CHINA

Blast kills nine miners

From South China Morning Post, 6 and 14 March 2001

Nine miners died and six were injured in a gas explosion in an illegal private mine in Guizhou province yesterday, China News Service reported. The mine, in Qingzhen city, is co-owned by three local men. Two of them fled after the accident and the other was arrested. The report said the mine owners had been banned from operating the mine as they had neither a safety permit or a safe-production certificate to carry on their operation.

In a related story, a state-run coal mine in Linwu county, Hunan province, suffered a blast on 13 March, killing 13 and injuring five men.

From South China Morning Post, 18 February, 2001

Tang Yingcai died on 14 August 1998 during the night shift which he had worked continuously since 1 January 1998 at a Shanghai grain shop.

Work began at 5.00 p.m. when he took the bus to start work at 6.30 p.m. There was not enough time to go home in his split shift. He ate and rested from 10.30 p.m. Till 4.00 a.m. when he opened for deliveries. The shift finished at 11.30 a.m. and he got home at 1.00 p.m.

Because Mr. Tang’s family believe he was worked to death, they took the case to court making labour history as the first such case in China.

On 28 November 2000 the Jingnan district court ruled against the family who appealed against the verdict. The appeal was heard on 26 February at the Shanghai Number Two Intermediate People’s Court, presiding judge was Ms. Wang Bo.

The case will be resolved within the next few weeks. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, appeal courts usually support the original ruling. However, it seems some bargaining is going on behind the scenes, and the family may be awarded compensation in an out of court settlement.

From Hong Kong iMail, 19 and 20 March 2001

Four explosions blew up dormitories at state-run cotton factories in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province as workers slept on 18 March. Officials say there were 108 deaths and 38 injuries in the tragedy. But locals and reporters on the spot estimate that the number killed was almost twice the official figure.

The explosions were all said to have occurred inside an hour, within a radius of 10 kilometres.

Police immediately set up road blocks around the city, and barred journalists from interviewing survivors.

Large scale lay-offs had been announced at the cotton factories leading to speculation that the explosions could be related. A man has been convicted and sentenced to death.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 March 2001

A huge explosion killed at least 47 children and staff and injuring dozens at a Fanglin village primary school, Jiangxi province on 6 March.

First reports said the school children were producing fireworks in the school at the time of the explosion, but officials rubbished the explanation, saying fireworks were not produced at the school and the blast was the action of a maniac who died in the carnage.

Premier Zhu Rongji later compromised with the original claims, saying fireworks had not been produced in the school since 1999.

Whatever the truth is about the explosion, it has spotlighted two issues: increasing use of child labour; and poor funding of China’s schools.

Critics of the government claim child labour is a common problem in China. They say government underfunding for rural schools forces teachers to choose between signing production deals with local businesses or closing down.

From AP, 13 March 2001

On 27 February, Chinese officials ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in a ceremony at United Nations HQ.

Unfortunately China insisted on exemption from the clause permitting unions independent of the monopoly sweetheart union, the All China Federation of Trade Unions.