The Tashan iron ore mine in Shanxi’s Xiangfen county had been operating without valid licenses, the mine’s liquid iron ore dump was built illegally and had not been properly inspected. Local residents alleged that mine owners knew the dump was filled to overcapacity and was unsafe long before its retaining wall burst sending a devastating torrent of sludge into Yunhe village, with a population of 1,300, mostly migrant workers.
Local residents claimed last week that local government officials underreported the death toll in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and that actual figure could be as high as 800. Provincial officials at first dismissed the claims as “mere speculation” but on September 17, a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) said Beijing was investigating allegations that the local authorities deliberately underreported the death toll by 51.
Thus far, 13 officials from the Tashan Mining Co have been taken into police custody, and several local government officials have been suspended. In addition, the governor of Shanxi province, Meng Xuenong, has been forced to resign. “What were the local authorities been doing while such an [illegal] mine functioned right under their noses?” SAWS spokesman Huang Yi told Xinhua News Agency. “Investigation into possible corruption is a must,” he said.
As CLB has shown in its research report Bone and Blood: The Price of Coal in China, mine owners and local officials throughout China have created an almost impenetrable network of collusion that prevents the central government’s well-intentioned safety measures from being enforced. Collusion is particularly intense in poor areas of China, rich in natural resources, which can be exploited for vast profits but at a terrible cost to the local population and environment.
In Sichuan, for example, CLB is helping a retired miner in Sichuan with third-stage pneumoconiosis sue for work-related illness compensation after his boss, a local coal baron and parliamentarian, refused any payment. The miner, Xiao Huazhong, described life in the mines, hacking away with iron clawing tools for nine hours at a stretch, in a daylong miasma of dust. “When we were digging, it was so dry! You could not tolerate it. You could not spit it out, and you ended up bringing it up in great lumps,” he said.
Now in his 60s, Xiao brings up blood, has trouble eating and cannot walk even short distances without coughing and panting. He cannot work, has no medical insurance and no compensation from his former employer, a mine boss named Liao Xing’an who is also a member of the local People’s Congress and deputy head of the county federation of industry.
Xiao eventually had his lawsuit against Liao accepted by the local county court, but in major accidents such as Xiangfen, victims and relatives of the deceased have to rely on the government for aid. In Xiangfen, the local government quickly announced a compensation package for the victims, with 200,000 yuan being paid for the loss of a family member, and between 50,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan for those who had been severely disabled, along with a monthly subsidy of 100 yuan to 300 yuan.
The 200,000 yuan compensation award is now the industry standard for mining fatalities in China. This substantially improves upon previous levels of compensation, but it has also been imposed on bereaved families regardless of needs and circumstances. These arbitrary settlements are often enforced with callous disregard for the grief and trauma suffered by bereaved relatives, while at the same time eliminating their rights to seek redress or compensation through the court system. Throughout the whole process of post-accident management, the local authorities are routinely more concerned with maintaining public order and preventing social instability than with addressing the welfare of the bereaved.
Indeed, security officials in Xiangfen rapidly blocked off the disaster site from media access, allegedly concealed the true death toll, and sought to impose compensation awards without consulting the victims. China Daily quoted a 48 year-old mother of two in Xiangfen, named Liu Xiangjuan, who was waiting for news of her husband believed killed in the disaster. She had been laid off for many years, and her husband was the family’s sole breadwinner. “Those guilty, especially officials who were hand in glove with the mine owner, should be severely punished,” she said.