IN IMPERIAL CHINA, A RULER’S LEGITIMACY DEPENDED ON AN ABSENCE OF NATURAL OR MANMADE DISASTERS.

Typhoon Doksuri brought the most significant flood in 140 years to northern China, devastating the capital city of Beijing. Flooding led to widespread damage to bridges, cities, and towns, with citizen rescue workers claiming deaths in the thousands. A construction boom with shoddy building practices and poor city planning is evident in the scale of destruction.

This follows China’s mismanagement of its Covid crisis, with lockdowns destroying people’s livelihoods and causing widespread unacknowledged sickness and death.

Who can hold China’s Communist leaders to account? Perhaps heaven knows.