Speech by Li Yizhong, Minister of State Administration of Work Safety

December 23, 2005

Good afternoon!

Today, SAWS, together with the Ministry of Supervision, announces the results, subject to public scrutiny, of the investigation and handling of the 6 catastrophic accidents in coal mines which occurred from November of last year.

Since the beginning of this year, the CPC and the government have taken a combination of major measures to stimulate the development of work safety. Right from January 1 to December 18, a total of 119,827 persons were killed in 691,057 accidents (including traffic accidents) throughout the country, a decline of 7.4 percent and 9.6 percent respectively as compared with the same period of last year. It is estimated that the nationwide death toll resulting from accidents throughout the year can fall below 128,000. Except for coal mines and fishery vessels, both of which suffer increased deaths, the death tolls of the other industries and sectors drop noticeably, as compared with the same period of last year. The death tolls with the 30 statistical units at the provincial level (there are a total of 32 such units throughout the country) are within their respective limits.

While the overall trend is good and the death toll drops, the national work safety concerns remain serious, as major accidents occur from time to time, and in particular, there are frequent accidents in coal mines. According to the statistics, since the beginning of this year, 11 accidents each killing at least 30 persons have occurred in coal mines, 4 of them each with a death toll of over 100, resulting in huge casualties and losses and serious negative impact. These accidents drew great attention from the leaders of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, who, in each case, made prompt instructions, demanding immediate actions to be taken to rescue the victims, and ordering SAWS, together with the relevant departments including the Ministry of Supervision and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, as well as the local governments, to form an investigation team that conducted serious investigations on behalf the State Council.

By far, among the 11 catastrophic accidents in coal mines which occurred this year, 6 cases have been concluded, one of them being the gas explosion at the Sunjiawan Coal Mine of Fuxin City in Liaoning Province on February 14, whose investigation result was made public in May of this year. The other five are: the gas explosion which occurred at the Xishui Coal Mine of Shuozhou City in Shanxi Province on March 19, killing 72 persons; the gas explosion which occurred at the Nuan’erhe Coal Mine of Chengde County in Hebei Province on May 19, killing 50 persons; the gas and coal dust explosion which occurred at the Jiajiabao Coal Mine of Ningwu County of Xinzhou City in Shanxi Province on July 2, killing 36 persons, and involving a deliberate cover-up; the gas explosion which occurred at the Shenlong Coal Mine of Fukang City in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region on July 11, killing 83 persons; and the flooding which occurred at the Daxing Coal Mine of Xingning City, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Meizhou City in Guangdong Province on August 7, killing 121 persons. In addition, the investigation result of the gas explosion which occurred at the Chenjiashan Coal Mine under the Tongchuan Mining Administration in Shaanxi Province on November 28, 2004, killing 166 persons, is hereby made public as well. The above 6 accidents (5+1) resulted in a combined death toll of 528 and direct economic losses valued at over 200 million yuan. Investigations show that liability is involved in all these accidents. The basic information regarding the 6 accidents is indicated in the handouts. Therefore, I will not elaborate on them.

To strengthen the investigation and handling of accidents, we must find out their causes, punish the liable persons, learn the lessons and implement the corrective measures; we can not let them go until we have done all the above (the Not-Let-Go Principle). The investigation results of the 6 catastrophic accidents, as made public today, give a clear indication that some coal mines have not implemented the work safety policies and laws and regulations in a serious, responsible manner; some local authorities have not been resolute enough, and their work have not been effective enough, to rectify or close the coal mines that do not meet the work safety standards and the illegally-operated coal mines; and some safety watchdogs and industry-specific regulators have not fulfilled their responsibilities, or at least have failed to do so in an effective manner. The specifics are the following:

First, resistance to law enforcement and illegal production. The responsible persons and the owners of the coal mines where the accidents occurred showed poor safety awareness and adopted casual attitudes. Some defied law and the supervisory authority, disregarded the safety of the miners’ lives, and even resisted law enforcement by organizing production activities illegally. The Daxing Coal Mine in Guangdong Province was continuously engaged in illegal production, in the absence of a complete set of the licenses and certificates as necessary. It encroached on the anti-flooding coal pillar and put the miners’ lives at risk for production. The Nuan’erhe Coal Mine in Hebei Province refused to carry out the order made by the safety watchdogs requiring it to stop operations pending safety improvement. By conducting production activities illegally, it gave rise to a catastrophe.

Second, production beyond the capacity, intensity and headcount allowed. Lured by profits, the coal mines where the accidents occurred disregarded their production, ventilation and equipment operation capacities, by conducting mining activities in excess of the intensity allowed. And they showed no respect for the headcount allowed for underground operations. The Shenlong Coal Mine in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had a designed annual coal production capacity of 30,000 tons, and was conducting an expansion project to reach 90,000 tons. But without going through the examination of its expansion project with the relevant authorities, it arbitrarily opened the bulkhead to conduct risky production activities. It actually produced 290,000 tons last year and 180,000 tons for the first half of this year. The Chenjiashan Coal Mine in Shaanxi Province was for a long time engaged in excessive production, which resulted in bad coordination between the mining of coal and the tunneling, a serious hazard that paved the way for the accident.

Third, chaotic management and impotent regulations. Looking into the 6 accidents in coal mines, we can find that in the large state-owned coal mines, the management level was going downhill and the three kinds of violations (violation of safety regulations in giving work-related instructions, safety violation in undertaking work-related activities and violation of labor disciplines) were not uncommon; and in the small coal mines, the management was chaotic and a lot of safety hazards existed. In these coal mines, production activities were organized in chaos, the underground operations were contracted out improperly, human resources were abused, and less-than-adequate training was conducted. In the worst cases, no training was conducted and miners do their jobs without the certificates necessary. The Chenjiashan Coal Mine in Shaanxi Province, a key state-owned mine, was highly gassy, yet ran short of a good system and the necessary equipment on the management of gas and ventilation, and violated the code of practice in setting the gas discharge tunnel. The Nuan’erhe Coal Mine in Hebei Province was alerted to a dangerous gas level 1 hour 24 minutes before the accident. Unfortunately, it took no precaution and continued with its risky operations, which ultimately led to the accident that inflicted huge casualties.

Fourth, ineffective supervision by the relevant departments. The 6 accidents unexceptionally point to ineffective supervision by the relevant local departments. The Xishui Coal Mine in Shanxi Province had been ordered to stop operations and conduct safety improvement, before it began to operate illegally. But one inspection team after another found nothing when inspecting it, while the safety supervisor stationed at the Mine by the safety watchdog practiced dereliction of duty. The local departments failed not only to stop it from operating illegally and from mining beyond its area, but also to detect its illegal act of purchasing explosives without authorization. The Daxing Coal Mine in Guangdong Province had been exposed to serious flooding hazards even before it started production, but the safety watchdog issued a work safety license to it by violating the safety regulations.

Fifth, corruptive forces as protective umbrellas behind the accidents. Particularly, in the gas and coal dust explosion at the Jiajiabao Coal Mine in Shanxi Province, which killed 36 persons, the director of the Coal Industry Bureau and the head of the Mine Rescue Brigade in Ningwu County jointly plotted the underreporting of deaths, connived at by the deputy secretary of the Ningwu County Committee of the CPC and the deputy head of the Ningwu County Government. They reported 19 deaths deceptively and transferred the other 17 bodies of the dead to Inner Mongolia. In the flooding of the Daxing Coal Mine in Guangdong Province, it was found that both the chairman and the vice chairman of the board of the company were government officials at the time of the accident, some law enforcement bodies and regulatory departments had given the Mine permission to go ahead with its illegal activities, and corruption in the form of power-for-money deals made by some government officials in collusion with the mine owner was astonishingly serious.

The liable persons involved in the 6 catastrophic accidents have been punished in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations and the Not-Let-Go Principle. Where crimes are constituted, the offenders have been handed over to the judicial departments for justice. The mine managers involved have been disqualified for their qualification certificates, and the coal mines where the accidents occurred have been given economic penalties and referred to the local governments for closure. We hope that, all coal mines will learn from the bitter lessons that these accidents have taught us, by strengthening their various measures to improve work safety.

The 5th Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee put forward the guiding principle of “Safe Development”, specifying the strategies, priorities, policies and measures for improved work safety. At the Central Economic Work Conference, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for strict enforcement of the work safety standards. And at the 116th Executive Meeting of the State Council on December 21, the current work safety situation was reviewed ad hoc. In light of the above, we must take yet more effective and sterner measures to strengthen the responsibility system and tighten the management of safety, so as to rapidly put a stop to the frequent occurrence of major accidents, particularly in coal mines, and push the national work safety situation towards stabilization and improvement.

Thank you all!