Politics
A deadly mine explosion in China killed 82 people. Crackdown could reduce coal production
Bloomberg News And Reuters
Beijing: The causes of a gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China are under investigation and company officials have been arrested after the country’s deadliest mining accident since 2009.
The accident sparked a massive rescue operation with hundreds of rescue workers, promises of an “uncompromising” investigation and an intervention by President Xi Jinping and top officials. Immediate increased surveillance is almost certain – potentially threatening overall near-term coal production, power generation and Beijing’s efforts to prioritize energy security.
Xi called on authorities on Saturday to “spare no effort” to treat the wounded and carry out operations.
search and rescue operations and ordered an investigation into the incident. He called for stricter inspections and risk controls, especially during the current season, when heavy rains and flooding are more common.
Premier Li Qiang echoed the directives, demanding transparent disclosure of information and stricter enforcement of security responsibilities in key sectors. China the news agency reported.
State newspaper on People’s Daily published a front-page editorial about the accident on Sunday morning calling for greater attention to safety in production and “completely reversing the trend of prioritizing development over safety.”
Guo Xiaofang, head of Qinyuan County in Shanxi, where the mine is located, told a news conference Saturday that 247 workers were on duty underground at the time of the explosion. Two people are still missing, while 128 were injured and hospitalized and 35 were unhurt. Rescue efforts continued on Sunday.
The Liushenyu mine is owned by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal Coking Group and its four mines have been closed and company executives arrested, officials said at the news conference.
China’s State Council investigation team will conduct “a rigorous and thorough investigation” into the accident and called for a nationwide review of mining safety measures and a crackdown on illegal practices, including hidden work sites, falsified monitoring data, unclear worker numbers and inappropriate subcontracting.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing was sent to Shanxi to oversee emergency response efforts, including search and rescue, medical treatment and consequence management. China reported. He urged authorities to verify the number of missing workers and avoid secondary losses.
Six teams totaling 345 people were dispatched by the Ministry of Emergency Management to assist in the rescue efforts, according to local reports, while victims are treated for their injuries, including exposure to toxic gas.
China has significantly reduced coal mining deaths in recent years, but the government has also pushed production to a record high to meet energy security requirements.
Even after years of spectacular growth in renewable energy, coal remains a key pillar of China’s energy mix, supporting power generation and industrial activity. It is also one of the few options to fill the current supply gap of liquefied natural gas from the Persian Gulf.
High-profile mining incidents tend to trigger “nationwide safety inspections and stepped-up enforcement,” said David Fishman, director of the Shanghai-based Lantau Group. “This has been the case in the past, and it is reasonable to expect it to happen again this time due to the scale of the accident and the immediate strong statements from the central government, including Xi himself.”
In 2021, a crackdown in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party curbed production to the point that it contributed to a nationwide coal shortage and electricity cuts.
Beijing has found less disruptive methods. Even after the last major disaster – a 2023 landslide at a mine in Inner Mongolia that killed 53 people – authorities responded with a focus on accident prevention, not overall production.
It is not yet clear whether the Liushenyu mine will trigger a similarly restrained response, even though it produces coking coal and accounts for only 0.1 percent of Shanxi’s total annual coal production. Last year, she was sanctioned twice by local authorities for breaching safety regulations.
All 25 coal mines in Qinyuan County have now suspended production, according to a report by Chinese consultancy MySteel, and others in the wider Changzhi region have also started halting work, leading to temporarily restricted supplies.
Bloomberg, Reuters
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