China on Thursday revealed the death toll from natural disasters, until this month considered a state secret, stood at 1,629 so far this year, with economic losses of more than $20 billion.
China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has been battered in recent weeks by typhoons, which have triggered floods and mudslides in eastern and southern provinces. Floods and drought are a fact of life for much of China, killing hundreds every summer.
China had evacuated about 13 million people in the path of natural disasters so far this year and direct economic losses stood at 163 billion yuan ($20.19 billion), the deputy director of the Disaster Relief Commission, Jia Zhibang, told Xinhua.
Xinhua said last week China had "declassified" the death toll from natural disasters, presenting the step as part of government efforts to improve transparency.
China has a long track record of imposing news blackouts on accidents and disasters as well as falsifying figures.
The deaths of 85,000 people in the central province of Henan in 1975, when dams burst during a typhoon, were revealed only in a book on China's worst disasters in the 20th century in 1998.
Comments
Comments are closed.