If the predictions about the loss of food production are accurate, it's heartbreaking, on a North Korea-times-several-thousand scale.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo: The US and Canada are the logical sources for the crop foods China needs; they can be bought elsewhere but if people know China's frozen out of buying in North America then the prices China will pay for grain will be up in nosebleed territory for at least a couple of years.

Grain and veg, they'll start squeezing those African nations who agreed to their loan/infrastructure deals. Most of the nations around East Africa, from Egypt down to Kenya are close to defaulting on their loans. China will start leveraging those countries to start supplying their agriculture needs.

Pork and poultry production will be significantly affected with all this flooding as the areas East/South of Wuhan has a lot of livestock farms. China already bans American beef import, not sure about Canada/Mexico. Much of their beef is now coming in from Australia, little AUS flags on each package.

quote:

Most of the nations around East Africa, from Egypt down to Kenya are close to defaulting on their loans. China will start leveraging those countries to start supplying their agriculture needs.

They may decide to just go ahead and default if international prices are high enough. If not, Trump oughtta give 'em a quick seminar - if China's feeling the squeeze, why wouldn't they negotiate repayment of the loans that reflects the actual value of the products they're shipping? If Chinese demand has raised global prices, then each box of produce they ship to China should logically cancel a greater proportion of the debt than would be the case if the floods hadn't happened.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
If the PRC has fewer markets it can buy in, then it'll pay more because only a fraction of the global market is open to it.

Maybe I'm not up to speed, but what markets are closed to Chinese buyers? My understanding is there is a Phase 1 agreement for them to buy a lot of US farm products and it's still in effect. My google fu over the last month shows them buying a lot of US farm products. Chinese Imports

You seem to be implying the US and/or other countries are restricting sales to China, or the Chinese are boycotting US producers. I don't see evidence of that, yet.

China floods affect 54.8 million people, inflict US$20 billion in losses

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3976456

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The massive floods which have ravaged China over the past two months have inflicted a heavy toll on the communist country in terms of damages to property and direct economic losses, with the vaunted Three Gorges Dam seeming to have done little to reduce these effects and the death toll remaining suspiciously low.

After two months of torrential rains and tremendous flooding across the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Huai River, China's state-run media mouthpiece Xinhua on Wednesday (July 29) cited the Ministry of Emergency Management as saying that the "rain-triggered floods" have affected 54.8 million people in 27 provincial-level regions as of Tuesday (July 28). Despite the vast scale of the disaster across China over two months, the government is reporting a miraculously low 158 dead or missing.

Xinhua says that 3.76 million people have been evacuated from flood-ravaged areas. Amid the onslaught, 41,000 homes have collapsed and 368,000 have been damaged.

A total of 5.283 hectares of farmland has been damaged and direct economic losses have climbed to 144.43 billion Chinese yuan (about 20.66 billion U.S. dollars). Compared with the average over the same period in the past five years, the number of people affected by floods this year has increased by 23.4 percent, the number of evacuations has increased by 36.7 percent, and direct economic losses have increased by 13.8%.

Suspiciously, the number of dead and missing persons has decreased by 53.9 percent and the number of collapsed houses has dropped by 68.4 percent. Given that this year's floods have not only surpassed anything seen in the past five years but also since 1998 and beyond, it is odd that the number of deaths and collapsed homes would actually decrease, possibly indicating undercounting by officials.

Although it is predicted that the heavy rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will ease on Wednesday, the official Weibo page of China's Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) stated that the government has decided to maintain the secondary flood control response on the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers as well as required key areas to the north so as to strengthen the implementation of flood prevention.

On Sunday (July 26), China's state-run mouthpiece Xinhua announced that the "No. 3 Flood" of the year had been declared for the embattled Three Gorges Dam that day. By 2 p.m., the dam's reservoir recorded an inflow of 50,000 cubic meters per second, and it is expected to peak at 60,000 cubic meters per second by Tuesday, according to China's Ministry of Water Resources.

By 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the flood passed through the Three Gorges Reservoir area and was advancing to the middle and lower reaches. The main channel of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was still maintaining a high water level.

Although the water level of the main channel of the middle and upper reaches of the Huai River is slowly decreasing, it has exceeded the warning level for an extended period of time. As of Wednesday, the water level of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River below the city of Shishou in Hubei Province and the Poyang and Dongting Lakes continues to exceed the warning level.

It is expected that heavy rains and floods may occur in the Yellow River basin at any time after the rain belt moves north on Wednesday. According to The Beijing News, after the rain belt moves north on Wednesday, heavy rainfall will occur in the Huanghuai region, North China, and Northeast China, and heavy floods may occur in the Hai River, Yellow River, and Songliao rivers.

quote:

Suspiciously, the number of dead and missing persons has decreased by 53.9 percent and the number of collapsed houses has dropped by 68.4 percent. Given that this year's floods have not only surpassed anything seen in the past five years but also since 1998 and beyond, it is odd that the number of deaths and collapsed homes would actually decrease, possibly indicating undercounting by officials.

Ya' think...

I was at the Yangtze river in the '90s. it was too thick to drink thru a straw and too thin to walk on. Heavily polluted.and that was 25 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
I was at the Yangtze river in the '90s. it was too thick to drink thru a straw and too thin to walk on. Heavily polluted.and that was 25 years ago.

Yeah I didn't realize that one of the biggest issues they have with the dams, as far as water outlet is concerned, is that the outlets fill up with garbage, and rocks, and trees, and cars, and furniture.

Even when it's not being inundated with flood water.

Cripes!

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
I was at the Yangtze river in the '90s. it was too thick to drink thru a straw and too thin to walk on. Heavily polluted.and that was 25 years ago.

Yeah I didn't realize that one of the biggest issues they have with the dams, as far as water outlet is concerned, is that the outlets fill up with garbage, and rocks, and trees, and cars, and furniture.

Even when it's not being inundated with flood water.

Cripes!

All along the way garbage is dumped in this river. The stuff that floats by is incredible, not to mention all the dead waterlife floating.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
All along the way garbage is dumped in this river. The stuff that floats by is incredible, not to mention all the dead waterlife floating.

So how does the CCP clear all of the garbage and larger objects that are lodged in front of the intakes on a dam the size of the Three Gorges dam? Considering the amount of water contained in the reservoir, as well as the currents, how do you just pluck cars and furniture out of the water?

Veeper here is how they do it on the smaller ones start at 1:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka-Uq1grZ0A

The not-so-funny thing is that backhoe clearing the bridge by scooping up the crap and dropping on the other side of the bridge.

Now it's an issue for the next bridge.

I just can't fathom the size of some of those dams and what it would take to clear that stuff out. I think one of the videos from yesterday or the day before had a back-hoe falling into one of the deluges too. (It was a levee or riverbank though I think.)

Aerial photo taken on July 31, 2020 shows floodwater being discharged from the Three Gorges Dam in central China's Hubei Province. The third flood of China's Yangtze River this year has smoothly passed the Three Gorges Dam on Wednesday as the water-inflow rate into the reservoir has decreased to 34,000 cubic meters per second. (Xinhua/Du Huaju)

http://www.xinhuanet.com/engli...31/c_139255259_3.htm

So in 3 days the inflow dropped by half? Bullshit!

5th major flood to hit Three Gorges Dam this year.


Three Gorges dam facing most severe floods since it was built, China

August 19, 2020

https://watchers.news/2020/08/...-it-was-built-china/


Authorities in China's Hubei province say the Three Gorges Dam is facing the most severe floods since it was built.

By August 20, the Three Gorges Dam in central China’s Hubei Province is expected to see the most severe round of floods since it was completed in 2003, Chinese authorities said.

According to a forecast by the Changjiang Water Resources Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, the inbound flow of water is expected to reach more than 74 000 cubic meters per second after continuous heavy rain battered the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River, China's longest waterway, recorded the fifth flood of the year in its upper reaches on Monday, August 17, Xinhua reports.

In addition, Chongqing municipality, which is located along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, upgraded its flood-control response to Level I on Tuesday, the highest rung in the four-tier emergency response system for floods.

The upcoming flood is expected to hit the city proper of Chongqing through Thursday, according to the municipal water resources authorities.

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China.

It's the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22 500 MW) since 2012.

In 2018, the dam generated 101.6 terawatt-hours (TWh), breaking its previous record, but was still slightly lower than the Itaipú Dam, which had set the world record in 2016 after producing 103.1 TWh.


Sichuan activates the highest level of flood control response for the first time on record.

https://watchers.news/2020/08/...ime-on-record-china/



The Chinese province of Sichuan, located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, has activated the highest level of flood control response for the first time on record on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, as rain-induced floods continue ravaging parts of the province. Meanwhile, the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei is facing the most severe floods since it was built in 2003 and the Tropical Storm "Higos" made landfall in Guangdong.

The Sichuan province is experiencing a new round of rain since August 10, prompting authorities to issue an orange rainstorm warning on two consecutive days for the first time this year. More than 200 000 people were forced to evacuate by August 19.

The rains intensified on August 15, with Mianzhu in Deyang recording 302.6 mm (11.9 inches) in 24 hours to August 16. During the same period, Beichuan in Mianyang City recorded 266.6 mm (10.5 inches) and Longquanyi District in Chengdu 264.3 mm (10.4 inches).

By August 19, 41 rivers in the province exceeded the warning level, with 22 of them exceeding the so-called safe level, currently set at twice the level of floodwaters seen during the flood season last year.