China evacuates 1.8 million as Typhoon Bavi nears landfall

China evacuated more than 1.8 million people on Saturday as Typhoon Bavi churned toward the eastern coastal city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, one of the most powerful storms to threaten the country's densely populated eastern seaboard this year. The storm is forecast to make landfall around Wenzhou, home to some 10 million people, in the early hours of Sunday.reuters+2

Mass Evacuations Underway

State media reported more than 1.7 million people had been evacuated across Zhejiang province, with more than 100,000 relocated in neighboring Fujian province. China's Ministry of Emergency Management had warned that Bavi would strike the coast between Fuqing in Fujian and Wenling in Zhejiang, bringing extreme rainfall, destructive winds, and coastal flooding.watchers+2

China's National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert for the typhoon on Saturday. The storm, spanning roughly 1,000 km at its widest point, had weakened from its peak super typhoon intensity but still carried winds approaching Category 2 hurricane strength as it neared landfall. Parts of Zhejiang and Fujian face heavy to extreme rainfall from Saturday, with additional downpours expected across Jiangxi, Hubei, Anhui, and other provinces from Sunday.reuters+2

Flood Defenses Under Scrutiny

Bavi's arrival comes as analysts raise questions about whether China's infrastructure spending on flood prevention in recent years has been adequate given mounting fiscal pressures on local governments. A 2025 study examining how flood risks exacerbate China's local government debt crisis found that climate-related disasters strain already indebted municipalities. China's non-financial sector debt reached 296% of GDP by the third quarter of 2025, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.papers.ssrn+2

Mounting local government debt has constrained infrastructure investment in some regions, according to analysts at the Rhodium Group, which noted China's overall government deficit reached 9.0% of GDP. Beijing's 2026 budget acknowledged the need to address risks from local government debt alongside other challenges.npcobserver+1

Storm's Path of Destruction

Before reaching China, Bavi lashed Taiwan with heavy rain and battered Japan's Okinawa islands. Taiwan's weather authority had forecast up to 900 mm of rain in mountainous areas, while waves exceeding 7 meters were observed off the island's coast. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated in Taiwan, and the island largely shut down ahead of the storm.straitstimes+2

Bavi is the ninth named storm of the 2026 Pacific typhoon season and was classified as the season's second violent typhoon.wikipedia