Firefighters have rushed to save trapped residents in Zhanjiang City of south China's Guangdong Province after Typhoon Matmo made landfall in the area.
Matmo, the 21st named storm of the 2025 Pacific typhoon season, made landfall along the eastern coast of Xuwen County, Zhanjiang City in south China's Guangdong Province around 14:50 on Sunday. And the typhoon made its second landfall along the coast of Fangchenggang City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at around 01:10 Monday.
Starting from noon on Sunday, the wind and rain in Zhanjiang began to gradually intensify.
At around 12:00, the local fire department received an call saying that two elderly people were trapped in Chiqian Village of Leizhou City. The firefighters arrived at the village as soon as possible and helped the two elderly people put on raincoats. Then they protected the elderly people from the wind and rain with their bodies. Eventually, they escorted the two elderly onto the fire trucks and transferred them to a safe location.
At noon on Sunday, the roof of a civilian house in Leizhou was blown off by the typhoon, and there were people inside who urgently needed to be evacuated. The firefighters rushed to the scene and found three children. They put raincoats on the children and carried them to a safe area in the howling wind and rain.
Typhoon Matmo is expected to move in a west-northwest direction in the future, bringing heavy rainfall to Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and some other places.
The Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue a yellow alert for heavy rain and a blue alert for typhoons on Monday morning.
According to the meteorological departments, Typhoon Matmo brought strong winds and rain to areas including western Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Guangxi on Sunday. Although the typhoon is expected to weaken in the future, it will still bring heavy rainfall to Yunnan, Guizhou, and some other provinces. Those regions should remain vigilant against possible secondary disasters caused by heavy rain due to the complex geological conditions.
Firefighters rescue flood-trapped residents as Typhoon Matmo hits south China
China will take further steps to expand high-standard opening-up and create a new landscape of win-win cooperation in 2026, which marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in a recent interview with China Media Group.
Wang said opening up and cooperation for mutual benefit are integral to Chinese modernization. This year, China will actively expand voluntary opening up.
The country will steadily open up such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, while accelerating comprehensive pilot and demonstration programs for expanded opening-up in the services sector, he noted.
"We will expand the scope and regions of unilateral opening-up and ensure the implementation of zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent of tariff lines for all African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. We will vigorously promote the effective implementation of policies for special customs operations of the Hainan Free Trade Port, further enhance the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, optimize the regional layout and coverage of pilot free trade zones, and support these zones in carrying out more robust institutional opening-up trials in areas such as market access, environmental standards and government procurement, so as to better leverage their role as comprehensive pilot platforms for reform and opening-up," said Wang.
Wang said China will promote the orderly planning of cross-border industrial and supply chains.
Efforts will be made to deepen economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, enhance integration and connectivity across production and supply chains, and encourage cooperation in areas including green development, the digital economy, green minerals, new infrastructure and new energy so as to help build global production and supply chain partnerships that are equal, inclusive and constructive, he noted.
"We will give play to the platform role of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, expand overseas marketing networks and explore international markets through outward investment, achieve mutual promotion between investment and trade, and advance the integrated development of trade and investment. We will also improve the overseas comprehensive service system and the national-level overseas comprehensive service platform," said the minister.
In addition, China will participate constructively in global economic governance, according to the minister.
In 2026, Wang said, China will pursue flexible and pragmatic approaches to negotiate trade and investment agreements with more willing countries and regions, while strengthening economic and trade cooperation under multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to further promote mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.
China to expand high-standard opening-up to foster win-win cooperation: minister
