Coal Mine Disasters in China

Most of us have heard about the several coal mines disasters taking place in China, particularly over the past decade.

In the 1950s, coal prices were fixed by the authorities, but by the 1980s such prices were well below the real costs of mining the coal.

And as the country undertook further economic reforms, authorities permitted the rapid expansion of production by local coal mines (小煤矿), which are generally poorly equipped mines operated by individuals or local authorities and which produce low-quality coal for local consumption.

As Kenneth Lieberthal noted, "from the initial situation of having the vast majority of coal produced in state mines and sold at one fixed price ... by the early 1990s a far more complex situation had developed. About half of all coal output came from local mines and sold for market-driven price."

If you ask me, I say, fair and good. After all, market should indeed determine prices.

But what frustrates me is how extreme greed and the profit-motive had driven many of these mine operators to be totally oblivious of basic safety standards, which in turn jeopardizes the lives of coal miners.

As I found out when I was in China, sometimes human lives are not even worth the few bushels of coal that the mine workers had mined. And that if mine workers complained about the hazardous working conditions, they would be told by mine operators to go home as "countless other people would be queuing up to take over your jobs."