China exerts tight grip on information after floods along the border with Nepal

BANGKOK -- It’s been more than a week since deadly flash floods killed hundreds and left thousands missing along the China-Nepal border — and practically nothing is known about the victims on the Chinese side.

The disaster, which has killed more than 1,000 people and left more than 4,500 missing in the two countries, has once again highlighted China’s tight grip on information surrounding disasters and its efforts to control what is — and is not — said about them.

The death toll is updated only once every few days, and access to the disaster area has been granted only to top-level state media outlets, which have avoided broadcasting the names or faces of the missing and their relatives in favor of videos showing the logistics of delivering aid or rescue dogs working hard.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people across China have been detained or fined for social media posts that questioned aspects of the official narrative.

It's a sharp contrast to the Nepalese side of the border, where officials have regularly updated lists of dead and missing people, while journalists and social media posts have documented the unfolding disaster and the recovery effort.

Grieving families were made visible, giving voice and shape to those who were lost, as people held symbolic burial rites or went on their own journeys to look for loved ones.

After an update Sunday, China did not release new figures until Wednesday, when it said 21 people had been killed and 541 were missing in Tibet, including 261 foreigners from 23 countries. Late Friday, it raised the death toll to 31 and said 531 people remained unaccounted for.

Nepal has allowed up-close reporting in disaster-struck areas

Nepal's government has published continuous updates on rescue efforts, including creating a website listing the names of those rescued. The army has published footage of rescues via helicopter, and of people being pulled out of the hydropower tunnels, completely caked in mud.

Nepal has shared near daily updates about rescued people and allowed journalists, both domestic and foreign, to report from the area.

Journalists have been able to visit disaster-struck sites. While the government in Nepal did issue some restrictions, such as requiring journalists to provide accreditation, reporters were ultimately allowed to report from government sites like aid camps where rescued survivors are temporarily being kept, and visit mass burial sites.

Access to the Chinese disaster zone is restricted to state media

In contrast, access in China was limited for all but a few journalists from China's two state media outlets, Xinhua News and CCTV.

The Associated Press requested access to affected areas soon after the disaster struck, but has not been given permission to visit the area.

China often tries to control information about disasters, but in the tightly controlled region of Tibet the flow of information has been especially limited.

Tibet is a Chinese autonomous region that has gone through cycles of protest, unrest and government repression since China asserted control over the region in 1951. Today, the region is the focus of extensive central government investment and poverty alleviation efforts. Communications are also heavily monitored and restricted, making it difficult for Tibetans to communicate freely with people outside China. Travel to Tibet requires special government permission for all foreigners, especially journalists, even if they are fully accredited to work in China.

CCTV has focused on the official response, highlighting President Xi Jinping's instructions for disaster relief and sharing dispatches focused on heroics, such as rescuers being flown in via drone, hanging by a rope, or police comforting a family member who lost a loved one. Xinhua News has issued official reports about the disaster and technical dispatches about the science of the glacial lakes.

Some Chinese journalists have received directives to not conduct interviews with family members of dead or missing people and to use only material from Xinhua, according to Human Rights Watch.

China punished people who doubted official death toll

Meanwhile, China has broadcast its efforts to punish people who expressed doubt about the official narratives.

State media have widely circulated a report from the Tibetan Cyberpolice about 10 cases in which police across China punished people for “spreading rumors online” about the disaster.

That could mean things like questioning the official death toll, as in one post that read: “It’s clear that at least 1,000 people were washed away, yet the official report only says three people dead and 265 missing."

Punishments ranged from five to 10 days in detention by police, with a fine of $150 imposed in some cases.

China is often slow to release complete information on the death toll of major disasters. After a typhoon brought severe flooding to the southwestern province of Guangxi in early July, the government updated the official death toll figure more than a month later from 39 dead to 159.

The government has raised the reported death toll from the floods several times, most recently to 31 on Friday.

Voices of some victims' families are heard in small overseas Chinese outlets

Relatives of a few missing people have spoken publicly through the rare channels that exist outside direct Chinese control.

Aquarian, an independent Chinese media outlet operating in exile, interviewed family members of missing Chinese victims, including Peng Guangming, a young man who worked on a Chinese-supported highway project on the Nepal side of the border. Peng was last in touch with a colleague about 10 minutes before the flood.

Another one of the missing is a woman named He Hongrong, according to X account Fat Parrot, which has been sharing posts from Chinese social media onto X. The X user declined to be interviewed, but said they had been in touch with He's family and a friend.

She was last seen on the Nepal side of the border, carrying a green backpack, waiting to cross back into China. She had hired a driver to take her back to Lhasa, in Tibet. Her family is hoping that by sharing a photo of her on X, they will find someone able to provide information about her whereabouts.