. . .China’s 2020 will be as bad as anyone else’s.

Some have noted that the flooding isn’t just the dams, but also the cities.  Scores dead, thousands displaced, and billions in property damage.  China has the money to withstand the economic impact, but the worst may yet be to come.

The Yangtze River basin is also flooded, and that area accounts for 70% of the China’s domestic rice production.  It’s only mid-summer, and many farmers have already lost their entire crops.  If this continues, high food prices during a flagging economy means the poor will starve.  Or just as likely, Beijing will starve the Uygurs to death, saving food for ethnic Chinese people.  They’ve already committed dozens of crimes against humanity, what’s one more to them?

‘Everything is gone.’ Flooding in China ruins farmers and risks rising food prices

By this time of year, the rice growing on Bao Wentao’s family farm should have been ready to harvest.

Instead, heavy flooding has engulfed huge swathes of southern China, including more than 36 acres of rice fields that 19-year-old Bao and his father tend to in their village near Poyang Lake.

“The crops have completely failed,” Bao told CNN Business in an interview over the social media app WeChat, adding that his family has already lost roughly 200,000 yuan ($28,000) worth of produce. “The rice was nearly ripened and ready to harvest before the flooding. But now everything is gone.”

China has the money to withstand buying imported rice and food this year, but what about future years if this repeats?  Thailand and Vietnam are two if the ten largest rice growing countries in the world.  They’re capable of telling other countries, “sell it – or else”.  Or will China demand food exports from African nations heavily in debt to the PRC?

Misinformation and politics are fueling fears of a Chinese debt trap in Nigeria

The hottest debate in Africa’s largest economy over the past week has been the over possibility of “losing” its sovereignty to China over bad debts.

It has come amid a wave of claims by federal lawmakers who are pushing for a probe into China’s lending practices to Nigeria, in the wake of a sovereign guarantee clause in loan agreements that has been erroneously interpreted. The dominant and controversial narrative is that the clause could see Nigeria sign away its sovereignty in the event of a payment default. And the outcry has proven significant enough for China’s embassy in Nigeria’s capital to deny plans to seize Nigerian assets.

More below the fold.

Kinmen County is part of Taiwan’s archipeligo, a group islands 153 sq. km in size, only a few kilometres from the mainland city of Xiamen (3.5 million people).  Nearly 128,000 people live in Kinmen county, most on the two largest, Kinmen (7km from the mainland) and Lieyu (6km).

Because of their proximity to the PRC, Kinmen has repeatedly been the landing site of mainland defectors escaping to Taiwan. Unlike those escaping North Korea, they are unlikely to be shot trying to cross.  Ocean currents make it unlikely defectors will survive, and it’s not the same level of hostility.

In 2019, two Chinese men were arrested on Lieyu less than a week apart.  Both swam across the strait and landed on Lieyu.  They were arrested, and I have no further details on them.

On Sunday, August 9, another man was arrested on Lieyu.  The difference now is COVID-19 and Taiwan’s strict control on immigration.  I doubt he would be returned to his death in China, but the health and political risk he poses makes it unlikely he’ll leave police custody for months or years.

Chinese man swims seven hours to Taiwan’s Kinmen for freedom

A Chinese man claimed Sunday (Aug. 9) that he swam for seven hours from China to Taiwan’s offshore Kinmen County in pursuit of the country’s freedom and democracy.

As Taiwan braces for the impacts of the newly formed Tropical Storm Mekkhala, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said Monday (Aug. 10) that it had arrested a Chinese national for attempting to sneak into the country the day before. It said it received reports about a suspicious object floating in waters near Kinmen County Sunday morning and later identified it as a man from China’s Sichuan province.

According to the CGA, the 45-year-old man, surnamed Li (李), claimed that he had left the Chinese city of Xiamen around 3 a.m. Sunday and swam for seven hours before reaching Kinmen. He explained that he could not stand the political environment in China and decided to take a risk to travel to the much freer Taiwan.

Here’s a further report on the same story from The Week of India.