What Can Open Sources Reveal About Beijing’s Lethal Floods?

Earlier this week, the Beijing authorities positioned all 16 of its districts on excessive alert in anticipation of torrential rain. Greater than 40 individuals have since been confirmed useless, and 80,000 evacuated citywide because of the floods.

However what can open supply information inform us in regards to the harm prompted?

Satellite tv for pc imagery has allowed us to trace the influence on each city and rural areas. On social media, nonetheless, a deluge of AI-generated fakes have continued to attract way more views than many real eyewitness movies.

“Gaps” within the metropolis’s readiness

In northeast Beijing, close to the most important reservoir in northern China, the best loss of life toll was recorded within the city of Taishitun. Thirty-one of the confirmed fatalities had been from an aged care dwelling located close to the banks of the Qingshui River, which runs by means of the city.

Taishitun Village, Miyun District, Beijing. Compares 18/07/2025 to 30/07/2025. Credit score: Planet.

Yu Weiguo, a Communist Get together secretary for the Miyun District, which incorporates Taishitun, mentioned at a press convention that there have been “gaps” within the metropolis’s readiness.

“Our information of maximum climate was missing. This tragic lesson has warned us that placing the individuals first, placing human life first, is greater than a slogan,” Yu mentioned.

A lack of meals and farmland

Throughout Hebei Province, which neighbours Beijing, agricultural land was additionally closely affected. In Jiuying Village, greater than 1,300 hectares of farmland, a lot of it low-lying cornfields, was submerged, based on Reuters. Satellite tv for pc information from the world north and east of Jiuying Village reveals the dimensions of the flash floods.

Jiuying Village, Hebei Province. Compares 17/07/2025 to 30/07/2025. Credit score: Planet.

Zooming out even additional, Copernicus’ False Color (City) band reveals flooded areas in darkish blue, highlighting the influence throughout Hebei Province.

Copernicus’ False Color (City) band reveals flooded farmland throughout Hebei Province in blue. Credit score: Copernicus.

A deluge of AI on Youtube

But on different open platforms, reminiscent of social media and video sharing websites, the image turned sophisticated by accounts posting mis-and-disinformation.

Looking out in English, the outcomes for #beijingflood on YouTube Shorts revealed a number of AI-generated thumbnails, one in all which surpassed 18 million views. In the meantime, shorts containing actual footage struggled to climb previous 1,000 views.

Prime 5 outcomes with the best views for #beijingflood had been all AI generated movies. Credit score: YouTube.

All 5 of the highest outcomes carried the hallmarks of AI generated content material: vehicles randomly showing and disappearing, disproportionately sized objects, and overly dramatised scenes lasting just a few seconds.

On Fb, when looking for “Beijing flood,” a number of AI-generated faux posts claimed actor Jackie Chan had died within the floods. Utilizing AI-generated photographs of Chan mendacity in a hospital mattress or a casket, these posts collectively gathered greater than 150,000 likes.

By comparability, Chinese language social media platforms, together with Baidu’s Haokan Video, Weibo and Douyin appeared to show only a few AI-generated movies. As a substitute, the overwhelming majority gave the impression to be real posts documenting the real-world influence of the floods.

Montage of movies discovered on Haokan and geolocated by Bellingcat to a number of districts in Beijing.

In an try to confirm a pattern of what we had been seeing, Bellingcat geolocated a number of movies. Observe that Google and Baidu use completely different coordinate methods. We recognized any landmarks in Baidu Maps, earlier than finalising our geolocations in Google Earth Professional.

One video confirmed a sequence of clips, together with one in all a bulldozer driving alongside a flooded highway with two rescue boats in tow. This footage was geolocated to the Folks’s Authorities workplace in Taishitun City.

Later, in one other clip from the identical video, a bulldozer could be seen, once more not removed from the Taishitun authorities workplace.

The purple roof, blue roof, and four-storey constructing, in addition to the bushes and streets, all matched the identical location close to to the Taishitun authorities workplace. Credit score: Bellingcat.

One other video, posted on Haokan, displaying a destroyed bridge was geolocated east of Bulaotun Village. The collapsed bridge may also be seen in Planet imagery from 30 July.

The ability line, highway signal, surrounding metallic body, billboard and bushes all match particulars within the satellite tv for pc picture, backside left. Backside proper, PlanetScope imagery from 30 July reveals the river engulfing the bridge. Credit score: Bellingcat.

While looking Chinese language social media platforms, some recycled footage from previous floods might be seen. For instance, on Douyin, the Chinese language model of TikTok, {one of the} high outcomes when looking for “Beijing flood” was a video from 2021 displaying a mudslide in Japan the place buildings and bushes had been engulfed.

Bellingcat reached out to the Beijing Municipal Folks’s Authorities for remark however didn’t obtain a reply on the time of publication.