The extreme heatwave wreaking havoc across China

China is struggling to limit the impact of its longest and most widespread heatwave since records began more than 60 years ago. Temperatures have reached the highest the country has ever recorded and a drought is wreaking havoc across much of southern China. It is compounding the multiple economic challenges facing China’s communist leaders, including the fallout from strict Covid-19 lockdowns and a bursting property bubble.

Maximiliano Herrera, a weather historian who monitors extreme heat around the world, has described China’s soaring temperatures as the most severe heatwave ever recorded anywhere. The authorities have declared a drought emergency, warning that the critical autumn harvest is under ‘severe threat’. Almost half China’s production of rice, the country’s largest food crop, comes from the six worst hit areas.

More than 900 million people across 19 provinces have been affected. The epicentre is Sichuan, a region of 83 million people which relies on now water-starved hydro-electric plants for 80 per cent of is power.