Seeing no evil

We’re fortunate to have another example in front of us. At the Chenjiashan coal mine in China’s Shaanxi province, 116 miners are missing and presumed dead, and another 50 are confirmed dead following a methane explosion.

This is the second large coal-mining accident in China in just over a month. An explosion at the Daping mine in Henan province in late October killed 148 miners. Three weeks later, a methane explosion at the neighbouring Pingdingshian mine killed at least 33. Twenty miners died in three separate accidents — two fires and a rock collapse — between Oct. 10 and 12.

Chinese coal mines have a hideous safety record. According to official figures, 8,000 miners are killed annually in the country’s coal mines, yet some labour groups believe this figure is a gross understatement. As a measure of the difference between China and the First World, consider that in Canada, the Westray explosion in 1992 provoked a long official inquiry; in China, there are, by official count, 269 Westrays a year. For the nostalgic, that’s 93 Springhill Bumps, minus the “miracle men.”

The Communist Party — bless their flinty hearts — is leading a crackdown, which, in some places, has included “Party disciplinary sanctions.” Sanctions, for lives lost: “impunity” hardly begins to describe it. People got away with a lot after Westray, but the Chinese coal industry simply doesn’t improve at all.

We haven’t seen the NGOs that were so prominent in the takedown of Tambo Grande take much notice of the Chinese coal industry and its annual death toll. Yet here is an issue where public awareness and a little righteous anger might be called for.

Perhaps they had better things to do.

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