Flood responses

The State Council announced on Monday that it has decided to set up an investigation team to assess the responses to the devastating flood in Zhengzhou, capital city of Henan Province.

The team will be headed by the Ministry of Emergency Management and include officials and experts from relevant departments, the State Council said in a statement. The investigation aims to summarize the experience and lessons drawn from the response and propose measures that can be taken to improve disaster prevention and relief in the future, the statement said.

Those who are found breaching their duties in the Zhengzhou flood will be held responsible according to the law and regulations, it added. A total of 292 people were confirmed dead and 47 missing in Zhengzhou, seven people dead and three missing in Xinxiang City, while the city of Pingdingshan and Luohe reported two and one death, respectively, the information office of the provincial government told a press briefing on Monday.

COVID fight

Seven people returned positive COVID-19 nucleic acid tests on Monday in Wuhan, capital of Central China’s Hubei Province, local authorities have said.

The seven were identified as migrant workers at the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, according to the zone’s headquarters on COVID-19 prevention and control. One of the workers, surnamed Tang, had waited at a train station in the city of Jingzhou, also in Hubei Province, where a tour group from Jiangsu Province was also waiting. Members of the tour group have also tested positive. Beijing also reported one new locally transmitted confirmed case on Monday.

Sino-US relationship

China’s new Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said last week he believes “the door of China-U.S. relations, which is already open, cannot be closed.”

“This is the trend of the world, the call of the times and the will of the people,” said Qin in his remarks to Chinese and U.S. media upon arrival in the United States. Over the past half a century, the China-U.S. relationship has kept moving forward despite twists and turns, he said.

Fuzhou session

The 44th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO wrapped up on Saturday in Fuzhou, capital of East China’s Fujian Province, with a total of 34 new sites inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The current session’s inscriptions, which include 29 cultural sites and five natural ones, bring the total number of sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage to 1,154. Among the newly added sites is “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” in Fujian, which brings the number of world heritage sites in the country to 56. (SD-Agencies)