China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.
China closes coal mines to tackle safety issue
By Alexandra Harney in Hong Kong
16 September 2005
China has ordered the closure of all coal mines in southern Guangdong province and threatened to shutter up to one third of those around the country in a dramatic effort to address safety issues in its mining industry.
State-controlled media reported Friday that all 253 coal mines in Guangdong, which produces one-third of China's exports, would be closed. Earlier this month, Guangdong ordered the closure of 112 coal mines after an accident at one killed 123 miners.
"Coal mining will soon cease to exist as an industry in south China's Guangdong province," the China Daily, the government's mouthpiece, reported. The paper quoted Li Yizhong, director of China's State Administration of Work Safety, as saying that mines elsewhere that fail an inspection could be closed by the end of the year if they fail to meet safety standards.
Lax law enforcement and rampant corruption make China's mines the world's deadliest. More than 6,000 people died in Chinese coal mines last year.
However, labour activists say the country's unrelenting demand for coal – which supplies about three-quarters of China's burgeoning energy needs – will make even the latest draconian measures difficult to enforce.
When the government has closed mines in the past, "the first result is the price of coal goes up," said Robin Munro, research director of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based labour advocacy group. This leads more small mines to open to meet the demand from industry, he said.
The closure of the mines in Guangdong, which generated only 8m of the 1.9bn tonnes of coal produced in China last year and relies heavily on coal from other provinces, is also a tacit acknowledgment of the government's failure to enforce regulations in the sector.
"I think Guangdong's move just reflects the truth that China is not well-equipped to deal with the safety of its coal mines. [The decision to close all 253 mines] sounds like forcing an entire family to take medicine when only one of them is sick," said Luo Yun, a former miner who is now a professor at the China University of Geosciences in Beijing.
It was not clear how many miners would be put out of work by the move. The government plans to set up a fund to compensate mine operators and help displaced miners find jobs.