Xi’s Article Urges Shift to Prevention in Disaster Management
The 16th issue of Qiushi, the Communist Party of China’s flagship theoretical journal, published on Sunday an important article by President Xi Jinping titled “Improving Disaster Prevention, Mitigation, and Relief Capabilities.” The article, first announced by Xinhua News Agency on August 15, presents the full text of Xi’s speech delivered at the 25th collective study session of the 20th CPC Central Committee Politburo held on April 28, 2026.
The publication comes during one of China’s most challenging flood seasons in recent memory, with Typhoon Dolphin having just caused widespread damage across the country. The article serves as both a comprehensive policy framework for the 15th Five-Year Plan period and a direct call to action for ongoing disaster response efforts.
A Framework for Proactive Prevention
In the article, Xi emphasizes that China’s vast territory, complex geography, and diverse climate make natural disasters frequent and severe. He outlines seven guiding principles for disaster management: adherence to the Party’s overall leadership, putting people and life first, respecting natural laws, prioritizing prevention, pursuing reform and innovation, maintaining systematic thinking, and promoting social co-governance.
“Reducing disaster risk and mitigating disaster losses depends on pre-event prevention,” Xi states in the article, as reported by China Daily. The article calls for a fundamental shift from reactive disaster response to proactive risk management, integrating safety and resilience requirements into territorial spatial planning and various construction plans.
Five key priority areas are identified: shifting disaster governance toward pre-event prevention, improving response capabilities for major and catastrophic disasters, strengthening technological support and legal safeguards, consolidating grassroots disaster prevention foundations, and ensuring responsibility implementation.
Addressing New and Emerging Threats
The article acknowledges that China’s disaster prevention landscape is evolving. According to the full text published by Xinhua, Xi highlighted that global climate warming has significantly increased extreme weather events, including heavy rain, floods, typhoons, and droughts, with intensified destructiveness and new changes in temporal and spatial distribution. The article also notes growing threats from major earthquakes, geological disasters, forest and grassland fires, and emerging disaster types such as glacial lake outbursts and seawater intrusion.
Xi specifically called for strengthening flood prevention and drainage infrastructure in northern China, where recent years have exposed significant vulnerabilities. The article emphasizes using the results of the National Natural Disaster Comprehensive Risk Survey, which has stored over 1.7 billion data records, for systematic risk identification and management.
Technology, Law, and Grassroots Capacity
A significant portion of the article focuses on leveraging technology and legal frameworks to enhance disaster management. Xi called for fully utilizing the “new nationwide system for mobilizing resources” to drive technological and industrial innovation in emergency management. The article specifically mentions strengthening the application of artificial intelligence, satellite remote sensing, big data, IoT, and drone technologies for disaster monitoring and response.
On the legal front, the article calls for improving the emergency management legal framework, combining legislative improvements with strict law enforcement to raise the rule-of-law standards in disaster prevention and response.
The article also emphasizes the critical role of grassroots communities as the “first line of defense” against natural disasters. It calls for strengthening primary-level emergency rescue forces, improving emergency facility construction, and enhancing material and equipment support. As Qiushi’s English edition reports, the article stresses the importance of public participation and improving disaster awareness among the general population.
Correcting Performance Evaluation Imbalances
One of the most notable aspects of the article is its explicit call to correct tendencies that “prioritize development over safety” and “prioritize disaster relief over prevention” in official performance evaluations. Xi emphasized the need to establish and practice a correct view of political achievements, signaling potential changes in how local officials are assessed and held accountable for disaster management.
This represents a significant policy signal, as it directly addresses the structural incentives that have historically led local governments to underinvest in disaster prevention infrastructure in favor of more visible economic development projects.
Context: A Severe Flood Season
The article’s publication coincides with one of the most active disaster seasons in recent Chinese history. According to Beijing Review, Typhoon Dolphin, the 13th typhoon of the year, made two landfalls in Zhejiang Province on August 9, bringing heavy rain to Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Hubei, and Anhui. Beijing activated a Level II flood-control emergency response, mobilizing more than 23,000 emergency personnel.
Earlier in the season, provinces including Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, and Chongqing experienced concentrated, intense, and widespread rainstorms. In July, Xi issued important instructions on flood prevention and disaster relief following disasters in Guangxi, Hubei, and Gansu that caused significant casualties, as reported by Hunan Daily.
Historical Progress and Future Direction
The article highlights significant progress in China’s disaster management capabilities. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, annual average disaster-affected persons, deaths from disasters, and direct economic losses as a share of GDP decreased by 36%, 22.6%, and 38.7% respectively compared to the previous five-year average, according to People’s Daily.
The national comprehensive fire rescue force has grown to nearly 220,000 personnel, with six national regional emergency rescue centers fully completed. China has also established a five-level disaster information officer system spanning province, city, county, township, and village levels, with over 1.15 million personnel.
International media have noted the significance of the article’s timing and content. Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Xi’s remarks follow China’s strongest typhoon this year and a series of landslides that killed dozens, underscoring the growing toll of extreme weather on the world’s second-largest economy.
Looking Ahead
The article is expected to guide significant policy and investment decisions in China’s disaster management sector. Analysts anticipate increased investment in flood control infrastructure, particularly in northern China, and the integration of safety resilience requirements into urban planning. The emphasis on correcting performance evaluation imbalances may lead to new assessment criteria for local officials that balance development and safety considerations.
As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the article provides the authoritative framework for what the plan outline describes as “integrated improvement of disaster reduction prevention, disaster resistance construction, and disaster relief capabilities.” The recent issuance of the “Modern Emergency System Construction 15th Five-Year Plan” further complements this direction.
Xi’s article concludes with a reaffirmation of the socialist system’s superiority in disaster management: “We are a socialist country, and we must deliver excellent answers in every major disaster test, fully demonstrating the superiority of the socialist system.” This framing underscores the political significance of disaster management as both a practical governance challenge and a demonstration of the Party’s leadership capabilities.