China braces for stronger typhoons as climate risks mount

China’s storm death toll rose to 17 by July 8 as floods, tornadoes and a super typhoon threat hit multiple provinces at once. Hundreds were injured and tens of thousands were evacuated, while officials said dozens of rivers overflowed and a reservoir dam burst.

The sharpest pressure landed in the south. In Nanning, Guangxi, flooding killed at least two people on July 6, and a reservoir in Hengzhou breached after torrential rain, prompting Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region authorities to raise flood-control response to the highest level. Farther inland, two tornadoes tore through Hubei on July 6 and 7, killing at least 11 people, overturning cars and ripping roofs from buildings as winds reached 149 kph, or 93 mph.

That sequence has exposed the readiness gap China now faces. Bavi had already struck the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam before moving west-northwest toward Taiwan and China, and some trackers described it as a super typhoon with sustained winds around 215 kph to 250 kph. It was the second tropical cyclone to arrive in a week, a pace that leaves little time for provinces to recover before the next round of damage begins.

China’s National Climate Center forecast four to six typhoons in July in the northwestern Pacific and the South China Sea, with two to three likely to make landfall or affect China’s coastal areas. That is above the July average of 3.8 formations and 1.8 landfalls, and officials and researchers have linked the outlook to El Niño conditions, which can lift temperatures and intensify cyclones.

For China, the stakes reach well beyond the storm track. Repeated floods and windstorms can idle factories, cut transport links, destroy crops and damage urban housing, while also draining local emergency and recovery budgets. The effects can spread far beyond the immediate flood zone, as repairs to roads, bridges, power lines and apartment blocks ripple through supply chains and daily life in dense cities and rural counties alike.