CCP Military Aircraft, Tanks Destroyed in Hebei Flooding

Plans to divert floodwaters were kept from the people

An aerial view of a flooded village in Zhuozhou, Baoding, Hebei Province, China, on Aug. 2, 2023. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

Record flooding in China’s Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in July not only hit local residents hard, but also damaged tanks and aircraft at the communist regime’s military garrisons in Baoding and Zhuozhou.

The regime had secretly planned to use the populated Zhuozhou and Baoding areas as floodwater discharge zones to save the newly planned political center of Xiong’an, according to internal documents of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) obtained by The Epoch Times.

However, when it came time to act on the plan, authorities didn’t send out notifications of the discharge in time, which led to devastating losses among the people, businesses, and the CCP’s military assets in the region.

Chinese authorities reported that at least 78 people died because of the floodwaters. The actual death toll is likely much higher but difficult to determine, given the authorities’ history of underreporting.

In order to implement the CCP’s instructions of “protecting the Xiong’an new area,” the new political hub planned by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, authorities proposed an on-site flood discharge plan that would open the river banks in the midstream areas of Hebei Province, Zhao Lanjian, a former mainland Chinese investigative reporter who currently lives in the United States, told The Epoch Times.

But Mr. Xi didn’t make any comment on it.

“[Premier] Li Qiang thought that the situation was urgent,” Mr. Zhao said, citing what his contacts in China have said. “Since Xi previously made the instruction to ‘protect Xiong’an,' Li followed the [on-site flood discharge] plan. Unexpectedly, the troops stationed there were also flooded. Xi was furious when he learned that the CCP’s elite troops had been flooded.”

Wang Hua (a pseudonym), a local resident who witnessed the devastation, also told The Epoch Times: “The unit that was flooded this time in Zhuozhou is troop 66289. It’s located next to the Zhuozhou branch of the China Institute of Labor Relations and the experimental field of China Agricultural University. It’s now called The XX Group Army Tank Brigade, which is the unit that defends Beijing. Because of this flood, their tanks were almost all destroyed.

A flooded street after heavy rains in Zhuozhou, in northern China's Hebei Province. AFP via Getty Images

“There is also an aviation brigade in Zhuozhou, and the flooding there was the worst. It was like a swimming pool. The water poured directly into it, and the terrain is very low. Those aircraft have been flooded and have to be replaced.

“There is also a Baoding Aviation School in the main urban area of Baoding, and the entire military compound was basically flooded.”

Because of the flooding of military facilities in Zhuozhou and Mr. Xi’s discontent, Mr. Li offered his resignation, it’s been reported on social media.

CCP Internal Documents

In order to protect Beijing and Xiong'an, Hebei Province had already deployed the flood storage area in Baoding and Zhuozhou before the flood, internal CCP documents show.

An urgent document was issued on July 29, titled “Notice on the Implementation of the Work on Cleaning Up and Remediating Problems that Obstruct Flood Discharge,” by the Zhuozhou City Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and the Zhuozhou City River Chief System Leading Group. It emphasized that to ensure the safety of river floods, water-blocking obstacles in all towns and villages must be totally cleared immediately to be ready for floods.

On July 30, the Hebei Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a “Special Notice” level document, titled “Emergency Notice on the Transfer of Personnel in Flood Storage and Detention Areas,” for evaluation. The document was simultaneously distributed to the Langfang, Baoding, and Xingtai municipal governments, as well as the Xiong'an New District Management Committee in Hebei.

Later that day, the Zhuozhou municipal government received the notice from the Hebei Province’s government through the Baoding municipal government.

However, in the Hebei government’s video conference on province-wide flood control on the same day, authorities required all meeting participants to strictly keep the information confidential.

Local residents, some in a makeshift boat, talk in front of their house in an area inundated with floodwaters near Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, China, south of Beijing on Aug. 3, 2023. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

As a result, except for a few villages that received evacuation orders two hours before the floodwater release, people in most places in Hebei weren’t warned.

A CCP official in Hebei who knows about the internal meetings and notices took the risk to inform Mr. Zhao in the United States two days before the flood waters were discharged.

“With verified internal information, the Hebei Provincial Department of Water Resources reported to Hebei Province to prepare for a flood greater than the record one in August 1996,” Mr. Zhao said.

He told The Epoch Times that officials within the system already knew about the floodwater discharge plans, but that officials had no way to pass that information to the common people in the local area. So he hoped his warning message would be taken seriously on international media platforms.

A local resident gestures as he walks in chest-deep floodwaters in an area near Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, China, south of Beijing, on Aug. 3, 2023. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

However, people in the Zhuozhou and Mentougou districts in Beijing stated on various channels that the authorities released floodwaters without notification, causing many casualties and property loss.

The CCP hasn’t updated the death toll from the flooding.

Luo Ya contributed to this report.