On August 26, a landslide disaster occurred along the border between Nepal and China. Mud and debris cascading down from the mountains destroyed numerous structures, including border checkpoint buildings, homes, bridges, and roads. So far, at least 700 people have been killed and more than 4,000 remain missing, including citizens of both China and Nepal, foreign tourists, and migrant workers from multiple countries. Given the circumstances of the disaster, the chances of survival for those missing are extremely slim, and the death toll is expected to continue rising. Some videos from the scene clearly captured the enormous scale and tremendous force of the landslide as it engulfed people and buildings.
This landslide is one of the world’s most severe natural disasters in recent years and one of those that have caused the greatest casualties. The way the disaster struck and claimed lives, as well as its sheer intensity, further demonstrated how suddenly such disasters can occur and how difficult they are to withstand. When torrents laden with thick mud, earth, sand, and rocks surged violently toward towns and villages, even people who had already seen the landslide approaching and were running desperately could not outrun the torrent and were swallowed by it. Many buildings, including sturdy border checkpoint structures, were swept away, leaving only their skeletal frames. Within just a few minutes, the lives of thousands of people and countless animals were lost, and the prosperity of entire towns and settlements vanished.
Whenever such rare, sudden, and devastating disasters occur, people are once again confronted with the fragility of human life and the dangers of nature. Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity’s capacity to transform the world has reached levels unimaginable in ancient times, including constructing enormous dams, “cutting open” continents to excavate canals, and building skyscrapers. People have also become increasingly confident in their ability to withstand natural disasters, including their capacity to predict typhoons, torrential rain, floods, and other hazards with considerable accuracy. It is only when sudden disasters causing severe casualties occur that people realize that humanity is ultimately still vulnerable and that not all natural disasters can be accurately predicted.
The landslide along the China–Nepal border is also not merely another purely “natural disaster,” but may well be related to the accelerated melting of ice and snow caused by global warming. Although the details of this disaster are still under investigation, the accelerated melting of ice and snow in the Himalayas and surrounding regions under global warming is already a widely recognized fact. This has made the region’s already fragile natural environment even more unstable and has also increased the likelihood of disasters such as landslides that were previously rare.
This means that areas once considered relatively safe are no longer safe, and that established common knowledge and experience are becoming obsolete. This is happening across the world. For example, the 2021 Henan floods exceeded expectations and caused tragedies including the flooding of the Zhengzhou Metro, where many passengers were trapped and died. In 2023, torrential rain and flooding struck Libya, a region that is normally arid, killing more than 5,000 people. All of these events are closely related to climate anomalies and increasingly extreme weather. The unprecedented casualties caused by this landslide disaster along the China–Nepal border are the latest evidence of the human catastrophes caused by the climate crisis.
If humanity cannot confront and respond more actively to the changes in the natural environment and human living conditions caused by climate change, then tragedies like this will inevitably continue to occur in various forms around the world. More people will face danger in places once considered safe and become victims because outdated experience is inadequate for dealing with new circumstances.
Yet in the real world, most people’s response to the climate crisis remains slow and inadequate. China, the world’s largest carbon emitter and one of the countries most frequently affected by climate disasters, is particularly lacking, both officially and among the public, in awareness of and attention to the climate crisis and its connections with specific disasters. This is worrying and tragic.
Of course, the unpredictable disasters humanity faces today do not arise solely from climate change. Even without climate anomalies, disasters such as earthquakes will still cause deaths and injuries. The 2025 Wang Fuk Court fire in Hong Kong also demonstrated the vulnerability of man-made high-rise buildings. No matter how many precautions people take against fires, there will always be some overlooked vulnerability—a case of “a single lapse despite a hundred precautions”—that can lead to a devastating disaster claiming numerous lives.
When people live in peace and happiness, they generally find it difficult to understand just how vulnerable humanity is. Only after experiencing or witnessing disasters do they profoundly realize how powerless human beings can be in the face of nature. Even though humanity has developed to the point where disaster-prevention equipment is virtually “armed to the teeth” and the internet and big data provide real-time monitoring of all manner of astronomical and geographical conditions, human beings remain creatures of flesh and blood. We cannot anticipate every contingency, much less withstand the forces of nature.
The China–Nepal border landslide also prompts reflection on the politicization of natural disasters and the conflicts among people of different identities and political positions. After the disaster occurred, people holding different political positions quickly voiced their respective perspectives in public discourse and attacked one another.
For example, people critical of the CCP and China have accused China of triggering the disaster by constructing dams and other facilities in upstream areas such as the Yarlung Tsangpo River and thereby disrupting the ecological balance. Those who do not recognize Tibet as part of China have deliberately referred to the China–Nepal border in messages of sympathy as the “Nepal–Tibet border,” thereby indirectly expressing support for Tibetan independence. Some people and media outlets have also accused China of blocking information from the disaster area and deleting disaster videos from social media, infringing upon the public’s right to know and freedom of the press and concealing the truth. Some make these criticisms sincerely out of concern for human rights and support for press freedom, while others simply “oppose for the sake of opposing.” Some extreme anti-China individuals—not merely opponents of CCP authoritarianism—have even taken pleasure in the disaster.
At the same time, Chinese authorities have emphasized the extensive rescue efforts undertaken by the Party and government after the disaster and commended civil servants and other personnel within the state system in the affected areas for remaining dedicated to their duties. Pro-government figures have also published comparisons of disaster-relief efforts in China and Nepal, emphasizing China’s stronger capacity for disaster response and its people-centered approach. Chinese authorities have also avoided addressing allegations of public-opinion control and the deletion of disaster videos, and have not responded to questions about whether upstream dams had any impact on the occurrence of the landslide. There is indeed a lack of transparency.
Compared with Nepal, where information after the disaster has been transparent, media interviews have been open, and the circulation of various disaster videos has not been restricted, Chinese authorities have clearly imposed strict controls on public discourse for reasons including maintaining social stability, with only CCTV and other state media allowed to enter the scene to report. CCP rulers have also long emphasized the need to “remain vigilant against foreign forces,” portraying normal journalistic activities by overseas media such as the BBC—including reporting on disasters, conducting interviews, and mentioning negative information—as attempts to “smear China.”
In short, after this landslide disaster, both those who support the CCP/Chinese government and those who oppose the CCP and China have, based on their respective positions, emphasized the “achievements” of their own side while criticizing the “failings” of the other. The natural disaster has become yet another new “arena” for two opposing sides with longstanding grievances, where they wage battles of public opinion in an attempt to attack the other side while gaining more applause and benefits for themselves.
The politicization of natural disasters, rescue efforts, and their aftermath is not limited to disasters related to mainland China; such situations exist throughout the world. In the United States, for example, Democrats and Republicans frequently criticize each other for inadequate disaster response following hurricanes, wildfires, and the disasters they cause, while boasting about their own achievements in disaster prevention and relief. In Taiwan, verbal battles between the Blue and Green camps also invariably erupt after earthquakes and typhoons.
Although many people understand that natural disasters should not be politicized, and although there has been endless criticism and reflection on this phenomenon, it can never be avoided in reality. No matter how advanced human civilization becomes, people still cannot escape competing for credit, shifting blame, forming factions, and attacking those who differ from them. This, too, is a tragic reality—one that has existed far longer than the climate crisis and is deeply rooted in human life.
Nevertheless, after this disaster, governments around the world and many members of the public have also broadly expressed sympathy for the affected regions and their people. Rescue assistance and donations arriving from all directions have alleviated the suffering of local people and demonstrated that a certain degree of solidarity still exists in an increasingly divided world. The modern globalized world order established after World War II and consolidated after the Cold War continues to operate quietly, allowing most of humanity to maintain a basic commitment to humanitarianism and solidarity in the face of natural disasters.
Here, the author also extends condolences to the victims of the China–Nepal border landslide disaster and hopes that humanity can have fewer political divisions and more universal love, work together to address climate change and various global issues, and protect life and civilization.
(The author of this article, Wang Qingmin (王庆民), is a Chinese writer living in Europe and a researcher in international politics.)
