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China's man-eater
mines
By Yan Hua
HONG
KONG - China is the world's largest coal producer
with an annual output of more than 1.6 billion
tons, but it is also known for the most dangerous
coal mining industry on earth. Official statistics
show that every year, at least 6,000 colliers are
killed in coal pit accidents, and that's just the
official figures. Although such accidents seemed
to be receding over the recent years following
emergency measures by the government, profiteering
mine owners still continue to make a mockery of
safety regulations, risking innocent lives in
pursuit of the black gold.
A fierce gas
explosion recently hit the Sunjiawan coal mine
funded by the state-owned Fuxin Mining Group in
Northeast China's Liaoning province, leaving over
200 workers dead and another 30 severely injured.
This was the deadliest coal mine accident ever in
history. A multi-department investigation panel
has been instituted to find the cause of the
explosion, and compensation ordered. But experts
fear that disasters like this will not cease
anytime soon because the exorbitant profit margin
in coal mining is the real culprit and as long as
this is not fixed, the perverse incentive to mine
dangerously will persist.
As China's
economic engine breaks new speed limits,
consumption of natural resources - coal and
natural gas in particular - continues to grow
rapidly. Coveting the expanding coal market,
shrewd investors from Zhejiang province's Wenzhou
city have taken the lead in the "coal rush". The
coal price hike seen in the past few months may
have induced the Sunjiawan coal mine owners to
order overtime work through the Chinese Lunar New
Year vacation, and overwork may have led to
neglect of safety norms, leading to the accident.
Last year, when flocks of Wenzhou touts
speculated in the buoyant coal market, unsafe and
unauthorized coal pits in the coal-strewn Shanxi
province of central China set in motion a string
of similar accidents. According to coal business
insider, if one puts 100 million yuan (US$12.05
million) in a mine in Shanxi, he will earn it back
in only two years. Beijing Morning Post cited a
Shanxi mine owner as saying, "Mine owners from
Zhejiang have piled up a fortune." Wenzhou's
legion of mine owners is now suspected to be
manipulating coal price. According to the Shanghai
Evening Post, statistics indicate that they have
purchased some 60% of small and medium-sized mines
in Shanxi, valued at over 4 billion yuan. Added
together, these mines can churn out no less than
80 million tons of coal every year, accounting for
about a fifth of provincial annual output or 5% of
the national yearly production.
It is the
great profitability in coal mining that gives rise
to the serial accidents that China's collieries
have come to be known for. Not only are safety
norms overlooked to over-produce coal to book
heavy profits, but also many mine owners employ
less expensive novice colliers and omit necessary
staff training to lower the cost. Local officials
are often lured into the game with bribes so that
they look the other way as rules are flagrantly
violated. There are instances when mines marked
dangerous have reopened under the officials'
noses. Safety orders are also not obeyed by
avaricious officials who know that they will be
rewarded for high coal production that goes to
feed China's roaring economy.
In the case
of the Sunjiawan explosion, the profit-hungry mine
owner had set two goals for 2004: first, an annual
turnover of 1.2-1.3 million tons; second, a total
income over 160 million yuan. With such an
ambitious goal, were the right safety norms
followed? That's exactly what the investigation
panel looking into the accident is trying to find
out.
According to a survey released
recently by the State Administration of Production
Safety, China produced 1.728 billion tons of coal
in 2003. But only 2,090 mines - with a total
annual output of 1.1 billion tons - have been
registered as following safety standards as of the
end of 2003. Thus, even by official reckoning, the
coal production of the balance of 628 million tons
was secured at the cost, or at least the risk, of
human lives.
Incidentally, at a
jiaozi (dumplings) dinner with the workers
of a coal mine in the Fuxin city of Liaoning
province on Chinese New Year's Eve in 2003,
Premier Wen Jiabao declared: "Safety has the top
priority in mining, mark my words." Despite the
government's numerous assertions of coal mining
safety standards since, precious little has been
done on the ground. The result: one Sunjiawan
follows another.
(Copyright 2005 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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