China Official's Call To Build Moat Around Beijing To Save Capital Angers Flood Victims: Report

Zhuozhou, a city of over 600,000 inhabitants, was one of the hardest affected, receiving more than a year's worth of rain in a week.

Rescuers on work in a flooded area in Shenyang, China. ( Image Source :Getty )

Chinese social media users were outraged after a local Communist Party official suggested that the city of Zhuozhou and other flood-prone places around Beijing be utilised as a "moat for the capital," The Guardian reported.  After touring flooded districts earlier this week, Ni Yuefeng, the Communist party secretary for Hebei, a province that surrounds the capital on three sides, made the remarks. Typhoon Doksuri blasted over north-east China, demolishing houses and causing hundreds of thousands to flee.

Zhuozhou, a city of over 600,000 inhabitants, was one of the hardest affected, receiving more than a year's worth of rain in a week. Over 134,00 Zhuozhou inhabitants have been impacted by the floods, which has swept away vehicles and buses, wrecked bridges, and cut off power supplies across the region as torrential rain transformed roadways into rivers.

Ni promised to use flood storage and detention zones to relieve strain on Beijing and "resolutely serve as a moat for the capital" in comments posted on Zhuozhou's official WeChat channel. The article was later removed, and discussion on the subject appears to be censored on Weibo. According to Bloomberg, a similar hashtag received more than 80 million views as of Thursday.

Flood detention basins are structures designed to retain flood waters and gradually release them, lessening the damage caused by heavy rains.

Some social media users kept making covert allusions to Ni's remarks. “Hebei is just being used by Beijing,” wrote one. “The secretary’s words are … really shameless,” wrote another.

Over 1.2 million people have been evacuated across Hebei, including over 850,000 from flood storage zones. Because China's flood control network prioritises the capital and large towns like adjoining Tianjin, flood waters are redirected to rural regions and smaller cities like Zhuozhou.

There has also been criticism of statements made by Li Guoying, the water resources minister, who stated that relief operations should safeguard the safety of Beijing Daxing airport and Xiong'an New Area, as well as individuals in flood detention zones. "Why secure only these two areas?" Fang Shimin, a scientific writer residing in the United States, tweeted about it. Xiong'an is a new city being created south of Beijing as a pet project of China's leader, Xi Jinping, to create a new economic hub in the region.