On Monday, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake occurred in Changning County, Yibin City, Sichuan. However, some residents received warnings on their mobile phones indicating a 7.7-magnitude earthquake. The China Earthquake Administration accused the Chengdu High-Tech Disaster Mitigation Institute, which provides early warning services, of repeatedly and improperly broadcasting information, and stated that the relevant authorization had been terminated a month prior to the earthquake.
The Chengdu High-Tech Disaster Mitigation Institute reported after the earthquake that its early warning system, at the fifth second after the quake, reported a magnitude of 7.7, then repeatedly lowered the figure, converging to 3.9 by the seventeenth second. The institute admitted that this was the largest deviation since the system began operating in September 2011 and stated it would investigate the cause and improve the magnitude calculation method for shallow earthquakes.
The Sichuan Provincial Earthquake Administration also issued a statement on the same day, accusing the institute of falsely using the name "China Earthquake Early Warning Network" and broadcasting the 7.7-magnitude early warning to the public via smartphones, as well as Xiaotiancai smartwatches and other channels. The statement noted that, as of July 22, the Sichuan Provincial Earthquake Administration had already revoked the institute's third-party authorization to provide earthquake early warning information.
In response to the accusation of "falsely using" the name, the Chengdu High-Tech Disaster Mitigation Institute issued two additional statements on the same day, denying the claim. The institute asserted that the "China Earthquake Early Warning Network" was jointly established by the institute and the China Earthquake Administration under a memorandum of cooperation signed in 2020, and that since November of that year, it has provided services to the public under this name.
Regarding this, on Wednesday the China Earthquake Administration responded that earthquake early warnings are considered seismic information and should be uniformly released by earthquake authorities. Third-party organizations must first go through technical evaluations and trial operations, and sign agreements with earthquake authorities. They may only broadcast information uniformly produced by the China Earthquake Early Warning Network.