China, Taiwan brace for Typhoon Bavi, potentially deadliest storm in years

Typhoon Bavi was churning southeast of Taiwan on Thursday with winds clocking near 200 kilometers per hour, and the region was bracing for what could be the most destructive tropical storm in years. The storm stretched roughly 1,000 kilometers across at its widest—about the size of France—and forecasters predicted it would skirt Taiwan's northern coast before making landfall in China's Fujian province on Saturday evening. The timing was brutal: China was still pulling bodies from the wreckage of Typhoon Maysak, which had swept through the southwestern Guangxi region just days earlier, killing at least 39 people with nine more still missing.

Taiwan's defense ministry had positioned some 29,000 soldiers on standby as the island braced for what could be its most powerful typhoon since Kong-rey in 2024, which killed three people. Forecasters warned that Taiwan's northern mountains around Taipei could receive up to one meter of rain. Jason Chang, a forecaster with Taiwan's Central Weather Administration, told Reuters that storms of Bavi's scale had been "fairly rare in recent years," and that this one was set to be the largest by size to hit the island since 1987.

In Suao, a fishing town on Taiwan's northeastern coast, hundreds of boats crowded the harbor seeking shelter. Residents lined up for sandbags from local authorities while farmers rushed to harvest rice before the weather turned. Chen Ming-hui, a 60-year-old captain of a small fishing vessel, inspected the ropes securing his boat and reflected on previous storms that had sunk vessels and flooded the town. "Don't be fooled by the nice and calm weather now," he said. "A storm like this could be the most terrifying." About 110 kilometers southwest, in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, meteorological agencies warned residents to prepare for violent winds, landslides, flooding, and storm surges on Friday and Saturday.

The scale of Maysak's destruction was still unfolding across China. In the worst-hit towns of Guangxi, residents were attempting to rebuild their lives before the next storm arrived. State media footage showed people climbing out of second-story windows onto the backs of rescue workers, pulling belongings from floodwaters, and aid workers deploying drones to deliver supplies to areas cut off by flooding. At a farm in Binyang County, rows of dead pigs lay decomposing after being submerged for two days. Three lions at Guigang Zoo had died in the floodwaters, and about 100 animals—including zebras, porcupines, parrots, and North American raccoons—remained missing.

The storm's approach was already disrupting transportation across the region. Japan Airlines cancelled 48 domestic flights and two international flights scheduled for Friday, affecting roughly 7,610 passengers. All Nippon Airways announced cancellations of 34 flights mainly serving Okinawa's airports on Friday, impacting about 1,800 people, with another 33 domestic flights cancelled on Saturday affecting 5,900 passengers. Xiangbo Feng, a tropical cyclone research scientist at Imperial College London, explained that Bavi had spent considerable time intensifying over the open Pacific, drawing energy from warm ocean waters and accumulating large amounts of moisture. "When it would make landfall or get close to coastal regions, the damage could be catastrophic," Feng said. "A small change in Bavi's track could have a significant influence."

The back-to-back storms underscored a broader vulnerability. China, the world's second-largest economy, along with Japan and Taiwan, faced increasing exposure to destructive weather events that scientists linked to climate change. This year carried particular concern because the expected emergence of El Niño could drive up temperatures and fuel more frequent and intense typhoons. AccuWeather expert Jason Nicholls cautioned that while Bavi would lose some wind intensity starting Thursday, it would remain a dangerous storm as it impacted Taiwan and eastern China from Friday through Monday. The region was entering a window of heightened risk, with little time between disasters to recover.