Shanghai Daily news

It took Ma Changsheng more than 20 minutes to travel 1,000 meters. Inhaling toxic gas and unable to see through thick smoke, he stumbled and crawled his way out of an underground mine passage.
Ma was one of the 127 lucky miners who escaped the massive gas explosion at Chenjiashan Coal Mine in Shaanxi Province on Sunday morning. Another 166 miners were not so fortunate. The victims were officially declared dead after being trapped in an environment with a high density of coal, gas and carbon monoxide for three days.
The blast could be the country's worst mining accident since an explosion in southern Guizhou Province killed 162 people four years ago.
The coal mine industry, which provides the bulk of fuel for the world's seventh-biggest economy, has a dismal safety record underscored by a series of major accidents this year.
Last month a gas explosion at Daping Coal Mine in Henan Province killed 148 miners. Earlier this month, another explosion, also in Henan, destroyed 33 lives.
Xinhua said on Tuesday that the death rate for every 100 tons of coal produced in China was 100 times higher than the United States.
According to the latest figures released by the State Administration of Work Safety, there were 4,153 coal mine deaths in the first nine months of this year, 630 less than last year during the same period, but still alarmingly high.
The Chenjiashan blast was avoidable though. The state-owned coal mine was a problem waiting to happen. Its high density of gas due to the mixed growth of coal, oil and gas, as well as its coal bed has been a fire hazard for years. As a result, a fire breaks out at the mine every three to six months on average and the shortest gap between two fires was 24 days.
Six days before Sunday's explosion, a fire broke out at the mine. By then the mine had already produced 2 million tons of coal this year, exceeding its annual capacity by 200,00 tons. But eager to boost production, officials chose not to close the mine. They simply told miners to work in another shaft. They even threatened to fine or suspend miners who refused to go back to work due to safety concerns, according to China Youth Daily.
If mine managers made a different decision then, or invested more in safety three years earlier - when a different blast killed 38 - the tragedy would have been prevented.
Premier Wen Jiabao said in the past that the government must "seriously get to the root of who is responsible." But finding out all the details of the disaster is not enough. The man held responsible for the accident three years ago was removed from his post only to be appointed head of another mine six months later.
The government must carry out punishment to the letter. And that power should be centralized, at least at the provincial level. It's too naive to trust a county magistrate, who is too often consumed with boosting local gross domestic product, to really punish private contractors.
The lust for money - at the expense of lives - should be curbed not just by legal punishment, but also by heavy fines. Taking their profits would teach them once and for all.