{"id":4853,"date":"2023-08-09T12:21:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4853"},"modified":"2023-08-09T12:21:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:21:04","slug":"why-chinese-cities-are-being-sacrificed-to-save-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=4853","title":{"rendered":"Why Chinese cities are being sacrificed to save Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20723%20481'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-4854\" style=\"width:723px;height:481px\" width=\"723\" height=\"481\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4854\" style=\"width:723px;height:481px\" width=\"723\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53.png 1011w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-770x513.png 770w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-293x195.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-120x80.png 120w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-240x160.png 240w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-53-390x260.png 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Bazhou and Zhuozhou, two small cities to the south of Beijing, have been submerged in record floods since late&nbsp;July, when Typhoon Doksuri swept through China\u2019s northeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly a million people have been displaced. But this is not just a natural disaster. The region has taken more than its fair share of floodwaters. All of this is a deliberate strategy to protect&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/thespectator.com\/category\/china\">Beijing<\/a>, the capital, and Xiong\u2019an New Area, a project dear to Xi Jinping\u2019s heart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents are understandably furious. On Monday, a group of Bazhou residents took to the local government building to demand compensation, for the second time in three days. The protesters were met with pepper spray and batons. Online, the provincial party secretary has been lambasted for boasting that his region would become a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.szhgh.com\/Article\/news\/resou\/2023-08-03\/332380.html\">\u201cmoat\u201d<\/a>&nbsp;for the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-sacrifice for the country\u2019s capital, a mega-city of 22 million people, makes sense when Bazhou and Zhuozhou are small by comparison (less than a million in population). But communication and compensation have become two major problems. Many local residents had no idea that they lived in the so-called \u201cflood storage areas.\u201d One Zhuozhou woman tells the Chinese media&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/weekly.caixin.com\/m\/2023-08-04\/102089911.html\">Caixin<\/a>&nbsp;that she was told to evacuate&nbsp;at 5:44 a.m., but by&nbsp;7:32 a.m., her family and some neighbors were trapped in the first floor of her house and had to be rescued by boat. State media initially blamed the floods on rains, but has since admitted that the cities were subjected to deliberate flood diversion. Few are reassured by the government\u2019s vague promises about compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worst still, the million displaced people are not only taking the hit for Beijing, but for a sparsely populated city under construction further downstream. Xi Jinping has described Xiong\u2019an New Area as \u201ca city of the future,\u201d with plans to build a mega-city that would alleviate some of Beijing\u2019s population pressure. Some government agencies and state-owned enterprises have already been mandated to move there. Yet it lies between the flooded cities and the largest lake in the region, which would historically take the excess floodwater. Today, diverting the waters into Lake Baiyangdian would mean flooding Xi\u2019s pet project. Needless to say, this step hasn\u2019t been taken yet. Wedged between Beijing and Xiong\u2019an, China\u2019s flooded cities are not going to recover any time soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/chinese-cities-sacrificed-save-beijing-bazhou-zhuozhou-floods\/\">https:\/\/thespectator.com\/topic\/chinese-cities-sacrificed-save-beijing-bazhou-zhuozhou-floods\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bazhou and Zhuozhou, two small cities to the south of Beijing, have been submerged in record floods since late&nbsp;July, when Typhoon Doksuri swept through China\u2019s northeast. Nearly a million people have been displaced. But this is not just a natural disaster. The region has taken more than its fair share of floodwaters. All of this is a deliberate strategy to protect&nbsp;Beijing, the capital, and Xiong\u2019an New Area, a project dear to Xi Jinping\u2019s heart.&nbsp; Residents are understandably furious. On Monday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4855,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4853\/revisions\/4855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}