China's November to Forget

On the heels of two major chemical spills that cut off water supplies to millions, there was a major earthquake that killed hundreds, and now a massive coal mining explosion that has killed more than 100 miners. Initial reports suggested the death toll of about 68, but it has since more than doubled to at least 134.

The death toll in a massive coal mine explosion in northeast China rose to 134 late Monday and 15 miners were still missing, state media reported as the country's leadership called for tighter work safety measures.

Coal dust caught fire at the mine in the city of Qitaihe on Sunday while 221 miners were working underground, the official Xinhua News Agency said. More than 70 miners were rescued, it said.

Outside the mine late Monday, distraught family members sought answers. A stream of emergency vehicles with flashing lights traveled back and forth on the narrow road leading to the mine.

Thousands of miners are killed every year in China's mines as a result of flooding, fire, explosions, and collapses.

Efforts to shut down dangerous mines have been complicated by the country's soaring demands for power to drive its booming economy.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao urged officials to curb the "possible occurrence of big safety accidents which claim huge casualties and property losses," the state-run newspaper China Daily said Monday.

The leaders called for enforcement of stricter inspections and punishments, it said.

Considering that the government controls many of the mines, and needs the coal to run its factories and to try and keep the public at large focused on their jobs and not the huge problems caused by the government, it is no wonder that the environmental and workplace safety considerations fall by the wayside. In fact, this latest coal mine explosion is the second in the last week, with a culmulative death toll of 152, with 15 still missing.

Meanwhile, China Herald notes that the governor of Harbin took the first glass of water after the chemical spill passed the city. More importantly, we're beginning to understand why the government lied about the shutdown of the water supplies via Time's Asia Magazine:

At a meeting on that same day [November 22] held on a first-floor conference room at Harbin's Peace Village Hotel, according to someone who was present, Heilongjiang Governor Zhang Zuoji explained to 400 local and provincial officials why Harbin had first deceived its population: his bosses at the State Council in Beijing hadn't approved an announcement on the leak. Unable to report the real reason, he said, the city of Harbin had "created an explanation." Only after the people of Harbin panicked did the State Council approve the second, truthful statement.

There's a truth gap alright. How much else is going on in China that the Chinese people don't know about, let alone what does the rest of the world not know about conditions there?

Mike Pechar, at Digger's Realm asks some real good questions:

So, where's the international media on this story? How come no reporters are asking questions about a Chinese cover up of a major environmental disaster? And, while I'm at it, where are the environmental protesters? How come Greenpeace isn't marching in front of the Chinese Embassy? Where are the UN monitoring teams? And, above all, why wasn't there some attempt to isolate and clean up the spill?