The death toll is down in China’s accident-plagued coal industry, but local officials who collude with bosses of dangerous mines are hurting safety efforts, government officials said in Beijing Thursday.
Dozens of officials have been punished for corruption or negligence in fatal accidents in the past year, said
Li Yizhong, minister of the State Administration of Work Safety.…Some 6,000 Chinese miners were killed last year in fires, floods, cave-ins and other disasters despite repeated official promises to improve safety. Many deaths were blamed on managers’ indifference to safety rules or lack of required equipment. [Full Text]
(Photo of Li Yizhong)