China’s national weather observatory on Sunday continued an orange alert for Typhoon Khanun, which is approaching the country’s southern coast bringing rough gales and heavy storms.

At 5 a.m. Sunday, the eye of Khanun, this year’s 20th typhoon, was above the South China Sea, 570 km southeast of Xuwen County, south China’s Guangdong Province, packing winds of up to 38 meters per second, according to the National Meteorological Center (NMC).

The NMC said the typhoon is likely to hit the coast between Zhanjiang, Guangdong and Wenchang, Hainan Province in the early hours of Monday with winds of up to 40 meters per second.

It is expected to later weaken and turn southwest toward central Vietnam, according to the NMC.

The observatory also issued a yellow alert for storms Sunday morning as Typhoon Khanun is bringing heavy rainfall and strong gales.

From Sunday to Monday morning, parts of Zhejiang, Shanghai, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan will experience heavy rain, the NMC said. In some areas, precipitation is expected to be up to 200 millimeters.

China has a four-tier color-coded system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.

In face of the approaching typhoon, China’s State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters has activated a level III emergency response, urging local authorities to make thorough preparations for possible disasters.

The headquarters warned that Khanun will be at its peak when it makes landfall and will bring serious threats to activities in coastal areas and waters along its path.

To avoid casualties and property damage, local governments should take precautions and suspend work, classes and transportation if necessary, the headquarters said.

It has already sent eight work teams to Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Shanghai to help prepare aid and relief ahead of the typhoon’s arrival.

In Hainan, high-speed train services were suspended from early Sunday, while ferries on the Qiongzhou Strait, which connects the island province with Guangdong on the mainland, were suspended from Saturday morning, according to local authorities.

The Seventh Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) endorsed Saturday a decision made by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to expel Sun Zhengcai and eleven other senior Party officials from the CPC.

Sun, former secretary of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, was removed from his Party post and put under investigation in July this year.

Ensuing investigation found that Sun had betrayed Party principles and lost political stance, ignoring the Party code of conduct and rules.

He was found to have seriously violated the CPC’s eight-point code on frugality and maintaining close ties with the masses, seeking pomp, ostentation and privileges.

In addition, Sun was held accountable for nepotism and seeking benefits in selection of officials. He was found to have leaked confidential Party information and seriously breached Party rules on integrity.

He took advantage of his power and influence to seek benefits for others, accepted a “huge amount” of money and gifts in return, sought substantial benefits for his relatives’ businesses and accepted valuable gifts.

Also, the investigators accused Sun of bureaucracy and sloth in work and degradation and power-for-sex trades in life.

Last month, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee expelled Sun from the Party and dismissed him from public office.

Sun leads a long list of 12 names, all former senior CPC officials whose expulsion from the Party were endorsed at the plenum.

They include Huang Xingguo, Sun Huaishan, Wu Aiying, Su Shulin, Wang Sanyun, Xiang Junbo, Wang Jianping, Tian Xiusi, Li Yunfeng, Yang Chongyong and Mo Jiancheng.

The meeting also endorsed punishment on another three officials. Li Liguo and Yang Huanning were placed on two-year probation within the Party and Zhang Xiwu was removed from his Party post.

The four-day Seventh Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded Saturday in Beijing with a communique issued.

Entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a work report, which was discussed at the plenum.

It was decided at the plenum that the 19th CPC National Congress will be convened from Oct. 18 in Beijing, according to the communique.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Archaeologists recently excavated 800-year-old city walls and gates at site in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

China is developing the world’s fastest amphibious multi-role vehicle, which can be used in personnel and supply transportation at sea as well as for special warfare.

The four-wheeled vehicle is being developed at the China North Vehicle Research Institute in Beijing’s southwestern suburbs. The facility is one of the biggest institutions under China North Industries Group Corp, the country’s largest maker of land armaments.

The vehicle uses a v-shaped hull to minimize the hydraulic drag. It is propelled by compact pump jets in waters with the wheels retracted.

With a weight of 5.5 metric tons, the proof-of-concept vehicle reached a top speed of 50 kilometers per hour as it traveled through calm waters during a test earlier this year, the institute said. This bested the world’s fastest amphibious vehicle of its kind, made by the British company Gibbs Amphibians, which has a maximum speed of 48 km/h in water.

The institute has not published other specs about the vehicle such as its land speed and operational range.

Amphibious vehicles are mainly used for military purposes and are usually launched at sea from amphibious assault ships, amphibious transport docks or hovercraft to conduct a forced entry into semi-aquatic areas. Their core mission is to spearhead a beach and to secure coastline for landing troops. Other tasks include transporting personnel between shores and ships and providing fire support.

Most amphibious vehicles in the world move slowly in water. For instance, the United States Marine Corps’ Assault Amphibious Vehicle, commonly known as AAV7, has a top water speed of 13.2 km/h, and Italy’s Iveco Super-AV, an eight-wheeled amphibious vehicle, is able to move 10 km/h in water. The US and Japan are developing new-generation military amphibious vehicles that will be capable of traveling at least 40 km/h.

A chief designer of the vehicle at China North Vehicle Research Institute who requested anonymity said designing such vehicles is never an easy job, as the engineers overcame a number of technical difficulties.

“We spent a lot of time and resources on finding proper methods to reduce hydraulic drag and the hull’s weight. We also focused on devising a set of equipment to make sure the vehicle would be able to move fast on both land and water,” he said, adding that all of the major parts used on the vehicle were developed by Chinese engineers on their own.

“Designs for some parts on this vehicle had never been worked out by others before us,” the designer said. “We are leading in this field.”

Qin Zhen, executive editor of Ordnance Knowledge magazine, said the ability to move fast in water is crucial to any amphibious combat vehicle. “It is difficult for them to use rapid-changing maneuvers in waters to dodge enemies’ fire, therefore moving fast is the most reliable way to increase their survivability,” he said.