Society

Officials in northeastern China have evacuated more than 50,000 people as floodwaters collapse houses and cut off transportation in some areas, state media reported Saturday.

Heavy rains caused flooding along the Yalu River, which separates China and North Korea, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

At least 230 houses collapsed and at least three people were missing in Dandong City, Xinhua said. The news agency said transportation, communication and power were also cut off in some areas.

Officials suspended train service as floodwaters rushed over railroad tracks, a railway spokesman told Xinhua.

China's National Meteorological Center warned Saturday morning that heavy rains would continue for the next 24 hours in the southeastern parts of Liaoning and Jilin provinces, where the river is located.

The death toll from the mudslides in a northwestern Chinese province now stands at 1,407, state-run Xinhua news agency said Friday, citing the government. At least 358 people are still missing.

The mudslides occurred in Zhouqu County in Gansu province. More than 1,700 mudslide evacuees have been living at schools, but will be relocated as students begin their school year.

Households will be moved to Shachuan Village, in the western part of the mudslides-leveled county, said Yang Jianguo, a government official in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture which administers Zhouqu.

All passengers aboard a passenger train that fell into a river in southwest China's Sichuan ProvinceThursday got out alive, state-run CCTV reported Friday.

The accident occurred in Guanghan at about 3:20 p.m. Thursday on the Shi-ting-jiang Bridge, part of the railway line that links Chengdu and Baoji, in northwestern Shaanxi Province.

There is nothing like a good old-fashioned “ratcheting up” of “tensions” to put fire in the belly. And to put a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea. North Korea, China, South Korea and the U.S. have all obliged in recent months in the waters off of China and especially the Korean peninsula, where there’s been a lot of action lately. This all made good jabbering material for this week’s new Sinica podcast, “China’s troubled waters,” recorded as always at the Beijing studios of Popup Chinese.

For defense contractors, “ratcheting up” is also good news, of course. A hawk, especially a hawk consulting for the Pentagon, would look at everything that has happened in recent weeks and months and think to themselves, even more imperative to build a new generation of aircraft carriers courtesy of Northrop Grumman, with new Lockheed Martin fighters to take off from them and new Raytheon anti-missile systems to defend them. And of course, on the Chinese side, tensions are always good for the already aggressive modernization program for the People’s Liberation Army Navy.