Chinese official elected chairman of typhoon committee

The ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee kicked off its 51st session on Tuesday in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong province, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said in a statement on its website.

Yu Yong, deputy director of CMA, was elected chairman of the committee. Due to its outstanding contribution in typhoon forecasting technologies and defense, the Guangdong (Provincial) Meteorological Service was given the "Dr. Kintanar Award for Typhoon-Related Disaster Mitigation."

At the session, the committee will also review its work in 2018, outline its plan for this year, and update its strategic plan for 2017-2021. The session will last four days.

A small expo will be held on the sidelines of the session to display the achievements China has made in weather satellites, typhoon monitoring, forecasting and data sharing.

The Typhoon Committee is an intergovernmental body established in 1968 under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), to promote and coordinate the planning and implementation of measures to minimize the loss of life and material damage caused by typhoons in the Asia-Pacific.

The committee is composed of 14 members: Cambodia, Chinese mainland, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.

Ten typhoons landed in the country's coastal areas last year. Typhoon Mangosteen, the 22nd named storm in the 2018 Pacific Typhoon Season, was the strongest. Thanks to accurate weather forecast, millions of people were evacuated from risky places in time without major casualties.

China also helped Vietnam and the Philippines to monitor Typhoon Mangosteen.