They were building infrastructure in Nepal. Their families in China want to know what happened to them

She kept calling and calling – countless times – but her husband never picked up.

The woman, who CNN has given the pseudonym Lili, said her husband had spoken with a friend at 8:27am on Wednesday. That was roughly 10 minutes before an enormous landslide careened down a mountain in Nepal, generating an explosive flood wave that ripped through a border area with China and continued into Nepal.

Lili hasn’t heard from her husband, who was working on a Chinese construction project in the South Asian country, since.

Hers is one of many families across China desperate for information about loved ones who were in the area when disaster struck, including dozens of Chinese nationals who are believed to have been working across the border in Nepal.

Now, these families are wondering whether rescue efforts in Nepal are reaching their loved ones – and are urgently calling for more proactive updates on the progress of those efforts from within China.

Several family members of such workers traveled to Lhasa, the capital of China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region, on Monday to seek more information from the state-backed construction firm employing their relatives – and to urge the company to step up rescue efforts and share more information. Families are also asking for local officials in Tibet to help expedite rescue efforts at project sites in Nepal, according to a draft letter to authorities seen by CNN.

More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead and thousands remain missing after Wednesday’s catastrophe, according to authorities in both China and Nepal. Families from both countries – and around the world – are desperate for news of loved ones in the area, which was also a popular route for international tourists.

While updates on the numbers of those rescued or confirmed dead have been frequently released on the Nepal side, information has moved much more slowly coming out of China – prompting questions about transparency. Beijing has defended the release of information from its remote disaster area as open and timely.

Inside China, news coverage in the country’s tightly controlled media environment has been dominated by state media reports and focused on the efforts of emergency responders at the China-Nepal border area. The experiences of the Chinese families, who are among those waiting for news, have had limited visibility.

“Our family is in anguish,” Lili told CNN, adding that her children had stayed in their bedrooms since they learned that their father was missing. CNN is using pseudonyms in order to protect the families’ identities due to the sensitivities of speaking to foreign media.

Lili’s husband, who is in his fifties, had been working on the reconstruction of Nepal’s Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi highway, a road stretching through part of northern Nepal to the border with China. Its construction is run by Chinese state-backed engineering firm Tibet Tianlu Company – one of several Chinese firms participating in infrastructure projects across Nepal.

After the disaster struck, the company deployed its specialists as well as relief supplies and heavy machinery, while its leadership visited the hard-hit Gyirong port area in Tibet, where rescue efforts are underway, Tibet Tianlu Company said in online statements.

But Lili and family members of other workers on that project worry that rescue efforts are being hindered by the location of the project – in Nepal, but close to the Chinese border.

“It’s still the families themselves who are organizing and trying to get the rescue efforts moving — going to talk to the (company) leaders, asking them to coordinate with the Nepali government,” Lili said.

The sister of another worker on the same highway project told CNN that she believes Nepali rescue workers had not yet been able to reach the area where the project is located. “We haven’t received any information at all … our whole family is extremely worried,” she said.

Tibet Tianlu Company Limited

In a draft letter addressed to government officials in Tibet seen by CNN, relatives of 24 of the workers on the highway project expressed concern of a gap in “cross-border rescue efforts.”

“Local rescue resources and manpower in Nepal are severely limited and unable to reach the core area to conduct searches. On our side, restrictions arising from the border mean that Chinese rescuers are temporarily unable to cross into the site to carry out rescue operations directly,” said the letter, which CNN has not confirmed was delivered to officials.

“We sincerely ask you to understand the families’ anguish… and take concrete steps to get rescue operations underway,” it said. The families also called for authorities to require the company to establish a regular update mechanism for the progress of search and rescue operations, so that “information is transparent and timely.”

When reached by phone, a person from Tibet Tianlu’s Board Secretary Office said a team had been set up to handle the situation following the disaster and the company was in touch with families that had arrived at their offices on Monday. When asked about any plans for company rescue efforts on the Nepal side, the person said she “hadn’t received any information” about this.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Around 100 Chinese nationals are unaccounted for in the disaster-affected area on the Nepal side, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. They are among what Nepali authorities said are more than 500 foreign nationals missing in country overall as of Monday night.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday said the country was “making every effort to search for and rescue people reported missing both in China and abroad.” All Chinese nationals who had been reached in the disaster zone in Nepal had been safely evacuated, it added, without giving specific number.

Chinese workers, as well as official lenders and construction firms, have played a key role in the build-out of Nepal’s roads, hydropower and other projects in recent years, including under the auspices of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road global infrastructure drive.

Since the disaster, family members of workers from at least three projects in Nepal, including two hydropower projects, have been in touch with one another, CNN has learned, exchanging information and concerns online – as they await official information.

Nepal Prime Minister's Office/Handout/Reuters

Among them, a man in his 20s CNN is calling Jun said his father had been working at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project in Nepal. The project is one of roughly a dozen hydropower facilities that have become a focal point for rescue efforts.

More than 500 workers remained missing at Upper Trishuli-1 as of the latest update from the Independent Power Producers Association Nepal. The project is being built by a Korean engineering firm, with a subsidiary of Chinese state-backed energy giant PowerChina also involved.

“What I really can’t understand is why Chinese rescue teams aren’t going over to the Nepalese side to help search for our Chinese nationals,” Jun said.

China has sent emergency aid supplies to Nepal and is sharing satellite and hydrological data to aid rescue efforts, as well as providing assistance with DNA identification. Over the weekend, it dispatched nine rescue tunnel experts to the country to advise on efforts to locate workers that may be trapped in hydropower project tunnels.

Nepali Army/ Nepal National Mountain Guide Association

But the lack of information is agonizing for family members like Jun, who said he had last spoken with his father, who is in his forties, during a regular family video call earlier this month.

When the mudslide struck on August 26, Jun and his family didn’t pay much attention to the news until the following day, he said, when a labor agency called to tell them that his father went missing. Jun then found his father could no longer be reached by phone.

When China for the first time on Sunday opened up two dedicated hotlines for Chinese families seeking information, Jun said he called multiple times, but the line was always busy. He’d already been in touch with the Chinese embassy in Nepal and the hydropower project manager but hasn’t been able to get information about his father’s whereabouts.

He said he wants to know the status of the search efforts – “it’s already been such a long time, right? It’s already… it’s the sixth day already,” he said Monday.

That painful count is also being done by families of those who were believed to be at Gyirong port in China when it was hit by a wall of floodwaters on Wednesday morning.

The impact obliterated buildings there. No survivors have been reported found since rescue workers arrived Friday afternoon at the port, according to accounts from rescue workers cited by state media.

Tibet Radio and Television Station

Updates about the missing have been slow to emerge from the area, which cannot be reached by road. The risk of additional flooding and the fact that the area is now covered by thick mud are factors impacting the speed of rescue and recovery efforts there. Information about the area has been dominated by reports from state media, in addition to official government updates.

That’s part of a usual playbook by Chinese authorities who look to closely control information flows and ensure data confirmation ahead of its release – part of efforts both to crack down on fake reports and shape public opinion.

According to China’s latest update from Sunday, there were 16 dead and 546 people missing on its side of the border. More than 250 foreigners are among the missing, local authorities in Tibet said. Chinese authorities have released new figures on the confirmed dead and missing five times since the disaster, as of Tuesday morning.

Independent aid groups are not involved in operations, while foreign journalists are restricted from Tibet without special permissions. CNN is also aware of comments from journalists from outlets that are not China’s national-level official media suggesting they have been barred from reporting in Tibet.

Censors have been keeping close watch on online platforms, removing disaster-related videos posted by ordinary users and reprimanding at least a dozen people authorities accused of spreading fake news about the scale of the disaster. During major national incidents, the Chinese government is widely seen as swift to crack down on any forms of dissent or organized efforts to respond or share information outside official channels.

In response to a question about assertions that China was not being forthcoming about the scale of the disaster within its borders, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday China has been “releasing information openly, transparently and in a timely manner.”

But for family members of those who were working in Gyirong port – as with those waiting for information from Nepal – the wait for confirmation of what happened is interminable. Some have taken to social media in recent days to call out for information from any other sources.

“Seeking help from locals at Gyirong port,” one person posted on the social media platform RedNote last week. “My cousin, who serves as a border guard there, has been out of contact. What should we do? He has two children at home.”

她不停地打电话，打了无数次，但她丈夫始终没有接听。

这位被CNN化名为莉莉的女士说，她的丈夫周三早上8点27分曾与一位朋友通过电话。大约10分钟后，尼泊尔发生大规模山体滑坡，引发的洪水席卷了中印边境地区，并继续涌入尼泊尔境内。

自那以后，莉莉就再也没有收到丈夫的消息了，她的丈夫当时正在南亚国家参与一个中国建筑项目。

在中国，像她这样的家庭有很多，他们都迫切希望了解灾难发生时身处灾区的亲人的消息，其中包括数十名据信在尼泊尔边境工作的中国公民。

现在，这些家庭想知道尼泊尔的救援行动是否已经抵达他们的亲人身边，并紧急呼吁中国方面更积极地提供救援进展的最新信息。

周一，几名工人的家属前往中国西藏自治区首府拉萨，向雇用他们亲属的国营建筑公司寻求更多信息，并敦促该公司加大救援力度，提供更多信息。据美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）看到的一份致西藏地方官员的信函草稿显示，家属们还请求西藏地方官员协助加快尼泊尔项目现场的救援工作。

据中国和尼泊尔当局消息，周三发生的灾难已造成超过1000人死亡，数千人失踪。来自两国以及世界各地的家属都迫切希望得到身处灾区的亲人的消息。该地区也是国际游客的热门旅游路线。

尽管尼泊尔方面频繁发布获救人数和确认死亡人数的最新消息，但中国方面发布的信息却缓慢得多，这引发了人们对信息透明度的质疑。北京方面则辩称，其从偏远灾区发布的信息公开透明且及时。

在中国，由于媒体受到严格控制，新闻报道主要由官方媒体主导，且聚焦于中尼边境地区应急救援人员的工作。那些仍在等待消息的中国家庭的经历则鲜为人知。

莉莉告诉CNN：“我们全家都非常痛苦。”她还说，孩子们自从得知父亲失踪后就一直待在自己的房间里。由于接受外国媒体采访涉及敏感信息，CNN使用了化名以保护家属的身份。

莉莉的丈夫五十多岁，一直在参与尼泊尔夏布鲁贝西-拉苏瓦加迪公路的重建工作。这条公路贯穿尼泊尔北部，直达中国边境。公路的建设由中国国有工程公司西藏天路工程有限公司负责——该公司是参与尼泊尔各地基础设施项目的多家中国企业之一。

西藏天路公司在网上发表声明称，灾难发生后，公司立即调派专家、救援物资和重型机械前往灾区，公司领导也前往受灾严重的西藏吉隆港地区视察，救援工作正在进行中。

但莉莉和该项目其他工人的家属担心，由于该项目位于尼泊尔，但靠近中国边境，救援工作受到了阻碍。

莉莉说：“现在仍然是家属们自己在组织和努力推动救援工作——他们去和（公司）领导交谈，要求他们与尼泊尔政府协调。”

另一名参与同一高速公路项目的工人的妹妹告诉CNN，她认为尼泊尔救援人员尚未抵达项目所在地。“我们完全没有收到任何消息……我们全家都非常担心，”她说。

西藏天路有限公司

CNN看到的一封致西藏政府官员的信件草稿中，24名公路项目工人的亲属对“跨境救援工作”的不足表示担忧。

“尼泊尔当地的救援资源和人力严重不足，无法抵达核心区域展开搜救。而我们这边，由于边境限制，中国救援人员暂时无法进入事发地点直接开展救援行动。” 这封信中写道。CNN尚未证实这封信是否已送达相关官员。

声明中写道：“我们恳请您理解家属们的悲痛……并采取切实措施，尽快展开救援行动。”家属们还呼吁有关部门责令该公司建立定期更新搜救行动进展的机制，以确保“信息透明及时”。

记者电话联系到西藏天路公司秘书处的一位工作人员，对方表示公司已成立小组处理灾后事宜，并已与周一抵达公司办公室的遇难者家属取得联系。当被问及公司在尼泊尔一侧是否有救援计划时，该工作人员表示“尚未收到任何相关信息”。

拉杰什·库马尔·辛格/美联社

据中国外交部消息，约有100名中国公民在尼泊尔灾区下落不明。尼泊尔当局称，截至周一晚间，该国共有500多名外国公民失踪，他们只是其中的一部分。

中国外交部周一表示，中国“正全力搜寻和营救国内外失踪人员”。外交部还补充说，所有在尼泊尔灾区被找到的中国公民均已安全撤离，但未透露具体人数。

近年来，中国工人以及官方贷款机构和建筑公司在尼泊尔的道路、水电和其他项目的建设中发挥了关键作用，其中包括在中国领导人习近平的旗舰项目“一带一路”全球基础设施建设倡议的支持下开展的项目。

据 CNN 报道，自灾难发生以来，尼泊尔至少三个项目（包括两个水电项目）的工人家属一直保持联系，在网上交流信息和担忧，同时等待官方消息。

尼泊尔总理办公室/供图/路透社

其中一名20多岁的男子，据CNN记者Jun称，他的父亲曾在尼泊尔上特里苏里1号水电站工作。该项目是目前救援行动重点关注的十几个水电站之一。

根据尼泊尔独立电力生产商协会的最新消息，上特里苏里一期水电站仍有500多名工人失踪。该项目由一家韩国工程公司承建，中国国有能源巨头中国电力建设集团有限公司的子公司也参与其中。

“我真正无法理解的是，为什么中国救援队不去尼泊尔那边帮助搜寻我们的中国公民，”Jun说道。

中国已向尼泊尔运送紧急援助物资，并分享卫星和水文数据以协助救援工作，同时提供DNA鉴定方面的帮助。上周末，中国还向尼泊尔派遣了9名隧道救援专家，为搜寻可能被困在水电站隧道中的工人提供建议。

尼泊尔军队/尼泊尔国家登山向导协会

但对于像 Jun 这样的家庭成员来说，信息的匮乏令人痛苦不堪。Jun 说，他最后一次与四十多岁的父亲通话是在本月初的一次例行家庭视频通话中。

8月26日泥石流发生时，俊说，他和家人并没有太在意新闻，直到第二天，一家劳务中介打电话告诉他们，他父亲失踪了。俊随后发现，父亲已经无法通过电话联系上了。

周日，中国首次开通了两条专门供中国公民家属查询信息的专线，俊说他多次拨打，但始终占线。他此前已联系过中国驻尼泊尔大使馆和水电项目经理，但仍然无法获得父亲下落的信息。

他说他想知道搜寻工作的进展情况——“已经过了这么长时间了，对吧？已经……已经是第六天了，”他周一说道。

周三上午，洪水袭击中国吉隆港时，据信当时正在那里的遇难者家属也在进行着同样的痛苦统计。

爆炸摧毁了当地的建筑物。据国家媒体援引救援人员的话报道，自救援人员周五下午抵达港口以来，尚未发现任何幸存者。

西藏广播电视台

由于该地区道路交通不便，失踪人员的消息迟迟未能传出。洪水再次来袭的风险以及该地区目前被厚厚的淤泥覆盖，都影响了救援和善后工作的进展速度。除了官方发布的消息外，有关该地区的信息主要来自国家媒体的报道。

这是中国当局惯用的伎俩，他们力求严格控制信息流动，并在数据发布前进行确认——这既是为了打击虚假报道，也是为了塑造公众舆论。

根据中国周日发布的最新数据，中方一侧边境地区已有16人死亡，546人失踪。西藏地方当局表示，失踪人员中有超过250名外国人。截至周二上午，自灾难发生以来，中国官方已五次公布新的死亡和失踪人数。

独立援助组织不参与行动，外国记者未经特别许可不得进入西藏。CNN还注意到，一些非中国官方媒体的记者表示，他们也被禁止在西藏进行报道。

审查人员密切监控网络平台，删除普通用户发布的与灾难相关的视频，并对至少十几名被当局指控散布有关灾难规模虚假信息的人员进行了训诫。在重大国家事件发生期间，中国政府普遍被认为会迅速镇压任何形式的异议或组织性应对行动，以及在官方渠道之外分享信息的行为。

针对有说法称中国没有如实披露境内灾害规模，中国外交部发言人周四表示，中国一直在“公开、透明、及时地发布信息”。

但对于那些在吉隆港工作的工人的家属来说——就像那些等待尼泊尔方面消息的人一样——确认事件真相的等待似乎遥遥无期。近几天来，一些人已经在社交媒体上呼吁从其他渠道获取信息。

上周，一位网友在社交媒体平台RedNote上发帖求助：“我在吉隆口岸的表弟是一名边防警卫，现在联系不上了。我们该怎么办？他家里还有两个孩子。”