areas seeing 90 percent of their crops wilted and shriveled. Green energy is high on President Joe Biden's campaign agenda, but is the climate-conscious pursuit forcing the United States military to rely even more on China's energy sector? And a new move to counter China's dominance in critical minerals, coming from the House Select China Committee, plus more on why American weapons depend on Chinese rare earths. The most severe flooding in decades, that's what residents in China told us, as swaths of southern China are submerged in floodwaters. The region's rainy season is now in full effect, and the death toll is rising, with many others reported missing. China's Guangdong province is enduring one of its worst floods on record. Chinese state media reported that as of Thursday, at least nine people had died in the city of Meizhou, another six were still missing. China has a history of manipulating death tolls when catastrophes hit, so the real number could be higher. Moving to another southern province called Guangxi, media reported that most of the urban area in the province's capital city, Guilin, is flooded. Videos from on-site show streets have turned into rivers, with floodwaters even overtaking cars. Reports also say most of the area lost power. Here's what the local residents told us. The entire urban area is basically flooded. There are several reservoirs in the city, and two large reservoirs released water a few days ago and yesterday. The rainfall this year has been particularly heavy. It hasn't been this severe in the past few years. We haven't seen such a situation in 20 years. I have a relative living in the city who told me that their car was submerged last night. According to media reports and witnesses, Chinese authorities have a history of manipulating water reservoirs, releasing excess water when it surpasses its maximum line and approaches its holding capacity. Guangxi residents posted online that local authorities again released floodwater without any warning ahead of time this year. They say it worsened the flood and caused huge losses for residents. Official documents show the city's waterline had risen significantly as of Wednesday night by over 160 yards. Heavy surges also halted trains. One eyewitness said passengers couldn't exit the station after disembarking from their train. Moderate to heavy rain is expected to start again on Friday and continue through Monday. Flooding isn't the only natural disaster hitting China now. Deadly heat waves are scorching cities on four continents and China is on the list. Extreme weather is plaguing China. Up north, a heat wave has ruined 90 percent of a farmer's crops. We can't make any money from this. It's all ruined. Liu said this is the driest year from the time she could remember. This year it hasn't rained even once in her province, China's eastern Shandong. She typically makes a little over $13,000 a year, but this summer she has lost 90 percent of that income to the heat wave. Zooming out, temperatures in two more northern provinces hit over 110 degrees Fahrenheit. These are China's wheat growing regions. New efforts to stem the flow of deadly drugs. American officials met their Chinese counterparts Thursday in Beijing to talk about how they can cooperate on countering opioids. The meeting comes after China arrested a fugitive that fled the U.S. The Justice Department accused him and 23 others of helping a Mexican cartel and laundering over 50 million dollars in drug sales in Los Angeles. Let's dive in. The U.S. has seen a surge in Chinese-run money exchange businesses that help Mexican cartels launder their drug sales. These Chinese businesses are faster and far cheaper than traditional money laundering operations. This comes as China and the U.S. are cracking down on drug flow between the two countries. A large number of the precursor chemicals for the fentanyl flooding the U.S. are made in China. Beijing suspended the law enforcement cooperation in 2022 following then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. The two sides resumed cooperation following President Biden's meeting with Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping in California last November. In light of that effort, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is announcing new sanctions on a Mexican drug cartel and a new advisory for banks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that her department had sanctioned eight people associated with the violent Mexican drug cartel. Yellen also made note that overdose deaths from fentanyl have increased in Georgia by more than 200 percent between 2019 and 2021. As part of President Biden's unity agenda, the Treasury Department is working with Mexico and China to stop the flow of illicit drugs going into the U.S. We're also engaging with our foreign partners. Last July, President Biden launched the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats that brings together more than 100 countries and 11 international organizations. Encounter narcotics is a focus in our bilateral relations, including with China, the key source Yellen said her agency issued new guidelines to banks. They aim to help banks monitor how drug cartels are laundering money from illicit fentanyl sales. Washington says the chemicals used to make the fentanyl found in the U.S. mostly come from China. Earlier this year, a U.S. congressional committee found that China was directly subsidizing production of these chemicals through tax rebates. Transitioning to renewable energy may weaken U.S. national security. That's according to a new report which highlights the need for energy security in the face of the Chinese regime's military threat. NTD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has the details. Securing a stable energy supply is of critical concern for U.S. national security. This comes in the face of mounting pressure from the Chinese Communist Party, and the threats may be exacerbated by the push for renewable energy. That's according to Brent Sadler, senior research fellow in naval warfare and advanced technology at the Allison Center for National Security for the Heritage Foundation. But those refineries have been encouraged to make investments, not for expanding capacity or building new refineries, but to actually retool themselves to process renewables or biofuels. But the clean energy comes with a cost, he says. The focus on shifting to renewables is more expensive, and there's less output. When we need more capacity, we're going in the opposite direction. And this may put us at a greater security risk in the face of the Chinese regime. If we actually have a stronger domestic production, and more importantly, a larger capacity to refine our own domestic crude oil, then we could be a lot more resilient to Chinese coercion on the open market. And certainly if we got into a war, we'd be a lot more resilient. He said more nuclear power plants would help back up the energy supply for the military. And Congress is on board. On Tuesday, the Senate sent a bipartisan bill to President Biden's desk. It speeds up the permitting process and provides incentives for building nuclear energy technology. If there's a disruption to supply or shipping of energy in the United States for crude oil to refineries, we have the nuclear power plants that are providing a much larger portion of our energy, electric energy, so we can still function. As the threat of the Chinese Communist Party continues to mount, it's clear that a secure energy reserve is vital for U.S. national security. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Jack Bradley, NTD News. Another step toward breaking China's hold on critical minerals. The House-elect China Committee is forming a working group to counter Beijing's dominance in the sector, which is essential to the global push for green energy. The working group would push legislation and raise awareness about the issue through committee events. They would also propose regulatory reforms and tax incentives to reduce U.S. dependence on China. Critical minerals include copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements. America needs these minerals for lithium-ion batteries and electric cars and its most powerful fighter jets. But Beijing holds the key to the supply chain. China having a lock pretty much on a lot of the market for green technologies, whether it's electric vehicles, wind turbines, wind magnets, solar panels. Up to 80 percent of the solar panels are being produced in China. China also manufactures about 90 percent of the so-called polysilicon for solar modules, refines over 50 percent of the world's lithium for lithium batteries, and is expanding that capacity. Two of Washington's most powerful weapons, the F-35 fighter jet and the Tomahawk missile, can't be made without rare earths. Night vision goggles, communication systems, GPS systems. So anything the military wants to do, there is a system that has rare earth components, and those rare earth components have to come from China. And if China is not willing to supply them, then rearming and restocking is impossible. China has weaponized its control of rare earth before. It halted rare earth exports to Japan in 2010 over a fishing dispute. Last year, Beijing said it will restrict exports of gallium and germanium, two rare minerals for making semiconductors. The move came after the U.S. limited Beijing's access to advanced chips. Top U.S. automakers urged to take the next off-ramp from the Chinese car market. In his annual car wars presentation, analyst John Murphy called on the Detroit 3 to exit China as soon as they possibly can. Those top car makers are Ford, GM and Stellantis. Murphy noted that foreign automakers are struggling to compete with Chinese automakers on their home turf, and that buyers are becoming increasingly loyal to homegrown brands. To find out why Murphy is warning top U.S. car makers to leave China, Don Ma with NTD Business Matters spoke to the editor of Highlight News, Paul Eisenstein. Take a look. So I understand you were at the event sponsored by the Automotive Press Association. So I want to ask you, what's Murphy's argument here where he says that the big three automakers should exit China? Well, John Murphy is probably one of the best known automotive analysts in the United States. And for many years, of course, he was recommending that manufacturers invest heavily in China. He's reversed that position, particularly for the big three. And there are a couple of reasons why he feels that it no longer makes sense for the Detroit manufacturers to be there. The first reason is basically that it is no longer the profit center that it used to be because of the rise of domestic Chinese brands. And is he saying, John Murphy, is he saying that they should exit as soon as they can? He seems to be taking the position that their end goal is to just phase out of China. Would I see the automakers simply shutting down their operations tomorrow? No. And I don't think that's what he's he's stating. He's basically saying that for a variety of reasons, some of them, as I say, is that they're getting new competition or stronger competition from Chinese domestic brands. But the Detroit automakers are also getting caught up in outside forces, if you will, as the United States and China continue to have increasing trade friction. His concern is that they could become, well, you might call it collateral damage, that whether it be because of actions taken by the Chinese government to put new tariffs on, new restrictions on U.S. brands, or simply because of Chinese consumers perhaps looking negatively towards American brands, that they're going to continue to lose market share. They're going to continue to see their profits drop if they pull out. And there's no guarantee that the Detroit manufacturers or any other manufacturer will take Murphy's advice, though he is taken very seriously by the auto industry. If they pull out, if they do take his advice, I don't see them going back in long term. All right. Maybe one more thing here. President Biden announcing tariffs on Chinese EVs, increasing to 100 percent from the previous 25 percent. What are the Detroit automakers thinking about this? I would say that two of the three support this. General Motors and Ford generally appear to be strongly supporting the idea of tariffs on Chinese products. Interestingly enough, Stellantis, which is really a Euro-American manufacturer, their CEO, Carlos Tavares, and I spoke just about a week ago, and he told me that they basically do not support tariffs. They see that as a short term solution and one that could backfire. Now, there's a reason why Stellantis may not like tariffs, because they have a 51 percent stake in Leap Motors international operations. And Leap Motors is, as you know, a very fast growing Chinese EV manufacturer. Therefore, they're hoping that this investment in Leap Motors pays off. And if there are new tariffs here in the U.S., new tariffs in Europe and possibly other markets, that could really devalue all the money they spent. All right. Great discussion today, Paul. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. Now we turn to the European car market. Beijing is talking about hiking tariffs on gasoline-powered cars imported from Europe. The move is seen as retaliation for the European Union's proposed tariffs on exports of Chinese-made EVs. The news was reported by the Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times. It says European and Chinese carmakers both attended a closed-door meeting organized by China's Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday. Industry insiders say both Europe and China have reasons for wanting to strike a deal in the months ahead to de-escalate tensions. If the deal gets realized, it could prevent billions of dollars in costs for Chinese EV makers. Europe is concerned that China could flood the bloc with cheap goods, including electric vehicles. Chinese firms are looking to boost sales overseas due to weak demand at home. But it's getting more difficult as the European Union found that Chinese EVs were benefiting from unfair subsidies and launched an investigation. Chinese EV makers were surveyed about the investigation. More than 70 percent said their sales dipped in Europe because of the investigation. That's all for today's China InFocus on YouTube. We're now sharing a shortened version of our program here after being demonetized for three years. If you'd like to support us, consider donating. Find us at donorbox.org slash china-in-focus. Or subscribe to our partner platform Epic TV, where you can watch our full episodes. Just click the link down below. Here's what to look out for in our second half. An unusual phenomenon inside China. Despite patients overwhelming Chinese hospitals, a few doctors told NTD that they are being forced to take pay cuts. And tech giants are getting more alert to intellectual property theft. American tech companies are boosting their vetting process for current workers and potential hires. More on that after the break, here on China InFocus. Thanks for watching China InFocus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. See you tomorrow.