State Administration of Work Safety Director Calls for Coal Mine Safety Measures

Li Yizhong, minister in charge of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), spoke about China's rising number of coal mine accidents at an industrial safety conference held in Beijing on July 15, according to an article in the People's Daily. Li said that 2,672 miners had died during the first six months of 2005, an increase of 3.3 percent from the previous year. He also stressed that safety is a principal responsibility of everyone working at all levels of production. Government concerns about poor safety in coal mines have intensified after two major coal mine accidents that killed 166 miners in Shaanxi province in November 2004 and 214 miners in Liaoning province in February 2005.

Conditions in Chinese coal mines have become so hazardous that on July 21 SAWS Minister Li ordered that 5,290 coal mines suspend operations because their managers had not complied with safety standards. Li warned that the government will punish those who continue to operate unlicensed coal mines, which would be closed and disabled by filling in the mine shafts to guarantee that they cannot be reopened.

Reports in the Chinese and foreign press about coal mine disasters since May 2005 show that Minister Li's concerns are justified. In May, nine coal mine accidents in eight provinces caused 146 deaths, while in June, four accidents in four provinces caused 41 deaths. For the month of July (through July 19), seven coal mine accidents were reported in six provinces causing 169 deaths. The most serious of the recent accidents was at the Shenlong mine in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where 83 miners died. Xinhuanet reported that SAWS attributed the Shenlong accident to "a number of safety loopholes, including overproduction, lack of a work safety license, and ill-management."