Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Several southern Chinese coastal regions stepped up precautionary measures on Friday, including activating an emergency response to typhoon and suspending ferry services, as Typhoon Wipha, the sixth typhoon of the year, is projected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to these regions.

The National Meteorological Center renewed its yellow typhoon alert at 06:00 on Saturday, reporting that Wipha had intensified into a severe tropical storm by 05:00 the same day, with maximum winds reaching force 10 (24.5-28.4 meters per second) near its center.

Wipha was located about 880 kilometers southeast of Yangjiang City, south China's Guangdong Province, and forecast to make landfall along coastal areas between Shenzhen in Guangdong and Wenchang in the southern island province of Hainan between Sunday afternoon and evening.

As of 16:00 on Friday, 89 ferries serving 24 coastal routes in Guangdong had been suspended due to the approaching typhoon.

Meanwhile, China Railway Guangzhou Group implemented flood and typhoon emergency response measures across several railway sections in the province starting on Saturday, with partial delays expected at multiple stations.

"Impacted by the typhoon, the northern part of the South China Sea will experience cyclone from July 18 to 22, with the potential for winds exceeding force 12 (32.7-36.9 meters per second) along the coastal regions of Guangdong. Beginning on July 19, the precipitation triggered by the typhoon will gradually impact the coastal areas of southern China, the eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian, as well as Taiwan, with the heaviest rainfall anticipated from Saturday night to Sunday night," said Xiang Chunyi, senior forecaster at the National Meteorological Center.

In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the regional maritime safety administration began to implement precautions against the typhoon on Friday.

Local authorities conducted cross-regional coordination with maritime and fisheries agencies in the neighboring provinces of Guangdong and Hainan to enhance the monitoring of fishing boats, oil tankers, and unpowered ships through real-time information sharing and joint operations.

Typhoon Wipha is causing widespread rainfall across east China's Fujian Province, with showers and thunderstorms forecast province-wide from July 19 to 21.

In response, the province has temporarily suspended all four "mini-three-links" passenger routes cross the Taiwan Strait starting on Saturday.

Furthermore, China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters activated a Level-IV emergency response to flood and typhoon in Guangdong and Hainan at 18:00 on Friday.

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

Chinese coastal areas take precautions as Typhoon Wipha approaches

China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.

Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.

"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.

China's development never a threat: FM spokesman