497 officials retract stakes in coal mines
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-09-27 07:08

In the Daxing coal mine disaster, which claimed 123 lives in south China last month, the mine owners turned out to be the delegates to the local people's congress.

Another similar case is the Xinfu coal mine accident in northeast China, which killed 18. The owners were found to be the deputy director of the local work safety administration.

The fat profits in China's coal mine industry have created some overnight millionaires in the past year. Illegal mining is especially favored by those who risk everything for money.

Coal mine owners in north China's Shanxi province said that everybody knows the coal industry is profitable, but only those who have connections with local officials can make money.

Some government officials hold stakes in the local small coal mines. But they are not technically investors. Their power drives mine owners to give them free shares, said a mine owner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Li said the agency will crack up on the officials either investing in the coal mines or holding free stakes to get illegal gains.

Since the beginning of this year, China has enacted a series of measures to combat the corruption behind mine accidents.

A recent related development is that the country issued a set of special regulations in early September to prevent coal mine accidents, highlighting the crackdown on corruption.