Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.
In the past several days, some parts in China have experienced “once in a thousand years” heavy rainfall, and terrible videos and images have been circulated on the internet. Contrary to these, is how quiet, how “positive” the CCP’s media, as well as some mainstream media in the West have been about this. Today I have to tell you about the contrast. Again, the content and videos you are going to see are unique to me, and you won’t see these in any of the so-called the mainstream media.
Some of the Realities of the Flood
First of all, let’s watch some short clips I put together. The first few ones are about the flooding situation in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province in China, the last clip is how the CCP’s CCTV, China Central Television, is reporting about the flood. Please make sure you read the subtitles.
This one shows how someone died after being hit by high-voltage electricity leaked through the flood.
You can see in this that a father is trying to rescue his son, but only ends up being washed away together with his son.
This post says that as of 1:30 am, July 21 local time, hundreds are still trapped in the subway system in Zhengzhou, waiting to be rescued. They are hungry, cold, and could be suffocated.
Now, let’s see picture 1.
This post says that as of 1:30 am, July 21 local time, hundreds are still trapped in the subway system in Zhengzhou, waiting to be rescued. They are hungry, cold, and could be suffocated.
This post says that at 9:56 on July 20, they had been trapped on a train for 20 hours at a place only 10 KM from Zhengzhou. This person had tried all the government hotlines. No help at all!
Now, let’s see picture 2.
This post says that at 9:56 on July 20, they had been trapped on a train for 20 hours at a place only 10 KM from Zhengzhou. This person had tried all the government hotlines. No help at all!
This video shows a body being dragged ashore with a banner that was made to celebrate the CCP’s 100th anniversary. What an ironic choice. Maybe this is the only good that this banner has ever done.
Now let’s play video 5. Imagine you are sitting in the car and watching all the water running outside!
Now let’s watch another two clips inside the subway:
This is an explosion at a chemical factory as a result of the flooding.
Now let’s watch another clip from the countryside. We can see the flood is as bad as in the city. I guess people in the countryside are getting even less help than people in the big city. By the way, Zhengzhou has about 12 million people, so it is a very big city, the capital city of Henan Province.
Now, let’s watch the thrilling two minutes of how a woman struggled in the flood.
Now another one. It is not clear which floor this house is on. But definitely not the first floor, as you can see the stairs.
Now, let’s watch another unbelievable one. This shows that in a tunnel of Zhengzhou, while the flood rushed in and the situation was getting increasingly dangerous, the toll machine was still collecting tunnel fees. Within 5 minutes, the tunnel was all under water, with all the cars trapped inside. We will know why the fee collection is a fatal action right away.
Now, let’s watch a video after the flood. I guess this one was shot today.
Now, let’s watch another two videos also shot this morning, with the person who filmed the videos giving us some explanations. Please make sure you read the English titles I added.
Death Toll: Let Do Our Own Math
Now, let’s try to figure out how many people could have died?
Right now it is still a mystery. This morning CCP’s mouthpiece Xinhua says 33 have died, 8 are missing.
33 dead. Do you believe it?
Let’s do our own math. The tunnel we just saw is about 5 km long, and has 6 lanes, some say 8 lanes. Let’s assume it has 6 lanes. And the water peaked in the late afternoon on July 20, when everybody was rushing home.
Let’s say there was a car every 7 meters in the tunnel, which is a quite conservative estimation.
So, 5000 meters divided by 7, then times 6, the result is 4285 cars. If we suppose every three cars had 2 people in it, then the death toll could be over 6000. If we suppose every car had 2 or 3 people inside, the death toll could be more than 8000, or even over 12,000.
Well, did you remember that one of the videos says that similar scenes could be seen at many places in Zhengzhou?
How many people have died in the subway system? What we saw was just from one of the subway lines. There was another line that had the same problem, but there were no videos or photos from that line leaked. We only heard that hundreds or more were trapped in it.
So, I can say the death doll could be at least thousands, or tens of thousands.
Natural Disaster or Man-Made Tragedy?
Now, you might want to ask, how did all these happen?
In 2018, the CCP said it would invest 53.4 Billion yuan, or $7.7 Billion, to build Zhengzhou into a “Sponge City”, which means to make the city have the ability to absolve, reserve and then release and purify the water in case of heavy rain.
Only after this deadly flood, did people start to ask: Where is the 53 billion yuan? What has the CCP done to build the drainage system of the city and the subway system?
Initially the CCP said this was a heavy rainstorm that only happens every 40 years. Then the Zhengzhou Weather Bureau said this rainfall is once in every one thousand years. Then the Henan Water Resources Department says this is a rainstorm that only happens every 5000 years.
Many netizens became so angry when they read this that they actually laughed: Every 5000 years? That is longer than China’s civilized history. Are you talking about the prehistoric great flood that destroyed the world? Do we need to build Noah’s Ark to save ourselves?
Then, how much rainfall did the city get exactly?
In three days, from July 18 to 20, the city got altogether 617 mm of rainfall. The peak appeared on the 20th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and the city recorded 201 mm rainfall in one hour.
That is a lot, but definitely not as bad as once only in every 5000 years. If you are an expert on this, you can compare it with the numbers in other places of the world.
One big problem is, Zhengzhou is on the plain. If it gets heavy rain, the water should rise relatively evenly. It won’t form the kind of fast running floods we saw in the videos. That sort of rapid flood can only be formed when there is a height difference, right? That is common sense.
Now, let’s watch a video.
You see, at 1:40 pm on July 20, although the rain was heavy, vehicles were still running normally.
At 2: 20 pm, some buses failed, but most other cars and pedestrians were still running or walking normally.
Then at 3:20 pm, all vehicles stopped running.
Now water starts to flow into the underground driveway.
At 5:30 pm, the underground driveway was filled with flood water, the water level was at the same level as the road, and the guardrail was almost submerged.
At this time, the entire city was submerged.
We saw this before. There were many such holes in the city during and after the flood.
This is the water in the subway.
So, the point of the video is, the water did not come from the sky, it came from an upper stream Reservoir , called Changzhuang Reservoir, when the authorities opened the gate at about 10:30 am to release water to reduce the pressure of the dam.
his is a notice from the official account of Zhengzhou city. It says the staff at the Changzhuang Reservoir started to release the water at 10:30 am on July 20.
The problem is, this post was posted at 1:00 am on July 21, that is, almost 15 hours later.
So, people in Zhengzhou knew nothing at all about the release of water. They all went to work normally.
We saw in one of the videos, the drivers stayed in their cars and didn’t choose to abandon them and run away, and ended up dying.
Why didn’t they run? They didn’t know the danger. If it was just a normal heavy rain, there was no need to run away.
Another big, big problem is, why didn’t the subway authorities decide to close down the subway and let so many people die in it?
This post was posted by a subway staff member. The post says, there was plenty of time for the authorities to decide to shut down the subway. The water first started running into the subway, then it flooded the track, then the trains couldn’t run anymore, then the power had to be cut, then the water flooded the evacuation platform, then, all the chances for people to run away were lost…
Post by a subway staff member
The entire process didn’t happen in just one minute. The authorities did have plenty of time to respond.
But, they didn’t. Nor did the drivers or the staff on the trains open the subway car doors to let the passengers run away, let alone organize any sort of evacuation.
As far as I know, many people drowned, but many died of coldness, or lack of air.
It pains my heart to see how people in CCP’s China lack the skills, common sense, knowledge, or courage to save themselves and help others under these kinds of circumstances. They passively waited for the CCP to tell them what to do and died while waiting, and had no complaints at all.
So, won’t you agree that this is again, a man made tragedy, instead of a natural disaster?
Cover-ups, As Usual
Now, let’s see how the CCP is covering this.
Let’s look at this post by the Zhengzhou government at 7:01 pm on July 20, when tens of thousands people trapped in the tunnel, subways, trains were dying, or already dead, the post says, “Although the rain is heavy, but people of Zhengzhou are strong, optimistic and not complaining. “We firmly believe that after this rare rain, our city will be cleaner, our grasses and trees will be greener than ever.”
This report of the People’s Daily on July 21 used 12 Chinese words, one sentence, to say that “12 people in Zhengzhou died in the flood”, and then used over a hundred words, and an entire paragraph to say that “ 730 army commanders, 1159 armed police officers, 60 vehicles, 6760 rescue team members, 1383 vehicles, 690 militiamen, 35 boats, 25,784 rescue equipment sets were involved in rescue. At present, the rescue is still going on.”
This is the front page of the People’s Daily newspaper of July 21, the day after the flood peak. There is ZERO word about the flood in Zhengzhou. All the reports are about Xi Jinping and other CCP leaders’ speeches, the CCP’s birth control policy, and other great achievements including a high speed railway, etc. Zero word about the “once in 5000 years” flood.
These are the front pages of other publications. Again, Zero mention of the flood. Instead, they are talking about studying the CCP’s history, optimizing fertility, Xi Jinping’s speech, Renminbi going out of China, etc.
The front page of Global Times on July 20 is more funny. The headline says that the European flood proves that the disaster warning mechanisms in Europe are full of flaws, and failed the test, etc. The full page article is all about Europe.
Now, let’s watch the screenshot of two reports I captured this morning.
This report is about the disaster relief effort. In this report you see quite a few photos of the city after the rain, but you won’t see the real stuff we just showed you.
This is another report about the relief effort. Again, you see only beautiful, or not too bad images. You won’t see the real situations.
Now, let’s play another video. The left side is the CCP’s report about the flood, the right side is the real situation in Zhengzhou. Can you see the difference?
What worries me is, the western media, either because they don’t have reporters inside China, or because they just want to repeat what the CCP is saying, are basically just copying, or using CCP’s images or videos about the flood. And they also adopted the CCP’s “official” death toll, just as they did during the CCP virus, or COVID19 pandemic.
I saw an audience member in Holland saying that the TV news in Holland was just repeating CCTV’s “positive news”. And mainstream media in the US, such as NBC, ABC, CNN, Reuters, are all saying that this is a “once in one thousand years” heavy rain resulting from “global warming”, etc. No mentioning of the human errors, city construction problems, or man-made tragedies.
So, please do share my videos like mad. People need to know the truth.
Apart from beautifying the situations, the old game of covering up is also in play.
For example, this report says over a thousand cars were trapped in the tunnel. But later on, when you search with the same news title, the text has been changed to hundreds of cars.
This report says that a staff member at the No. 9 Hospital in Zhengzhou admitted that some injured passengers from the subway sent to their hospital have died, but it is “inconvenient” to reveal how many. The reporter was suggested to contact the police for missing people.
This post says the CCP is now banning government staff from posting, forwarding or sharing any info related to the Zhengzhou flood. The author is also from Henan province, but doesn’t live in Zhengzhou City. He has lost contact with his sister for 11 hours. Mother of his friend in Zhengzhou was swept away by water and hit her head against a car with a crushed skull fracture, etc.
Internet Blackout?
Apart from covering up, people are worrying that the internet could be cut to block the information. This post says “People rushed to buy food after the flood. But the internet was down, we must pay with cash. But most people only had phones with them. What can we do? ”
Finding a Scapegoat
Another funny thing is, some CCP’s supporters have also started finding a scapegoat for the CCP.
For example, this film director called Rong Zheng said, “I just want to ask, what on earth has the American army sent to Taiwan. If you don’t confess this, you are declaring war on us.
“How come only several days after you landed in Taiwan, we encountered a once in a thousand year flood? Such a coincidence!”
Then he used a dirty word that I don’t want to translate or repeat here.
And under these words are many pictures and videos about American army’s weather weapons.
So, he is indicating that the flood in Zhengzhou was a result of American Army’s weather weapon attack, maybe launched from Taiwan.
Isn’t that funny?
Well, I am afraid there is too much content today, and I’ve been talking for too long. So let’s end it right here.
7/22/2021*
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Zhengzhou Smart Tunnel Phase I Construction To Be completed Soon, Zhengzhou City Tunnels Will be “Talking and Thinking” 郑州智慧隧道一期建设即将收尾 郑州市隧道都将“会说话 会思考”
(Jennifer’s note: Bellow is the English translation of a Chinese language report by Henan News Radio published on June 1, 2021. An archived version of the original Chinese report is here. )
( 曾錚注：以下是河南新闻广播记者夏凊撰寫的新聞原稿及英文翻譯。原稿備份在此。）
June 1, 2021, 7:45 | 2021-06-01 07:45
By Xia Qing, Henan News Radio
河南新闻广播记者夏凊
As an important part of Zhengzhou’s City Brain – Smart City Management, the construction work of Zhengzhou Smart Tunnel Phase I (Beijing-Guangzhou Road Tunnel Pilot), which was launched in 2020, is in its final stage. How will the smart tunnel operate in the future? Scroll down to see.
作为郑州城市大脑·智慧城管的重要组成部分，2020年启动的郑州智慧隧道一期（京广路隧道试点）建设工作已经步入尾声。智慧隧道今后将如何运作？往下看：
In the center of the command hall for Zhengzhou tunnel, the big smart screen allows the tunnel scene at a glance. Here real-time monitoring and display of the tunnel equipment data can be seen, providing information of diseases, hidden problems, early warning and other analysis.
Yang Hang from Zhengzhou City Tunnel Integrated Management and Maintenance Center said, there are six modules to ensure that the Zhengzhou tunnel “will think and talk”.
“For example, when a vehicle stays in the tunnel or a pedestrian enters, through the tunnel monitoring equipment, the perception module will immediately capture and sense the stay, and the reason for entry. If there is an unexpected, sudden accident, we can achieve accurate and rapid search and rescue of personnel through the background record of the last location of personnel .”
在郑州市隧道中心指挥大厅内，智慧大屏让隧道内场景一览无余。这里实时监控并显示隧道内各项设备的数据，提供病害、隐患、预警等信息分析，郑州城市隧道综合管养中心杨航表示，六大模块，让郑州隧道“会思考、会说话”：“比如隧道内有车辆停留或行人进入，感知模块就会立即通过隧道内监控设备进行抓拍，并感知它停留、进入原因。如果有突发事故发生，我们能通过后台记录的人员最后所在位置，实现人员的精准快速搜救等功能。”
In order to prevent the poor signal in the tunnel from affecting the positioning, the current Beijing-Guangzhou tunnel sidewalls are equipped with an emergency phone every 200 meters, which can be used for two-way real-time communication with the command center.
In addition, there is a multi-channel information release module in this phase of construction, which is combined with big data to provide accurate information.
Yang Hang said, “Through the Gaode and Zhenghaoban APP, we can release in advance information of abnormal events that will affect the passage in the tunnel, or information about tunnel closure, maintenance and other information to facilitate the public to reasonably plan their travel routes.”
为避免隧道内信号不畅影响定位，目前京广隧道侧墙每隔200米布设有一部紧急电话，可以同指挥中心进行双向实时通话。此外本期建设还有一个信息多渠道发布模块，结合大数据提供准确信息。杨航：“通过高德和郑好办APP，提前发布隧道内影响通行的异常事件或者封闭管养等信息，以方便市民合理规划出行路线。”
In addition to the Beijing-Guangzhou Tunnel, the software construction work of five other tunnels, such as Jingsan Road and Weilan Road, has been completed, and more tunnels and underground spaces will be incorporated into the construction of smart tunnels and extended with more functions in the future.
Lin Ziqing from the Zhengzhou city tunnel comprehensive management and maintenance center said : “Phase I construction of high-precision positioning technology, video analysis technology in the Weisi Road tunnel, Chengdong Road and Jingsan Road tunnel and other five tunnels will be extended. We will completion the smart construction of the new tunnels that have just been entrusted to us, as well as the underground space facilities in Zhengzhou. We will integrate them into Zhengzhou’s ‘city brain ‘.”
除京广隧道外，经三路、未来路等其他五条隧道的软件建设工作都已完成，未来更多隧道和地下空间将纳入智慧隧道建设，并扩展更多功能。郑州城市隧道综合管养中心林子卿：“一期建设的高精度定位技术、视频分析技术，在纬四路隧道、城东路经三路隧道等五条隧道进行延展；对新接手的隧道及郑州市地下空间设施完成智慧化建设，融入到郑州市的‘城市大脑’。”