Anyhow, my question is this; why were all these aircraft (including CX) flying through a tracked and mapped severe typhoon? What did they expect to happen? Do pilots in this region treat typhoons with disdain? Why fly into something which you really should know is going to risk the safety of your aircraft and passengers (and - more so - the cabin crew)?
Algol,
In 20+ years of flying in this region, I am yet to see a typhoon that could not be safely traversed at higher levels. The forecasts always look dire, but most of the seriously bad weather is concentrated in the lower parts of the storm. We don't see long, impenetrable lines of Cbs in these storms. The weather radar does a good job of showing the areas that should be avoided and it is normally quite easy to find a way through. Sometimes it's even quite smooth! The biggest problem is caused by the increase in temperature near the centre of the storm. I certainly wouldn't want to be flying near rec max, for the reasons stated in previous posts. That said, even lower levels around FL310-ish don't normally present a problem wrt the weather.
I can assure you we don't take undue risks and we certainly don't treat these things with disdain.