Nearly 500 government officials had given up their stakes in coal mine businesses by 26 September following repeated warnings by the State Administration of Work Safety and the expiry of a government ultimatum, according to media reports.
Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety said on 26 September that 497 officials had withdrawn their mine stakes, according to incomplete data from nine provinces, including Guizhou, Hunan and Hebei, Xinhua reported. Among the officials, 325 were officials from government organs and 172 were employees of state-owned enterprises.
However, the report highlighted that while 27 provincial work safety departments had reported to the safety administration, only nine had provided figures on the number of officials surrendering their stakes in coal mines. In late September, about 30 officials in Hunan Province were exposed to have colluded with and protect local coal mine owners.
When answering a question about the rampant personal investments by local officials in Inner Mongolia – the second largest coal supplier in China, Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the South China Morning Post that extremely high profits would "encourage many officials to ignore central government orders and retain a commercial interest in mines. Similar with Professor Hu's view, in a commentary article published by the China Labour Bulletin on 29 August we also questioned the effectiveness of the government's order to ban officials' personal investments in coal mines in tackling repeated large-scale coal mine accidents, see: http://iso.china-labour.org.hk/public/contents/news?revision%5fid=17349&item%5fid=17013.
Following a flood at the Daxing Colliery in Xingning City, Guandong Province, which killed 123 miners in early August, the State Council issued an ultimatum on 22 August ordering all government officials to withdraw their stakes in coal mines within a month or they would face severe penalty or dismissal. According to another Xinhua report on 17 September, 18 people of the Daxing Colliery, including the mine owner Zeng Yungao, had been arrested. On 30 August, Southern Metropolis Daily revealed that Zeng had multiple identities – he is not only the mine's owner, but he is also a local government official, a delegate to the local People's Congress and a police officer.
Then, a top-level investigation taskforce led by the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection revealed that many local government officials held shares in coal mines, raising suspicions and stirring a nationwide controversy about whether they colluded with the mine's owners to conceal any coalmine accidents.
Although the one-month deadline had already passed on 22 September, official media reports said few officials from Guizhou Province have informed authorities about the surrender of their stakes in mine businesses. On the day after the government order expired, the safety administration warned that officials who failed to comply would face severe punishment or dismissal.
Inquiries into any remaining official stakes in mines will be completed by 15 October, according to the schedule set out in the State Council order. The administration said it would also release detailed national figures on the number of government officials with illegal investments in coal mines in October.
Meanwhile, Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, told a conference in Beijing on 23 September that a total of 136,700 accidental deaths were recorded in 2004, while China's gross domestic product was 13.6 trillion over the same period. He insisted that accidents had become an important factor "restricting the development of a harmonious economy and society, and have attracted the strong attention of the Chinese government and society." But he added: "Other countries' experiences tell us that the period of fast growth that China is now entering is a time of frequent industrial accidents, so it's no wonder that the situation is so serious."
Sources: South China Morning Post (24 September 2005, 27 September 2005), Xinhua News Agency (17 September 2005, 26 September 2005), Southern Metropolis Daily (30 August 2005), China News Service (23 September 2005)