Written By Taylah Bland, Senior Program Officer for the China Climate Hub

The devastating floods along the China-Nepal border in late August highlight the growing political importance Beijing places on disaster response. After a glacier collapse triggered catastrophic flooding and landslides across Nepal and Tibet, President Xi Jinping ordered an “all-out rescue effort.” This is significant as during his nearly 14 years in power, Xi has rarely appeared at the frontline of a disaster, in stark contrast to his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.

On August 28, Xi chaired a Politburo meeting focused on disaster response, while Premier Li Qiang travelled to Gyirong County in Tibet to oversee relief efforts. Both called for stronger monitoring and early-warning systems, as well as measures to prevent secondary disasters. The response was framed around “better coordinating development and security,” reflecting the broader elevation of disaster prevention and resilience not only by China’s leadership but also alongside priorities linked to security and economic development.

This growing political attention comes as extreme weather becomes more frequent and costly. In mid-August, Typhoon Dolphin brought record rainfall, flooding and landslides across eastern, central and northern China, forcing more than one million people to evacuate. Climate-related losses totaled CNY 42.14 billion (US$6.1 billion) in the first half of 2026 alone and are set to increase, given that most extreme-weather events occur during the summer months. More broadly, China’s leadership is increasingly linking the growing frequency and severity of extreme weather to climate change.

Disaster response is therefore becoming more than an emergency-management issue for Beijing. As the economic and social consequences of extreme weather become harder to ignore, the leadership is increasingly linking disaster preparedness, adaptation, and resilience to climate change—and treating them as essential to protecting economic development, national security and social stability.

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Political Elites Elevate Disaster Response

Xi’s comments on the China-Nepal border are the latest instance of increased attention on disasters from top leadership. At an April 2026 group study session of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, Xi stressed that disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief should be viewed from the strategic perspective of both high-quality development and high-level security. Notably, he also made a direct link to climate change by emphasizing that extreme weather events have become significantly more frequent and destructive.

These links to climate change have continued in subsequent meetings and publications. In July 2026, Xi chaired a committee meeting that urged all regions and relevant departments to take solid measures to ensure effective flood control, drought relief, emergency responses, and disaster mitigation. It was noted that China would continue to face more extreme weather and climate events, with both droughts and floods posing significant challenges.

Most recently, “disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief capabilities” was the headline theme of the August edition of Qiushi, the official theoretical bimonthly journal of the CCP. Its inclusion and, more so, its headlining indicate that climate is a priority for leadership. The edition led with the full text of Xi’s April speech and included several articles on the theme of extreme weather response and resilience. One of the pieces, authored by the Party Committee of the Ministry of Emergency Management, reflects Xi’s thoughts on prioritizing disaster prevention, never “lowering the guard regarding risk prevention and control” and acknowledging that China faces the “long-term, complex, and severe nature of natural disaster risks.”

When viewed together, these interventions suggest that disaster response is being elevated from a technical responsibility of emergency-management agencies into a strategic concern of the Party-state. Climate change is increasingly part of this framing because it compounds the physical risks that Beijing already sees as threats to economic development and national security. This also places greater emphasis on climate adaptation, which means taking action to prepare for and adjust to current and expected climate impacts, including more frequent and severe extreme weather events.

From Beijing’s Priorities to Local Action

The importance of responding to climate impacts and continuing to develop better disaster response is not only seen in Xi’s rhetoric but also in national-level policies. China’s “15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) for National Response to Climate Change”, released in July, calls for stronger climate-risk assessments and responses to extreme weather, alongside measures to build more resilient cities, food systems and health infrastructure.

Following suit, the Ministry of Natural Resources in August similarly shifted its approach to geological disasters, from a focus on individual hazard sites toward the management broader risk zones. Its “National Geological Disaster Prevention and Control ‘15th Five-Year Plan’ Implementation Plan” includes relocating around 50,000 households from high-risk areas, more than 4,200 engineering projects, expanded monitoring and early-warning systems, and greater use of big data and AI to improve disaster management coordination between national and provincial authorities.

China’s provinces and cities retain significant responsibility for translating national priorities into local action, reflecting the “一城一策” or “one city, one policy” approach, which recognizes differences in local topography and climate risks. In 2024, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) deepened pilot projects aimed at building climate resilience in 39 cities while also creating unique provincial level action plans for adaptation that include sponge-city measures and risk-assessments. However, continued funding and capacity support is needed to ensure local governments do not have to choose between longer-term adaptation projects and immediate development and economic growth needs.

At the local level, citizens are increasingly engaging with climate impacts. On Douyin and Xiaohongshu, two of China’s most popular social media platforms, users share firsthand accounts of their experiences with extreme weather. During a July 2025 heatwave in Chengdu, Xiaohongshu users posted photos and videos showing parts of the city’s metro being used as a refuge from extreme heat and humidity. Research shows that during typhoons, climate impacts posting on Chinese social media rose from 41.74% to 48.97%. While this does not mean that every individual disaster is explicitly attributed to climate change, it suggests that extreme weather events can heighten public awareness of their connection to climate change.

This growing visibility of climate impacts is also reflected in public opinion: a 2024 UNDP survey found that 68% of people in China said climate change was affecting major decisions in their lives, while 39% said they were more worried about climate change than the previous year in the context of changing extreme weather. 71% also supported greater protection for people vulnerable to extreme weather.

What Does This Mean for China’s Domestic Governance and Global Diplomacy?

Domestically, disaster response, adaptation, and resilience are increasingly being framed as matters of national security and economic resilience, aligning with Xi’s broader emphasis on high-quality development, technological innovation, and social stability. The political question is therefore shifting from whether Beijing recognizes these risks to whether the Party-state can translate this increasingly clear top-level priority into adequately funded and coordinated action at the local level, where frontline implementation will take place.

For energy policy, this will also have implications as climate resilience becomes increasingly intertwined with the need to protect power infrastructure, manage rising electricity demand during extreme heat, and ensure reliable energy supplies amid droughts, floods, and other disruptions. As China’s economy becomes more electrified, the resilience of its power system will become an increasingly important component of energy security.

Diplomatically, disaster resilience offers China an opportunity to position itself as a provider of practical climate solutions while advancing Xi’s broader goals around global governance. At COP29, China launched the Action Plan on Early Warning for Climate Change Adaptation (2025–2027), while Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang announced a South-South cooperation initiative providing developing countries with meteorological observation equipment, early-warning systems, and technical training.

China’s pioneering of early-warning systems, like MAZU (Multi-hazard, Alert, Zero-gap and Universal), and its applications of AI, drones, and autonomous technologies for weather forecasting and disaster response allow Beijing to align several interests, including strengthening South-South cooperation, expanding the role of Chinese technology, and building diplomatic influence in an area where demand is growing rapidly. These technologies also give Beijing a practical way to demonstrate the benefits of Chinese innovation.

Beijing clearly understands the need to adapt and the implications on national security and economic development implications. The next challenge is turning this political recognition into sustained investment and local capacity—and, in parallel, determining how the technologies developed to manage these risks at home can support China’s wider ambitions abroad.

China Energy Brief: Issue 4