Disaster Everywhere in China: Scorching Heat 42°C, Raging Floods, and Spreading Epidemics

It's all covered in today's China Truths. China is in the throes of an unprecedented wave of disasters, as if nature had unleashed its collective fury. In the south, torrential rains have turned cities into seas, washing away homes, bridges and lives. In the north, fields are cracking under the scorching sun. Rivers and lakes are drying up, and livestock are dying of thirst. Areas that had just escaped the floods are now facing outbreaks of disease, dengue fever, bird flu and a mysterious virus that has overwhelmed hospitals. Not only the countryside, but also major cities are struggling, food supplies are disrupted and prices are skyrocketing. Farmers have lost their crops, workers have lost their jobs and millions have been forced to leave their hometowns in search of survival. Images of dead animals floating, thirsty children drinking murky water and patients crammed into hospital corridors have shocked the public on social media. Amidst the chaos, the government has repeatedly called for calm and unity. But the storm of natural disasters, droughts and epidemics continues to sweep across the land, leaving behind a weary and devastated nation. Nature is roaring and China is paying the price. Never before in modern history has there been such a succession of natural disasters, so fierce and so rapid. It is no longer a sporadic phenomenon, no longer a random anomaly, but a series of consecutive, violent and terrifying events. Is this merely global climate change? Or is it the final warning that heaven and earth are sending to a regime that has driven billions into a dead end? On the 4th of this month, floods struck several areas in Guangdong, including Heshan Peak in Jiaoqing City. Witnesses said many people were swept away and some died, though no official casualty figures have been released. Videos posted by netizens showed floodwaters rushing into the lobby of the Heshan Peak Hotel. Residents saw people swept away, including security guards in the parking lot, while others were electrocuted underwater. Locals reported that the water had reached the first floor and carried off all goods. One man filming said that just a month ago someone had drowned in this tunnel, leading the government to block it, but now water pouring down from the mountain had no outlet. His warehouse goods, worth over $1 million, were destroyed, leaving him on the brink of bankruptcy. That evening, heavy rain continued in the Duanzhou and Dinghu districts of Jiaoqing. The University of Industry and Commerce, Jiaoqing College and the Beiling Mountain and Dinghu Mountain areas were all flooded, creating a horrifying scene. According to QIM News, from 8 o'clock a.m. to 10 o'clock p.m. on the 4th, Jiaoqing suffered heavy downpours, with localized flooding that submerged Beiling Road in Duanzhou District and Xiangshan Road in Dinghu District. Many businesses along these roads were also underwater. At around 8.15 p.m., the low-lying section of Qijing Road from Daibin Village to Jiaoqing University in Beiling Mountain was deeply flooded, while the steep slope on Dinghu Mountain Road turned into torrents of muddy water. The city's Meteorological Bureau warned that Jiaoqing would continue to face heavy rain in the coming days, with water levels in the Shijiang River and Suijiang River expected to rise, raising the risk of flash floods, landslides and widespread inundation. On the same day, Songyue Bay in Huidong County, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, was also submerged. Residents said newly purchased cars were destroyed. According to local authorities, from 8 o'clock a.m. to 6 o'clock p.m. on the 4th, five hydrological stations in Huizhou recorded water levels above the warning mark, including the Yonghan River in Longmen County, the Beitang River in Boluo County, the Xie River, the Gongzhuang River and Donghu Lake, down in the Chiang Kai-shek High-Tech Park. On May 5th, shocking videos flooded Chinese social media. Dongguan City turned into a vast ocean overnight, cars disappeared beneath the water, shops were destroyed in just a few hours. The Meteorological Bureau revealed the culprit. Relentless downpours upstream pushed the Xie River to a terrifying 19.22 meters, still climbing toward a peak of 21.3 meters. That's well above the danger line, forcing authorities to issue the highest-level red alert. Local headlines summed it up, Guangdong has officially entered endless rain mode. Meanwhile in Shenzhen, residents were jolted awake by thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Streets became rivers, cars stranded, people scrambling in panic. By 4 a.m., the city raised its first red alert for heavy rain since Super Typhoon Mankut in 2018. Officials warned, prepare for flash floods, prepare for the worst. Guangxi Province was also drowning. On May 4th, sudden torrents pounded Teng County in Wuzhou City. Within 30 minutes, the water surged a full meter, trapping cars and people. One man smashed a car window with a hammer to pull three terrified passengers to safety. Locals said they had never in their lives witnessed rain like this. The forecast? Days of more heavy rain, with Nanning, Beihai, Qingzhou and Fangchenggang already under red alerts. Even Hong Kong couldn't escape. On May 5th, record-breaking rainfall forced the observatory to issue its fourth black rainstorm warning in just over a week. The city ground to a halt, schools closed, courts shut down, hospitals flooded. Over 350 millimeters of rain fell in a single day, the heaviest May rainfall since records began in 1884. The entire Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong, Guangdong, Macau, now faces a grim reality. Climate disasters are striking harder, more often, and with devastating force. While the south is drowning, central China is burning. In Henan, drought has crippled farmland. More than 3.2 million mu of land is barren. Farmers lining up at 3am just to get a bucket of well water under 41 degrees C's heat. Crops are failing everywhere. Corn grows tall but produces no grain. Peanuts wither before sprouting. Families lose hundreds of yuan per mu. Elders say they have never seen drought this severe in their lifetime. China today is trapped between fire and flood. Cities underwater, farmlands bone dry. A nation caught in extremes, with no relief in sight. According to the heat warning issued by the Central Meteorological Center on August 4th, some areas in southern north China, central south, Shaanxi, most of the Yellow Sea region, Jianghan, western Jianghuai, western and north-central Jiangnan, the Sichuan Basin, and the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang were expected to see temperatures of 30, 70, 40 degrees C's during the day. In parts of south-central Shaanxi, western Hubei, and the Sichuan Basin, highs could exceed 42 degrees C. Meanwhile, Guangxi province was suddenly hit by a violent storm, with wind gusts reaching force 12 sars and hail. Egg-sized hailstones even killed a village guard dog, and car repairs for hail damage took more than a month. Crops were ruined and roof tiles shattered. From August 1st to 6th, China experienced widespread extreme weather, with winds of force 12 or above in 23 provinces and cities. Wind speeds broke historical records at 64 national meteorological stations. Sandstorms swept across half the country, reaching as far south as Guangdong and Hainan. Inner Mongolia and northeast China were struck by rare blizzards, with snowfall reaching 10 to 34 centimeters. The south also endured thunderstorms, strong winds, and hail. Countless rare climatic events and extreme weather patterns occurred almost simultaneously in a very short time. In the words of the ancients, this was a manifestation of disasters and strange phenomena. They believed such events were warnings and reprimands sent from heaven. The Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu once said, all disasters and misfortunes originate from a country's mistakes. When a country has just erred, heaven sends down disasters as warnings. If people ignore them, heaven shows strange phenomena to instill fear. If they still refuse to repent, disasters will surely follow. Thus, natural disasters are essentially reprimands from heaven. If warnings are ignored, heaven will bring forth strange phenomena, events that defy natural laws to compel self-examination. This is heaven's severe criticism, for the root of all disasters lies in the mistakes of those in power. In modern China, this corresponds to the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. Its immoral policies have left people struggling to survive, degraded social morality, tightened thought control, and turned citizens into mere mineral people, resources to be exploited without mercy. During the three years of the pandemic, the CCP's draconian zero-COVID policy caused the economy to collapse, drove away foreign investment, pushed the wealthy to emigrate, and triggered the downfall of the real estate sector. Millions lost their jobs. Under the added pressure of the trade war, countless workers in the export industry were stripped of their livelihoods. As 2025 begins, warnings from heaven grow more frequent. Extreme and unusual weather events continue to unsettle the population. China now faces devastating floods. Even the capital Beijing, once thought the safest, has not been spared. Torrential rains lasting for days caused rivers around Beijing's suburbs to overflow, inundating neighborhoods, sweeping away cars, homes, and lives. From Mentugu and Fangshan to Yanqing and Shijingshan, everywhere was submerged in muddy water, concrete houses lost their foundations, and roads turned into raging rivers, shocking the world. The situation was especially severe in the Mentugu Mountains, where drought had weakened the soil and heavy rains triggered deadly landslides. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. We will keep reporting on the COVID surge in China, so don't forget to subscribe to our channel and turn on the notification bell to get the latest videos. And thank you for tuning in.