Soldiers carry sandbags to reinforce a dike on the Songhua River

In this story:

• Risk of disease high
• Crackdown on profiteering
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BEIJING (CNN) -- China evacuated a 350-mile stretch along the upper Yangtze River on Monday and issued a warning against profiteering from the summer floods that have inundated the country.

Torrential rains have swelled the Yangtze's tributaries, which converged near the city of Chonqing in the Sichuan province. The river then hit a new flood crest, the river's seventh since early July and the highest in a month of disastrous floods.

Officials warned that record high waters would lash the upper Yangtze for the next two days, the state-run China Youth Daily reported Monday. The waters could be as high as 15 1/2 feet above the emergency line.

All people and movable property were ordered away from a 350-mile stretch of the river, the newspaper said.

The spread of disease also is a concern, as millions of people have been made homeless by the floods. More than 2,000 people have died due to the flooding, the worst in 44 years.

The death toll is likely to rise when the Chinese government releases revised tallies Tuesday.

A Hong Kong Red Cross delegation held a press conference Monday to highlight the risk of disease.

"There is no sign of epidemic. That is true. But the risk is very high," said Dr. Poon Tak-lun, one of four physicians in the delegation that recently visited the flooded areas.

Poon told a news conference that conditions were especially bad in factories and schools where flooding victims are temporarily relocated.

"Since they brought with them the cattle and pigs and so on, these animals are living with them in the same classrooms, and they don't have a very good sanitation system there," he said.

The disposal of polluted water and drinking water supplies both were inadequate, Poon said.

Ivy Wu, the head of the delegation, said the sanitation situation is very worrying: "In some areas, flood water is trapped and stagnant for over a month, which poses serious health hazards to the victims."

Also on Monday, China announced a crackdown on profiteering from the floods and misuse of relief donations. There were reports that only about one-tenth of the $326 million that Chinese have given to flood relief efforts has been distributed.

In the industrial city of Harbin, police arrested company manager Liu Xiaoqiang for producing and selling substandard life vests. He sold 1,080 before being arrested.

The official Xinhua News Agency also said the government issued a warning about profiteering from the floods.

"We must sternly warn that those with ill-gotten wealth and those who use illegitimate means to reap staggering profits, destroy the order of the socialist market economy and disrupt market order, will meet legal punishment," Xinhua said.

In the Heilongjiang province, floodwaters have stabilized, but more than 20,000 soldiers continued to shore up dikes and embankments. The Daqing oil fields, China's largest, are near Harbin.

Nearly 1,500 oil wells were inundated by the flooding Nen and Songhua rivers, but officials declared victory in saving China's largest oil field, 100 miles northwest of Harbin.