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A man takes a nap on an inflatable sofa floating on a flooded street near the Yangtze River in Chongqing municipality |
Heavy rains killed nearly 100 people at the weekend, at least 37 of them in the capital, and raised questions about the preparation and response of city officials.
The lack of updates on casualties and rescue operations caused public suspicion, city spokeswoman Wang Hui acknowledged, but denied that authorities were covering up the real death toll.
While state media announced the resignation of Mayor Guo Jinlong, political observers dismissed the notion that the move represented punishment for the inept handling of the floods.
Dubbing the resignation “normal staff turnover”, artist-activist Ai Weiwei posted on Twitter: “These are normal appointments. They have nothing to do with the flood.”
Political blogger Michael Anti tweeted: “Despite the flood disaster, the Beijing municipal leadership transition proceeds as planned.”
As speculation mounted about Guo on popular microblogs, analysts pointed out he had actually been promoted on July 3 to the more powerful position of Beijing Communist Party secretary within the country’s dual track party-government system.
The resignation was therefore not entirely unexpected, although its timing - with beleaguered city residents preparing to be hit by a second serious storm within three days - appeared insensitive to some commentators.
Wang Anshun, another deputy mayor, would replace Guo as acting mayor, the party statement said. The official Sina Weibo news centre posted two tweets about Guo’s resignation: Both could not be retweeted or commented on.
Searches for “Guo Jinlong” were blocked on Sina Weibo with the message, “according to relevant laws and regulations and policies, the search result for ‘Guo Jinlong’ is not shown”.
Meanwhile, another 30-50mm of rain was expected, Zhang Linna, chief forecaster of Beijing Meteorological Station, was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua.
Authorities issued a yellow alert, the third-highest of five levels, warning against mudslides in several mountainous districts around the capital.
Officials were accused of responding slowly in districts such as Fangshan, which experienced 366 mm of rain and where dozens reportedly died.
A video gaining traction online purportedly shows a Fangshan family digging the body of their dead son out of rubble.
“Called the police, called 119, no one cared!” a man identified as the victim’s brother Wang Jianxue says to the camera. “Who the hell cares about us?”
Authorities issued an alert eight hours after the worst rains in 61 years hit Beijing on Saturday.
The deputy director of Beijing Meteorological Administration, Qu Xiaobo, on Tuesday blamed city phone companies, telling the China Business News that the high concentration of mobile phone users “leads to tardiness in sending and receiving texts”.
A Beijing China Mobile Communications Corp source told the newspaper there was no technological obstacle, and the company could send 10,000 texts a second.