Typhoon Gaemi, the third typhoon of this year, made its second landfall in China on Thursday evening, according to the provincial meteorological bureau of Fujian.
With a maximum wind speed of 118 kilometers per hour at its center, the typhoon landed at the Xiuyu District in the city of Putian at around 19:50, according to the bureau.
As of 15:00 Thursday, more than 240,000 residents had been temporarily evacuated in the province and more than 5,000 rescuers in the cities of Fuzhou, Putian and Ningde, and Pingtan County were put on standby, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.
Gaemi made its first landfall at around midnight Thursday in eastern Taiwan's Yilan County. It has so far caused three deaths and 380 injuries and cut off power to more than 88,000 households on the island, according to local authorities.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, Typhoon Gaemi is projected to impact seven major river basins across China in about six days after it made landfall on the mainland.
The National Meteorological Center issued a red alert, the highest level, for Typhoon Gaemi on Wednesday and maintained it on Thursday morning. This is the first red alert for a typhoon this year.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Typhoon Gaemi makes landfall in Fujian
Typhoon Gaemi makes landfall in Fujian
Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit resonated with the common aspiration of more than 2.8 billion Chinese and African people and demonstrated China's firm will of moving forward hand-in-hand with Africa along the path of development, revitalization and modernization, several participants at the event have said.
In his speech on Thursday, Xi proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations be elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
He also announced that the Chinese government will provide 360 billion yuan (about 50.8 billion U.S. dollars) of financial support to Africa over the next three years.
"Everyone was happy to hear those news, so everyone was clapping. So now we are going to a higher level of relations between China and Africa," said Hamidou, a counselor at the Embassy of Comoros in Beijing.
"China understands Africa's urgent desire to advance modernization. We can learn a lot from China's development," said Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso Karamoko Jean Marie Traore.
Xi also suggested 10 partnership actions for modernization that China will take together with Africa in the next three years to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead modernization in the Global South.
"President Xi, through his long vision of the needs of countries and his interest in supporting development, has offered this as a real vehicle to promote exports of Africa to China, which is a huge market," said Alaa Ezz, secretary general of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, and Professions (UACCIAP).
"As he told this morning, we have many projects in digitalization, in capacity building, in health centers, support for health, for infrastructure, in the framework of the Belt and [Road]. And we think that we are very satisfied with this partnership. This is a win-win partnership," said Gabriel Mbairobe, Cameroon's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, the 2024 FOCAC summit brought together leaders from China and over 50 African countries, who highlighted the common pursuit of China and African countries in realizing modernization.
During the summit, both sides unanimously adopted two important documents -- a declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, and an action plan of the FOCAC for the next three years.
Xi's speech at FOCAC summit resonates with people's common aspiration: participants
