Xi urges production safety after 'blood lessons'

BEIJING  -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for measures to stem the frequent occurrence of accidents arising from production safety risks in the country.

Xi's remarks were carried in a statement released on Wednesday after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and after the collapse of a large pile of construction waste in south China's Guangdong Province killed at least 58 people last month.

"These blood lessons have warned us that public safety should never be taken lightly... and responsibilities for production safety must be spelled out and fulfilled," Xi said.

He stressed that human factors are always behind production accidents, citing negligence, lack of safety checks, inadequate laws and regulations, slack law enforcement, ineffective supervision and incompetent emergency responses.