Foreign news

Xi Jinping conducts inspection tour in flood-hit Anhui Province

Published

5 years ago

August 19, 2020

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in east China’s Anhui Province for an inspection tour on Tuesday.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited the floodgate of the Wangjiaba Dam on the Huaihe River and other flood-hit areas in Funan County, Fuyang City. He also went to a “zhuangtai,” a residential structure built on raised ground at a higher elevation that functions as a haven from river floods.

Since June, Anhui has been ravaged by floods and landslides caused by incessant heavy rains.

The president also met with local officials and residents and learned about flood prevention and disaster relief work and the progress of recovery efforts.

This is President Xi’s latest inspection tour this year, following his visits to Yunnan Province, Beijing Municipality, Hubei Province, Zhejiang Province, Shaanxi Province, Shanxi Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Jilin Province.

People-centered efforts

“I have always been concerned about the people in flood-stricken areas,” Xi said while meeting locals, adding that he felt ease after seeing villagers had a place to live and had restarted production.

Severe rainstorms have hit many regions in China this summer, triggering flooding of rivers. According to the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM), 54.8 million people in 27 provincial-level regions have been affected.

Chinese leaders have called for unrelenting efforts to ensure the safety of people’s lives and property.

During a CPC leadership meeting on July 17, President Xi stressed putting people’s lives and property first and taking more forceful measures to do well in flood control and relief work.

China has made all-out efforts in flood control and disaster relief with massive mobilization, evacuations, and top-level emergency response in several hard-hit provinces.

Through the nationwide joint efforts, the MEM said, the number of deaths and missing due to floods fell by 53.9 percent from with the national average of the past five years. The number of evacuated people increased by 36.7 percent, the ministry added.

Enhance capabilities to cope with natural disasters

Noting that China has fought against natural disasters for thousands of years, Xi on Tuesday also urged respect for nature, harmony between humans and nature and efforts to improve capabilities to cope with natural disasters.

“We should modernize our ability to prevent and combat natural disasters in our effort to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way,” Xi added.

Hailed as the “most important floodgate on the Huaihe River,” the floodgate of the Wangjiaba Dam sets a good example of China’s flood preparation.

The floodgate, built in 1953 was opened for the 16th time on July 20 to store water, intercepting 375 million cubic meters of potential floodwater by July 23 when it was closed.

The CPC leadership meeting on July 17 also stressed that China needs to comprehensively enhance its disaster prevention capability and will include capacity building on disaster prevention in its 14th Five-Year Plan covering the period 2021-2025.

Share on Facebook

Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

Share on Facebook