Government Program to Shut Dangerous Coal Mines Proceeds Slowly, Results Mixed

Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated the commitment of the central government to reforming China's mining industry and closing illegal mines, but acknowledged that the safety situation remains serious despite official efforts, according to a January 25 Beijing News article. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has ordered the closure of China’s most dangerous mines, as part of a campaign to improve safety in the coal mining industry. Despite this order, nearly 60 percent of the mines ordered to close remain open and operating, according to a January 17 article in The Standard. The NDRC said that 5,001 mines were ordered to close, but only 2,157 actually closed. The Standard report also noted that the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) reported that 5,986 miners died in coal mine accidents in 2005 and 2,235 died in other kinds of ore mining accidents, for a combined average of 22 miner deaths each day.

Provincial inspectors have been slow to complete the necessary inspections in support of the mine closing campaign, according to a January 16, 2006 People's Daily article. The NDRC spokesman said that inspection work has been slow in Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guizhou, Shanxi, Yunnan, and Heilongjiang provinces, and in Chongqing municipality. The spokesman critized not only the slow inspection work, but also the manner in which local officials carried it out. He commented that they had no set framework or time limits for inspections, and the few standards they used are set excessively low.

Corruption also impedes reforms to the coal mining industry, according to Chinese news media reports. Despite an August 2005 State Council order that forbids local officials from owning shares in the mines that they supervise, inspectors found that many still own such shares, according to a January 9 report in the Southern Daily. For example, inspections in Guangdong province revealed that officials in Shaoguan, Qingyuan, and Meizhou cities had investments in mines worth almost 6 million yuan (US $7,441,030). After a Shanxi mine inspection team examined coal mine investments in November 2006, they found about 950 government officials had investments of 155 million yuan (US $19,176,527) in coal mines, according to the article. Of the 950 officials, 871 had to withdraw investments totaling 62,000,000 yuan (US $7,679,730) according to a Legal Daily article. The inspection revealed that some officials had transferred their shares to friends and family members to keep control of their coal mine investments. The Shanxi provincial inspectors shut 2,203 illegal mines and arrested 293 officials, according to the same article.