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‘The capital’s moat’: thousands forced from homes in China’s Hebei province to ease flooding in Beijing
- Hebei opens zones in low-lying areas to divert water from affecting downstream areas
- Residents have been relocated to temporary housing but it could be some time before they can return to their properties
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Yuanyue Dangin Beijing
More than 850,000 people in flood control zones in Hebei province have been told to move out of their homes as authorities open up areas along waterways to help drain record floodwaters in neighbouring Beijing.
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Hebei’s Emergency Management Department said it had activated seven flood storage zones, diverting 1.8 billion cubic metres of floodwater to “ease pressure on Beijing and Tianjin”.
Inspecting flood relief efforts in the city of Baoding and Xiongan New Area, Hebei Communist Party boss Ni Yuefeng said the province should “serve as the capital’s ‘moat’”.
The comment prompted criticism online, with one internet user saying: “Don’t Hebei’s own people need protection?”
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, was similarly critical.
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“We should not have the mindset of sacrificing anyone for the sake of protecting anyone, or treating one place as a moat for another,” he said on his Weibo account.
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