Heavy snow disrupts traffic, affects farming in China's Xinjiang

Heavy snowstorms and strong winds battered parts of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Sunday and Monday, disrupting road traffic and affecting farming, with local authorities immediately activating swift emergency responses to ensure public safety.

At 03:00 on Monday, a border police station in Altay Prefecture received a distress call from a family stranded in a road by the snowstorm while driving home.

The police rushed to the scene amid strong winds and visibility of less than 20 meters on the highway.

The road was covered with 30 centimeters of snow, leaving the vehicle unable to move due to the poor visibility.

After more than an hour of efforts, the police officers successfully escorted the stranded vehicle and its four occupants to safety.

By 10:00 Monday,  the snowstorms subsided and traffic returned to normal.

Snowstorms also hit the provincial capital Urumqi on Monday.

In response, local traffic police enhanced road patrols and video surveillance, and imposed temporary road restrictions during heavy snow.

They also conducted snow removal operations immediately in a bid to resume normal traffic.

In Manas County of  Changji Prefecture, heavy snow began at 04:00 on Monday, with temperatures plunging to minus three degrees Celsius and snow reaching 10 centimeters, causing significant disruptions to traffic.   As a result, traffic control measures were put in place on the Urumqi-Kuitun Expressway, prompting many drivers to shift to G312 highway, adding to the traffic congestion in the region.

Meanwhile, continued snow and strong winds battered Jimsar County of Changji Prefecture from Sunday night to Monday morning, with snow reaching five centimeters in six hours.

At a local greenhouse farm in Quanzijie Town, staff members worked overnight to keep the temperature inside the greenhouses stable by turning on heating systems and covering the outside with insulation cotton, ensuring a cozy environment for the strawberries amid the freezing temperatures.

Heavy snow disrupts traffic, affects farming in China's Xinjiang

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting