As can been seen this article, readers would be understood and know how to Xinmi government treated illegal mining. Readers would to know which officials are real abused power and why today Chinese authority punished people are scapegoats for Dongxing coal mine accident killed 25 miners in Zhengzhou, Henan on 15th March 2010.
Written by: Xinde LI;
Sourced from: Media Monitoring Site of China
Issued at: 10:25:02, 28/09/2008
Translated by CHEN (MITI, MSc in translation). http://www.yulundc.com/article/show.asp?id=2602
On06/06/2008, the Media Supervision Site of China published a report entitled “Three Orders from the Provincial Party General Secretary Still Could Not Put an End to the Illegal Mining” telling the story of how the Supervision Office of Zhengzhou, Henan totally ignores the illegitimacy of the coal mine(s) and claims, in their verbal response to the appellants and in their report to superiors, that Xinxing Coal Mine Ltd. and Zhaigou Mine of Xinmi City “have all procedures in place” even though the mines do not have safety production licenses. Such a conclusion is purely adding insult to injury as their mining has resulted in subsidence and distortion of walls in the local residential housing and the commercial properties, as well as having negative environmental impact.
When this story was published on the Chinese Media Supervision Site, it caused a stir nationwide. Zhengzhou City Government quietly looked into the story. Before the Beijing Olympics, we received letters from victims, including some villagers of Zhaigou village and some employees of Mifeng Papers (MFP) Ltd. of Zhengzhou, who had to live in dangerous housing, claiming: “The update on the two illegal mines is: Xinxing old mine has stopped production but has not pulled down its headframe while headframes of the old mine and shaft
at Zhaogou have been pulled down.” This means that as the Olympics was approaching, to play safe, they reluctantly made some compromises for show. Once the games were over, they could continue as usual.
Even such small compromises meant a lot to the victims. The following describes their hardship during their appeal visits: The victims from Zhengzhou Mifeng Paper-Making Co. Ltd. (MFP) company who had to live in dangerous housing started their appeal in June 2006. They approached authorities at different levels and their appeal was looked at by the leaders at national, provincial and city levels and commented on with their
instructions. But when the instructions were handed back to the Xinmi authorities for enforcement, enforcement proved difficult. For example, the issue was transferred from the Letter Report and Visit Bureau of Xinmi to the Land and Resources authority. It is known that the Land and Resources authority is not responsible for safety issues, neither of coal mines nor the land-- it is not entitled to enforce or supervise the administration of coal mines or land issues. This is obviously a game, as there are probably a few individual officials protecting the mines.
On 28/03/2008, representatives for the victims from Mifeng (MFP) company reported the issue to Deputy Bureau Chief WEI of the Letter Report and Visit Bureau of Zhengzhou. WEI told them the case was judged inconclusive in 2007 as his bureau sent personnel to the company but failed to find the person who filed the appeal. As the appeal letter was signed by several hundred people, why not contact anybody else? It is hard to believe the case was inconclusive for such a reason. But is it not easy to guess its implications?
Around 3pm on 13/05/2008, the above mentioned representatives received a message from the Letter Report and Visit Unit of Xinmi Land and Resources Bureau, telling them to return to their office to be notified of the settlement on the illegal use of farmland by Zhaigou and Xinxing mines. But within one hour, around 4pm on the day, the bureau changed their mind and informed the representatives that it was no longer necessary for them to visit as the documents had been transferred to the Letter Report and Visit Bureau of Xinmi. They could go there instead, should they wanted to follow it up.
On the morning of May 14, the representatives went to the Letter Report and Visit Department of the Land Bureau. WANG, the head of the department, told them: “The case we received from the Letter Report and Visit Bureau was an anonymous report. The outcome of the investigation has now been returned to the Letter Report and Visit Bureau and they could follow it up there.” When they got there, the head of the bureau there said: “The case was dealt with by the Land Bureau. We are only assisting. For details, you go to them”. The
victims were being treated like a football, being kicking around with no way of finding out the decision.
On May 20th, the representatives eventually got to Jiansheng ZHANG, bureau chief of the Letter Report and Visit Bureau. ZHANG told them: “I won’t give you the outcome. It should be given by the Land Bureau. If they don’t, you ask them to come to me. We must follow the procedure. The Land Bureau is directly responsible for your issue. You should get a decision from them. We are only reporting the decision to our superiors.”
In order to clear the hazardous conditions surrounding them and to ensure their safety, the people of MFP, who lived in dangerous housing and who have been appealing/petitioning, have gone through all levels of authority in a persistent manner, regardless of the ill treatment they received from all of them. In order to comfort the very distressed employees and shareholders, for the stability of the society and harmonious development, MFP agreed to a substantial compromise: “As long as two productions lines can be established for uninterrupted production, all compensations can be settled after the mines can resume production.” Perhaps the mines have had too many such “small expenses”; they refused the authority’s above proposal by claiming to be “not capable of paying relocation compensation”. Being put into such awkward situation with no option left, MFP management had to allocate key people to organise appeals/petitions from victims, telling them to rely on the party and the authority for justice and appealing/petitioning through official channels to
prevent unexpected incidents. In accordance to the Letter Report and Visit Law of the People’s Republic of China, the authorities should respond in writing to the appellants/petitioners. But the victims from MFP have not yet received any letter or any instructions from any authority.
On May 26th, 2008, what the victims managed to get from the Letter Report and Visit Department of the Land Bureau of Xinmi was nothing more than a verbal settlement recommendation/decision.In the afternoon of September 22nd, 2008, in the office of the Letter Report and Visit Department of the Land Bureau of Xinmi, the representatives finally were shown the long awaited written recommendation/instruction. WANG, head of the department, instructed a member of staff to present them with a paper: “ Report on issues related to Xinxing Coal Mind Ltd and Zhaigou Coal Mine of Xinmi, dated Sept.4th, 2008” (please note: the report
was not a red letter document endorsed with a official seal. Please refer to the appendix). They were told it was impossible to show them the original document or to be given a photo copy. They were only allowed to read that document in the office.
Zhaigou ventilation shaft after the headframe had been pulled down
Rear view of the main shaft covering 22.8 mu at Xinxing old shaft
The following are the different views of FMP victims on the “Decision Report of the Land and Resources Bureau of Xinmi on Issues Related to Xinxing and Zhaigou Coal Mines, date Sept.4th, 2008”:
1. In June 2006, MFP started its tip off reports on the two above mentioned mines. At that time, the extraction licenses for the two mines were expired. They didn’t have any environmental evaluation and other relevant documents and procedures in place. Therefore, both were involved in illegal mining. This report shows that such documents were obtained after the tip off report and exposure from the media: for example, the safety report for Xinxing was approved in July 2006, the construction design was approved in August 2006 and the extraction license was not obtained until October 2006; Zhaigou coal mine technological renovation plan was approved in June 2006; safety plan was approved in Sept. 2006, while construction design was approved in Oct. 2006. The report does not show when Zhaogou mine was granted their extraction license. It is obvious that the two mines didn’t have extraction licenses back in June 2006 when they were being reported.
The state requires: obtaining licenses before mining. How is it that the mines obtained the relevant permissions after they had been reported, and exposed by the media? How is it that the mines that should have been closed down still stayed in business and caused major bloody damages? We could not help thinking deep into it! MFP victims and their families strongly urge [you] to hold the relevant department heads responsible for what they did.
2. Legitimate mining requires all 6 permits. But in this report, it claims that the two mines have only 4 permits, which makes their mining totally against the state requirements. Until today, the two mines still have not got production safety permits. Also, why does the report make no mention of the safety risks the mining posed to the dormitory building(s) of MFP? The report deliberately avoids mentioning the required safety permit. Being without a safety permit was behind the collapse in a mine of Xinta Mining Ltd., Xiangfen County, Linfen City
of Shanxi, costing 254 lives, all due to long time production without any safety permit. To put people’s lives first, such tragedy can’t be repeated. We appeal to the authorities to close down businesses without the appropriate production safety permits.
3. A manual on site survey of the land acquired by Xinxing coal mine, the old mine, the new entrance and the filled-in entrance, discovered 197 mu of illegal land use, including: 30.1 mu of land taken by the old mine and technologically renovated mine of Xinxing, all of which is basic farmland (including 25.3 mu of the basic farmland; 4.8 mu of deposit water flooded land ); 120 mu of damaged basic farmland due to the subsidence caused by Xiazhuanghe Mine of Chengguan Town, Xinmi, the former company of Xinxing; basic farmland 1.8 mu filled in 150metres south of MFP, belonged to Xinxing mine in early 2007; 45 mu of “leased”land suspected of inappropriate use in Xinxing Estate; while the report only mentioned the size of Xinxing mine being 16.54mu, 80.5 mu less [than the manual surveyn found] and far from reality.
A manual on site survey on the entrances of the old mine, the ventilation shaft (former Eighty One Mine) and technologically renovated shaft found a total of 53 mu of land used and damaged (including: 10 mu of general arable land, 25 mu of basic farmland and 18 mu of subsided basic farmland). But the report mentioned the size of Zhaigou Mine was only over 12 mu, a 41 mu difference, and far less than reality. A comparison on the three reports and suggestions/instructions issued by the Land Bureau found that in the penalty notice issued in July 2008, the illegal use land was 24.7 mu, which is 8 times the illegally used land of 2.89 mu mentioned in the penalty notice issued in July 2007. The report briefly explained such difference was due to the malfunction of GPS devices. MFP asked for GPS experts to look into the malfunction claim: when it occurred on
02/04/2008, was it due to any human error or was it a true malfunction issue? This casts doubts on the credibility of the individual land authority officials. How can such a poor GPS report pass through Xinmi City, Zhengzhou City and Henan Province authorities and all the way up to Premier Jiabao WEN? Putting on such a show, was it the doing of the so called “Government No. 2”, the government manipulated by the two mines?
The report dated July 2007 submitted all the way up to Premier Jiabao WEN has become a thing of the past. The public is not interested in seeing the people being punished, but the 24.7 mu of Zhaigou mine measured incorrectly by the faulty GPS is only half of 53 mu, the measurement from the on site manual survey. The size of Xinxing’s actual illegally used land is 8 times to that of the claimed used size. Can we ask the land authority to check the accuracy of the GPS measurement by the technical supervision department before submitting
it all the way up to the central government, so as to keep the credibility of the state?
4. Xiazhuanghe Mine, the former company of Xinxing Mine of Xinmi, caused the subsidence in the foundation of Tianda No.3 Paper Plant, an over 7 Million [yuan] investment by MFP as a major shareholder. Cracks and subsidence were caused in the production area which led to the eventually closing down of the paper plant. The report certainly didn’t mention this harm done and any punishment given. We ask you to take the appropriate legal punishment.
5. Unbeknown to FMP, 1/3 of its land had been transferred to Xinxing mine. This is a serious “illegal approval” and an act of abusing power. It was this illegal approval that caused the dispute between the two companies and brought instability to the society. Due to the intervention of the provincial general secretary of the party, the boundary was re-drawn in 2007. But this serious offence should not go without punishment!”
The report suggests: “Xinxing Mine took the initiative to ask the Land and Resources Department to narrow down the size of their mining area so that its legitimate mining area is[only] within the production area of MFP so as to avoid subsidence caused to MFP by under ground mining activities…” Therefore, it can be concluded that the Land Bureau already acknowledged/accepted that some land of MFP had been taken over by the coal mine unbeknownst to MFP and was a “sure thing”. Shouldn’t somebody look into such a serious violation of the law? Shouldn’t somebody ask who had given the approval by breaking the law? Whose doing leads to the dispute between the two companies? The report suggests: “Xinxing took the initiative to close down two construction shafts which brought in over 1.5 Million CNY now lost to the mine in order to avoid further escalation of the conflicts between the two parties.” In fact, the down sizing of the mine took place in August 2006. The pulling down of the headframe only took place after instructions from Guangchun XU, the party general secretary, was give, and under the on site supervision of Yuefei CHEN, team leader of Zhengzhou city investigation team. It took a whole year before the landscape was restored in August 2007. The dispute between the two parties was caused by the illegal approval given by the Land
Authority. In this dispute, the direct loss caused to MFP was 9 million CNY, 6 times of the cost to the mine. But the report took the mine’s side and was biased in presenting the facts. It is hard for the public not to doubt the fairness of the report.
6. On important issues such as the relocation compensation for the nearby villagers, the information in the report is totally untrue. We urge you to look into these issues! (Please refer to survey report(s) on Xinxing district/estate). The report suggests: “The two mines lease/leased 44.8 mu of construction land in Qingshihe Village, Xidajie Office, for 50 years” which is in fact a take-over fronted by leasing, which is clearly banned by the state. This shows another of their violations of the law. We urge you to make it right, and to return the
land belonging to the public so that they can rebuild their homes and communities. Fifty four families in Zhaigou village needed to be relocated, but only two of them have actually relocated, which accounted for 4%; the compensation payable is 1.47 Million [CNY] with some of it still not in place; the so called 8 Million [CNY] Xinxing Estate project received actual investment of only 1.15 Million and the housing is/was built/funded by the public. The survey shows a serious degree of dissatisfaction from the villagers/public and
they are not confident when they will be able to move into the new estate (refer to the survey
report for details).
7. The penalty decision(s) and other penalty procedure issued by the Land authorities and other authorities are not accessible and transparent! The receipt(s) for the penalty payments from the mines to the Treasury, and the decision on the mines and their key personnel are not in the public domain.
The illegal approval resulting in the dispute between the two companies and the delay in investigating the wrong doings of the nearby mines have helped the two mines thinking they are actually running “Government No. 2”. No wonder people like Liuyi HUANG, the brother in law of Chunjie YANG, the chief of the Coal Bureau, got his hands dirty by taking a dozen henchmen to create the world shocking “Sept. 6th Mifeng Bloodshed Incident”, causing 6 injuries, with one minor injury and other unconfirmed injuries (Forensic valuation document(s) are filed with Xinmi Chengguan Police Branch. The victims could not get a copy even after repeated demands). The public and the victims get down on our knees to beg the Land Authority to carry out a “factual” investigation to avoid things such as the malfunction of the GPS, so as to prevent
the “Sept.7th” assault, damage and taken by force incident in 2000 and “Sept. 6thbloody Incident” from re-occurring to MFP! We appeal to the authority to carry out an expeditious and effective investigation, and tighten the regulation on Zhengzhou’s technologically renovated mines, so that a major fatality mine incident [such as the one] costing 37 people’s lives in Xinfeng No. 2 mine/2 mines of Zhengzhou Guangxian Industrial and Trade Ltd. of Dengfeng, Henan, will not happen again in Zhengzhou.
All and all, MFP’s generous compromise is aimed at achieving a win-win for the two parties, for the local resources to be effectively utilised, for the local government to benefit from the tax income, for the mine to be prosperous, and for welfare of the employees of MFP ”. By doing this, a stable and harmonious society can be created.
Attached: two reports from the State Land Authority. Please compare for analysis.
Report 1: investigation report on the tip off from Xinmi city MFP employees Decision on Xinxing Mine:
In Feb. and Sept. 2007, three plots illegally taken totalled 16.54 mu, including 10.23 mu of basic farmland and 6.31 mu of construction land. This is a suspected violation of the “Land Administrative Law of the People’s Republic of China” and the suspect had been reported/ handed over to the law enforcement authority.
Decision on Zhaigou Mine:
1. Within 15 days, take down the buildings on the 794.89 m² plot and the old ventilation shaft headframe and the shaft as they have illegally taken basic farmland and general arable land. Restore the land back to its arable condition.
2. Confiscate the buildings on the 1838.56 m² of construction land illegally taken by the mine, and the new main shaft headframe, the shaft, the ventilation shaft headframe and the shaft, the old main shaft headframe and the shaft.
3. Fines on the illegally taken 3120.5 m² basis farmland at 25CNY/ m², subtotal 78,012.50 CNY; on the general arable land of 923.9 m² at 10 CNY/ m², subtotal 9,239.00 CNY; on the construction land of 12,452.8 m² at 7 CNY/ m², subtotal 87,169.60 CNY; total fine of 174,431.60 CNY.
Report 2: Investigation report on the tip off from Xinmi city MFP employees
On 01/08/2008, the representatives of MFP victims was verbally given the following penalty decision by a member of staff at Enforcement Department of Xinmi Land Bureau: The bureau had issued “Penalty Decision on the Land Administration”, Xinmi State Land and Resources Ref [2008] No. 016, dated 20/07/2008:
1. Take down the building(s) on the 610.45 m² of general arable land illegally taken within 30 days.
2. Confiscate the building(s) on 1531.32 m² of construction land illegally taken, and structure buildings (the new main entrance headframe and the shaft body, the ventilation shaft headframe and the shaft body)
3. Fines on the illegally taken 17.10 m² basis farmland at 25CNY/ m², subtotal 247.50 CNY; on the general arable land of 873.90 m² at 10 CNY/ m², subtotal 8,739.00 CNY; on the construction land of 7347.90 m² at 5 CNY/ m², subtotal 36,739.50 CNY; total of the three is 45,906.00 CNY [unplanned].
4. Order Zhaigou Mine to restore the land that has not been restored properly within 15 days.
Xinmi State Land Bureau claimed it had delivered the Penalty Decision on the Land Administration to the Mines on 23/07/2008, within the legal requirement deadline. As of the drafting of this report [from us], no information on the execution of the [penalty decision] report is available in the public domain.
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