Commentary The July floods in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan Province in central China, provide a classic example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) crisis management model that is made up of three elements: concealing facts, information blackouts, and spinning official narratives. Concealing Facts There was no doubt that Zhengzhou experienced an exceptionally intense torrential downpour. The city’s meteorological bureau registered a 1-hour rainfall of 201.9 millimeters (8 inches) between 4 to 5 p.m. on July 20—this was equivalent to nearly one-third of the annual rainfall of 640 millimeters (25 inches) the city receives in a normal year. Understandably, this would cause serious city-wide flooding. The official narrative played up this fact and claimed that it was a “once in a thousand-year” event, implying that it was beyond human ability to avert the resulting loss of life and property. Tech-savvy netizens immediately dug up statistics to refute the official …