A lot of people are confused as to why China reports so few deaths (only 16 so far 👇), with most victims classified as "missing" (546 so far). The reason is actually statistical rigor as opposed to trying to conceal the death toll, as some of the usual suspects are saying. Everyone in China knows these numbers mean that 562 people most likely died in the mudslide but, to be classified as "dead," a body needs to be recovered, or there at least needs to be solid evidence confirming death. China's official Natural Disaster Statistical Investigation System (which you can read here: mem.gov.cn/gk/zfxxgkpt/fdzdg…) explicitly defines this: "因灾死亡人口" (disaster deaths) means persons whose death is directly confirmed, while "因灾失踪人口" (disaster missing) covers those "whose whereabouts are unknown as a direct result of the disaster and whose death cannot be confirmed for the time being" (以自然灾害为直接原因导致下落不明，暂时无法确认死亡). Why do this? A few reasons: 1) A death declaration triggers irreversible legal consequences: inheritance, insurance payouts, spousal remarriage rights, cancellation of identity documents. So it'd be extremely inconvenient if someone who turned out to have survived were classified as dead 2) It helps maintain search and rescue going: classifying victims as "missing" rather than "dead" preserves the institutional obligation to keep searching 3) It's an anti-gaming mechanism: disasters are, by their very nature, prone to gaming numbers. Local authorities tend to underreport because many deaths is bad for their record and families tend to overreport because it's tied to receiving compensation. As such, the threshold for entering the system as "missing" is deliberately low to prevent underreporting: if someone is unaccounted for, they go into the system immediately. But, the corollary of this means that the threshold for moving from "missing" to "dead" needs to be deliberately high. 4) Lastly it's simply the most respectful thing to do for families: you want to give them a definitive answer, not a bureaucratic presumption. Keeping the "missing" classification open means identification work continues - DNA matching, forensic analysis, etc. - until families get actual closure. In such natural disasters, when the investigation couldn't conclude with certainty that someone is dead, China's Civil Code (Article 46) allows a court to declare death after just a 3-month public notice period, provided authorities certify that survival was impossible. This is likely what will happen for the majority of victims in this mudslide instance: in 3 months' time you'll likely see the official death toll revised to include most of the 546 currently listed as missing. This is, by the way, the way most serious countries do these things. For instance after Japan's 2011 tsunami, the initial reports listed just a few hundred dead - but over 16,500 missing. And, incredibly, as of 2023 - 12 years later - over 2,500 people were STILL listed as missing (asahi.com/ajw/articles/14858…). So, as is so often the case, the people shouting "cover-up" simply don't know what they're talking about. They decide in advance that China must be lying and then work backwards from that conclusion, whilst being completely uncurious about how China's systems actually work.