To curb rampant accidents, a campaign was launched last year to shut down the numerous small coal mines that fail to meet safety standards.

Almost 70 per cent of accidents occur in small mines, Li said.

By the end of April this year, the country closed 5,931 small coal mines, and another 2,651 are going through the closure process.

SAWS figures show that this year 625 people lost their lives in 33 coal mine accidents by November 19.

Crime and punishment

Government officials will face warnings, demotions, dismissal or prosecution for transgressions in production safety. Major punishable acts include:

approving projects that do not meet safety requirements;

failure to tackle unsafe production activities;

intervention in the procurement of safety equipment and facilities;

failure to deal with identified major hazards that later lead to accidents;

covering up production accidents, failure to provide true reports or delaying reports of production accidents;

obstructing investigations into production accidents;

personally, or through family members, holding stakes in coal mines or running business related to production safety; and

allowing businesses to continue operation after their licences have been revoked or they have been ordered to stop production.

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