Apple CEO announces donation to flooded areas of Shanxi

Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Chinese social media platform Weibo the company is making a donation to help affected communities in Shanxi province, which suffered from heavy rainstorms recently.

"As the Shanxi region turns toward recovery, we want to do our part supporting relief efforts and helping with the rebuilding," Cook said in a post on Sina Weibo, the country's Twitter equivalent.

Data from the local meteorological department show from Oct 2 to 7, the average precipitation in Shanxi reached 119.5 mm, nearly four times the average rainfall in October.

Days of continuous rain have caused floods that halted production, damaged roads and interrupted the power supply in many areas.

Wang Qirui, director of the Shanxi Emergency Management Department, said at a news conference held on Tuesday rains have triggered disasters including landslides and flooding that have affected more than 1.75 million people in 76 counties and caused more than 5 billion yuan in economic losses.

Earlier, Chinese technology giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, ByteDance and Pinduoduo lent a helping hand, each donating 50 million yuan to aid relief and reconstruction efforts.