Faced by mounting coal mine disasters and a crackdown on coal corruption, about 4,500 civil servants and chiefs of state enterprises are unloading their colliery stocks.
The coal mine disasters sweeping the country have forced central government officials finally to get serious about safety and order local officials to stop looking the other way from deadly mines.
The central government has demanded the public identification of mine shareholders. Local officials also have been ordered not to invest in the mines subject to local government supervision.
A senior supervision official said yesterday that 4,578 Chinese civil servants and heads of state-owned enterprises had withdrawn shares worth 473 million yuan (US$58.3 million) by October 20.
Those who have withdrawn shares from coal mines include 3,002 civil servants and 1,576 state-owned enterprise leaders, said Chen Changzhi, vice minister of the Ministry of Supervision. He addressed a press conference jointly held by MOS, the State Administration of Work Safety and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
The shareholders had reported and registered 653 million yuan worth of colliery shares in the relevant departments by October 20.
(Xinhua)