At least 82 miners were killed and over 120 more were injured in a devastating coal mine explosion last Friday in China’s northwestern Shanxi province. China has long had trouble with mining safety, with the early 2000s representing a nadir. A slew of disasters in those years threatened social stability, as grieving families demanded investigations and accountability from mining companies and the local governments tasked with regulating them. In 2003 alone, at the peak of the crisis, there were more than 6,000 deaths.
Since then, significant improvements in safety have resulted in a dramatic decline in deadly incidents, with only 245 deaths in all of 2022. Starting in 2005, Beijing transferred enforcement of safety regulations to central and provincial governments rather than local officials, who were closest to the industry and often had personal and economic interests in lax enforcement.
There was also a shift to greater state ownership of mines, after many decades of privatization. Smaller mines were closed or consolidated into large state-owned conglomerates that had greater responsibility for improving safety. Finally, President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, ongoing since 2013, further broke down some of the collusive relationships between local officials and businesses that had eroded effective oversight.