Today in China

Last Sunday, an explosion occured at the mine in the city of Qitaihe (????), in the HeiLonJiang (????) province in the North East of China. 221 miners were working underground. 140 of them already died, 72 have been rescued and 11 are still missing.
The compensation for the relatives of the victims has been announced. Each familly will receive between 200,000 and 220,000 RMB (between 24,600 and 27,100 USD)

The Chinese government is trying to modernize the mines all over China and to shut down the most dangerous ones. However, efforts in that direction are difficult due to the demand in power and energy to sustain the country’s booming economy. Yesterday, another explosion occurred in an illegal coal mine. After investigation, it appeared the mine was owned by Peng Guocai, a local official in charge of the coal mine security. 18 people died in that incident.

This happened in HeiLongJiang province, which is only recovering from the SongHua river (???) ecological catastrophe. The water supply has been restored in Harbin (???) bu the benzene slick - 60 km long - is now crossing rural areas before crossing the border to Russia. Russia is expected to stop the water supply in Khabarovsk and some other 70 cities. Chinese government made official appologizes to Russia last Sunday.

This really shows the difficult challenge faced by China. At a global level, the government wants more transparency in order to uncover the problems and improve the system. However, mostly due to corruption, local officials are still taking part in illegal activities and hiding the issues.

Sources
China Daily - 2005 11 29
China View - 2005 11 28
Times Online - 2005 11 29
Le vent de la Chine - 2005 11 28