Seventy four miners have been found dead and 32 others are still missing on Thursday, 8 December, after an explosion at the Liuguantun Coal Mine in Tangshan City in northern Hebei Province. This latest tragedy comes close on the heels of a coal-dust explosion at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in Qitaihe City in Heilongjiang Province on 27 November in which killed 171 miners and a mine flood at Sigou Coal Mine in Xin'an County, Henan Province on December 2 which left 42 miners trapped and presumed drowned in the pits there.

On 5 December, during a video conference on work safety held by the State Administration of Work Safety, Director Li Yizhong said, "My heart is burdened with sorrow" and he felt "greater pressure and responsibility." He also said the work safety authorities would "highlight the problems and present more intensive preventative measures to curb these large-scale accidents to ensure safety conditions in coal mines and to improve work safety generally in the country next year". Yet, just two days after this conference, this tragic large-scale accident occurred in Tangshan, killing at least 74 miners.

It is clear that the Chinese government's measures to curb large-scale coal mine disasters have been a failure in 2005. Statistics from the State Administration of Work Safety show that in 2004 there were a total of 41 major coal mine accidents, in some of which more than 10 miners were killed and in others more than 30 miners were killed. In all, a total of 979 miners lost their lives in these major accidents. As of 7 December 2005, the number of such large-scale major accidents this year had soared to 64 and the number of miners killed in these accidents rocketed to 2,471, excluding the 32 miners who are still missing after the explosion at Liuguantun Coal Mine in Tangshan City. China's coal mines are becoming slaughter houses!

8 December 2005