By HUSSEIN ISMAIL HUSSEIN

Wen Jiabao comforts the son of a coalmine blast victim.

The day Premier Wen took office he stated, “Leaders should be closer to the masses.” His visit to comfort and talk with everyday workers in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province on January 1, 2005, where a few weeks previously a gas blast in the Chenjiashan Coalmine had killed 166 workers, was by no means his first. But it was the first time he publicly shed tears. In one household that had lost its breadwinner, Wen Jiabao embraced the victim’s son and shared his expression of grief. He later had a simple lunch of steamed bread and tea in a tunnel 1,300 meters below ground as he chatted with workers at another mine in the city.

China is both the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, and each million tons it produces cost four lives. To some this statistic is an inevitable aspect of production costs. But to miners who spend most of their days in subterranean pitch darkness, and their families who await their safe return each day, it is a fearsome specter of death and pain that haunts everyday life.

Having happened only a month after the Daping Mine accident in Henan Province, where a slightly lower death toll of 148 was reported, the Chenjiashan Coalmine blast on November 28, 2004 was at that time the most serious in the past 44 years of China’s coal mining industry. Yet it was soon exceeded by the deaths of 214 workers in a gas explosion at the Sunjiawan Coalmine in Fuxin, Liaoning Province on February 14. The dazed nation, still recovering in the warm aftermath of the lunar New Year, was once more plunged into mourning.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao having lunch with coal miners in a tunnel in Tongchuan.

In 2004 there were 6,027 deaths from 3,639 mine blasts in coalmines across the country -- the human price for advancing development. China has the highest economic growth rate in the world, and the worst work safety record. Hundreds of thousands die in the workplace every year. Official statistics show that production accidents cost 136,755 lives in 2004, most of them in mines and chemical and firework factories.

China has 600 state-owned large coalmines, 2,600 under the jurisdiction of provincial and municipal governments, and 22,000 run by small cities and private individuals. They are concentrated in 13 provinces. According to a 2003 field study by the State Administration of Work Safety, the Ministry of Finance, and State Development and Reform Commission, in the coming years major state-run coalmines will need US $6 billion to improve their safety measures. Inadequate work safety funding appears to be the leading cause of mining accidents, and in an effort to relieve the burden on state coffers, mining departments are being called upon to explore investment channels.

In some quarters, accidents in coalmines and other workplaces are attributed to humankind’s overestimation of its power over nature. In others, coalmine owners are blamed for their callous attitude to work safety. According to Zhao Baoming, deputy chief of the State Council Work Safety Commission, “There is corruption behind every mine disaster.” A report in the China Youth Daily called on the Chinese government to learn from the USA’s experience in the 1950s. Frequent accidents in the numerous small mines across the USA that caused deaths and serious injuries prompted the U.S. government to exact a deposit from each mine owner prior to the start of mining operations. Monies were pooled in a foundation for the families of miners who, in the event of fatal or injurious accident, would receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. In China, compensation is currently no more than US $12,000. The Chinese media has appealed to the government to strengthen administration of this industry that plays such a critical role in China’s fast economic growth. During his inspection of the Xiashijie Coalmine in Tongchuan, Premier Wen Jiabao stressed: “Coal is the core energy resource in China, and coal miners deserve respect and concern from all areas of society. We should ensure that each one of them returns home safe and sound each day.”

In the past, mining accidents were blamed on private mines for cutting corners on their safety measures. But now, as calamities hit state-owned mines time and again, it transpires that the reasons for disasters are outdated mining technology, poor management and low technical expertise. A thorough overhaul of health and safety measures in all mines, private and state, is obviously called for.

The fast expanding Chinese economy devours tremendous amounts of coal, but improving safety in mines is financially onerous. China is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea; it cannot stop burning coal if it is to sustain its economy, but it must put a stop to the horrifying numbers of deaths and injuries from mining disasters. As the Chinese government cannot effect a change overnight, the only solution to the problem lies in science and law. The Coal Law, promulgated nine years ago, must be amended to provide legal support for improvement of the safety index at coalmines, whereby mine owners who scrimp on mining safety are prosecuted and severely punished. According to Huang Shengchu, president of the Coal Information Institute, root causes of the recent string of mining accidents are inadequate safety facilities and negligent observance of safety measures at the workplace.

The blow to families of mine blast victims is inestimable, but it is assuaged by the comfort Wen Jiabao offers as representative of the government. His humanism is also reflected in the visits to SARS patients he made in 2003, and his reassurances to the nation, many of whom imagined they could see their lives flash before them after just one sneeze. This Chinese New Year, Wen Jiabao visited one of the villages in Henan where, owing to illegally administered blood-selling, 80 percent of the villagers are either HIV positive or have AIDS. He sat among them, shook their hands and offered what comfort he could. Nie Xi, a female AIDS patient, wept when the smiling premier came to sit next to her and talk. The premier’s visit brought an affirmative change to her life. Prior to it she was shunned by friends, neighbors and even family. After it, her home was full of visitors asking about her meeting with Wen Jiabao. The example the premier set in showing beyond doubt that it is possible to be close to, touch and talk to people who are HIV positive or who have AIDS, without fear of infection, has had tremendous influence on the way people treat her and others equally unfortunate. Premier Wen brought hope back into her life.

Wen Jiabao is not the only Chinese state leader who takes pains to mix with the common people. Chinese President Hu Jintao spent Chinese New Year’s eve with ethnic minorities in Guizhou Province, and ate a dinner of broom corn millet with them. State leaders inspire and motivate cadres throughout the country by steering the new government according to the principle stated upon its inauguration --- governing for the people. In this respect, China continues to set an example to the world.

Hussein Ismail Hussein is vice editor-in-chief of China Today’s Arabic edition.