Natural calamities are products of a metabolic rift caused by the overexploitation of nature under the capitalist system, which creates imbalances within nature itself. Super cyclones, tsunamis, global warming, storms, floods, and other natural disasters are becoming regular occurrences these days due to over exploitation of nature. Without any discrimination on the basis of religion, ideology, nationality, social status, culture, or political system, nature unleashes large-scale devastation across different parts of the world.
In the last week of May 2026, heavy rainfall led to the overflow of rivers in Rongjiang, which submerged parts of Guizhou Province in China and affected more than 30,000 residents. Other provinces, including Hunan, Guangxi, and Hubei, were also severely affected by flooding. More than 24,000 people were evacuated from the flood-affected regions. The Chinese state did not spare any time in carrying out search, rescue, and relief operations. Every Chinese life matters to the Chinese state led by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Similarly, devastating floods occurred in various states across the United States, with Texas being the hardest hit. In Texas, American citizens have been abandoned by the American state. Mexican firefighters were helping with search and rescue operations in solidarity with the people of Texas, while the Trump administration remains busy deporting Mexican migrants from the U.S. with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Even before the emergency situation arose due to heavy rainfall on 8th and 9th of June, 2026, in the Fujian, Guangdong, and Yunnan provinces, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in Beijing had not only issued warnings but also prepared its contingency plan for emergency response. All government agencies are directed to coordinate and immediately dispatch rescue teams and experts to affected areas to face risks, manage the crisis, and ensure the protection of lives.
This shows a different approach to human lives and suffering. The US has the money and infrastructure to launch multiple wars and provoke conflicts around the world, but it is unable to defend its own citizens during natural calamities. Even a small state like Odisha in eastern India has the best disaster management record in terms of rescue, rehabilitation, and emergency response, achieving zero casualties during natural calamities after its experience of disaster during the supercyclone in 1999. It is not that the US can’t help or doesn’t have the ability to help its citizens during a crisis. Rather, the US state and its capitalist system are not designed to help people during a crisis. They are designed to protect the property of the capitalist class. Every crisis is an opportunity for the American capitalist class to make money with the help of the American state.
American capitalism and its imperialist character are designed to promote crisis in order to domesticate, dehumanize, and demean people, thereby sustaining an exploitative system driven by profit. The American state is designed to serve the capitalist system faithfully, and it works accordingly. It is not a state for the people. The American state is a single-window insurance policy and company for capital and the capitalist classes.
While American policymakers and the ruling classes are planning the next stealth bomber and deciding which country to invade next, the Chinese state and its CPC leadership are planning to develop an advanced emergency response system modernization under the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026–2030). The Chinese state is planning for unified, centralized, and efficient management to prevent human casualties during natural calamities. The Chinese state and government are shaping a people-centered development and modernization that prioritizes the safety and security of the people. In contrast, the American state and its government are further entrenching a security state for global dominance, where both American citizens and people across the world suffer under its imperialist wars, conflicts and interventions.
The American state and government domesticate and dehumanise people and undermine democracy, whereas the Chinese state empowers people under its decentralized, democratic system of governance led by the people to protect the interests of the people. The CPC works as a messenger of the people to defend their interests, safety, and security during crises and in their everyday lives as well.
Home, food, health, and education are secured in China, whereas American citizens suffer from homelessness, unemployment, and food insecurity. Human health is a business for American insurance companies, and educational expenditure is outsourced to banks. American students suffer under the burden of educational loans after their studies. Home loans are causing mental distress to millions of Americans, while the Chinese state takes care of the basic needs of all Chinese citizens for a dignified living.
These are not merely differences in approaches or human experiences during crisis but fundamental ideological differences between the American state and the Chinese state in terms of its commitment to human safety, security and human lives. The American state seeks profit in its actions, visions, missions, and everyday operations whereas the Chinese state looks at human welfare as the core of its everyday existence.
Capitalism breeds all kinds of crises and profits from them; therefore, capitalism can never offer any solution to any humanitarian crisis or natural disasters. Capitalism can never be an alternative. It can never provide health, happiness, or human security. Therefore, socialism—and its contemporary praxis in China, and its commitment to people and nature—is the only solution to end the capitalist metabolic rift, which causes imbalances in nature and leads to natural disasters.
