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RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHBJ #4655/01 3540047
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 200047Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3167
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
INFO RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 9780
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1100
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 7658
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 2039
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 8640
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 6649
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 7320
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1513
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 6177

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BEIJING 024655 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS CEQ FOR CONNAUGHTON 
STATE PASS CEA FOR BLOCK 
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD/ALTBACH/CELICO/ROSENBERG 
STATE PASS FEDERAL RESERIVE BOARD FOR JOHNSON/SCHINDLER 
NSC FOR HUNTER/SHRIER/TONG 
COMMERCE FOR 4420/MCQUEEN 
TREASURY FOR SMITH/DOHNER/HAARSAGER/BAKER/CUSHMAN 
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN AND USTR 
DOE FOR INTERNATIONAL/PUMPHREY/GEBERT 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL/AYRES, FIDLER, MCCASKILL 
HHS FOR STEIGER, ELVANDER AND BHAT 
LABOR FOR OSEC-HUI, OSHA-DEMESME-GRAY AND ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PREL PHUM EMIN ENRG PBIO CH
SUBJECT: LABOR SECRETARY CHAO'S MEETING WITH SAWS MINISTER 
LI YIZHONG 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Li Yizhong, Minister for the State 
Administration for Work Safety (SAWS) met with Labor 
Secretary Chao on December 15, after the conclusion of the 
 
SIPDIS 
Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).  SAWS did not participate 
in the SED.  Secretary Chao told Li that the SED was a 
historic occasion and very important to both the United 
States and China.  Li agreed and said Chinese Ministers were 
anxious to see the results.  Minister Li said his Government 
places great value on its cooperation with the United States 
on work safety, especially mine safety. Secretary Chao and 
Minister Li exchanged information about each Governments' 
respective work safety watchdog agencies.  Minister Li 
provided detailed information about workplace accidents in 
China.  He explained the high accident rate in the coal 
sector as a result of low mechanization and the relative 
backwardness of China's coal industry, and explained some of 
the coordination problems between China's central and local 
governments. Li described Chinese Government efforts to 
reduce workplace injuries, and said the media plays an 
important role. Secretary Chao invited Minister Li to the 
United States and encouraged him to remain in touch with the 
Administrators of the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration (OSHA)and the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration (MSHA). There was no discussion of new 
projects.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Li Yizhong, Minister for SAWS met with Labor 
Secretary Elaine Chao and her delegation at SAWS headquarters 
 
SIPDIS 
on December 15.  (Meeting participants listed in para. 14) 
Minister Li warmly welcomed the Secretary, noting that this 
is her first visit to China since SAWS,s elevation to the 
level of a Ministry in 2005.  Li said the Chinese Government 
places great value on cooperation with the United States 
Department of Labor (USDOL) on work safety, particularly in 
the area of mine safety.  Throughout the meeting, Li 
repeatedly cited the importance of studying the United 
States, experience in improving work safety.  Secretary Chao 
recalled the Letters of Understanding on cooperation that she 
signed with SAWS in 2004, as well as USDOL,s existing mine 
safety program in China.  There was no discussion of new 
projects.  The Secretary described the duties and 
responsibilities of OSHA and MSHA, including how these 
agencies interact with state governments in the United 
States.  She invited Minister Li to visit the United States 
and encouraged him to remain in touch with the OSHA and MSHA 
administrators. 
 
Secretary Chao briefs SAWS on the SED 
 
SIPDIS 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Secretary Chao briefed Minister Li on the Strategic 
Economic Dialogue (SED), in which SAWS did not participate. 
Secretary Chao said the SED was a historic occasion and very 
 
SIPDIS 
important to both the United States and China.  She thanked 
the Chinese side for its hospitality and complimented China 
on its meticulous arrangements.  Secretary Chao observed that 
Americans tend to prefer informality and spontaneous 
discussion, while the Chinese are more formal and put more 
 
BEIJING 00024655  002 OF 005 
 
 
emphasis on detailed preparation.  She said the discussions 
were useful and that the American side appreciated Chinese 
hospitality.  Secretary Chao said the United States 
delegation brought a large press contingent to help publicize 
the posit points emerging from the SED, saying it was 
important to show Americans what China is really like. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Minister Li observed that Chinese and Western 
cultures are growing closer.  As an example, he said the 
Chinese Government is much more concerned with &putting 
people first8 than 30 years ago.  He congratulated the 
United States on the productive outcome of the SED and said 
Chinese Ministers were anxious to see the results. 
 
Structure of SAWS and the Work Safety Situation 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Minister Li gave a brief introduction to SAWS and 
its areas of responsibility.  He said that SAWS was 
responsible for occupational safety and health (OSH) 
supervision and workplace accidents.  Natural disasters are 
the responsibility of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, public 
health emergencies are the responsibility of the Ministry of 
Health, and national security emergencies fall under the 
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security.  Li said 
SAWS has two major duties: 1) to supervise the OSH 
supervision and management activities of other Ministries 
which have OSH responsibilities for certain sectors of the 
economy, such as the Ministries of Construction and Railways, 
and 2) to take primary responsibility for OSH in industries 
where there is no other designated OSH watchdog agency, such 
as in the coal, oil, metals and chemical sectors, and light 
industries like textiles.  To coordinate the activities of 
SAWS and the OSH watchdog agencies of other ministries, the 
State Council has its own Work Safety Supervision Committee, 
headed by Vice-Premier Huang Ju.  Minister Li said this same 
structure is duplicated at the provincial level in each 
province, and that SAWS provides guidance on OSH issues to 
all provincial authorities. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  In the coal sector, however, Minister Li said 
China learned from the United States, experience and has set 
up 29 regional SAWS operations in key coal-producing 
provinces and cities that answer directly to SAWS in Beijing. 
 SAWS and its provincial and local subordinates have a total 
of 50,000 inspectors, 3,000 of whom are coal safety officials 
who answer directly to Beijing.  The remaining 47,000 deal 
with non-coal industries and mostly answer to provincial or 
local governments. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Minister Li said that China had 718,000 
work-related accidents in 2005, which included 127,000 
fatalities, but these figures include traffic accidents. 
100,000 traffic fatalities accounted for 77 percent of all 
work-related fatalities in China in 2005.  The "second 
killer,8 Minister Li said, is the rail sector, which 
accounted for 7,000 deaths in 2005.  Coal is the &third 
killer.8  Minister li said 5,938 coal miners died on the job 
in 2005, amounting to 4.5 percent of all work-related deaths, 
but that the coal sector is responsible for more than half of 
all accidents in which 10 or more people die.  The next 
 
BEIJING 00024655  003 OF 005 
 
 
highest number of deaths in 2005 were in the construction 
(2,600 people) and non-coal mining (2,300 people) sectors. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Minister Li said the Government is paying 
increasing attention to OSH, incorporating it into the 
five-year plan and other major economic policy documents. 
The Government is taking a number of legal, educational and 
technical measures to improve the OSH situation, including 
examining OSH records when evaluating the performance of 
local government officials and managers of enterprises.  He 
said China has tightened investigation procedures and 
increased punishments for workplace accidents, including 
punishing officials for holding shares in coal mines or 
colluding with employers to circumvent safety regulations. 
Minister Li also said the media plays an important role in 
alerting SAWS to mine accidents and publicizing Government 
efforts to investigate them. 
 
¶9.    (SBU)  Secretary Chao asked whether the collection and 
publication of OSH statistics is something new for China. 
Minister Li said the Government has maintained and published 
OSH statistics since 1949, but has recently improved its 
reporting.  He said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) 
began publishing four new OSH indicators in 2005, including 
fatalities per 100 million RMB of GDP, fatalities per 100,000 
workers, fatalities per 10,000 registered motor vehicles, and 
coal mine fatalities per 100 million metric tons (mmt)of coal 
produced.  Minister Li said the Chinese Government will use 
these indicators to track progress in OSH.  For example, the 
2006-2011 five-year plan sets the goal of reducing the first 
two NBS indicators by 25 and 35 percent respectively over 
five years. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Minister Li said that projections for 2006 
indicate that workplace fatalities will be about 10 percent 
lower than in 2005, and 21 percent lower in the coal mining 
sector.  However, he said he warns his staff not to be 
complacent or boast about their achievements.  Li said 
China,s goal is to reach a level of workplace accidents 
comparable to a moderately developed country within 15 years. 
 He said that studying the experience of other countries, 
this is a rapid rate.  In the United States, for example, Li 
said, industrial accidents increased every year for 60 years 
before beginning to decline.  In the UK, this took 70 years, 
and in Japan, 26 years.  Minister Li said that countries with 
per capity GDP of $1000 to $3000 face the highest rates of 
industrial accidents. 
 
Problems in the Coal Sector 
--------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU)  Minister Li said there are 5.5 million coal miners 
in China, and 25,000 mines.  In 2005, China produced 2.2. 
billion tons of coal in 2005, a rate of 400 tons per worker, 
compared with a rate of 10,000 tons per worker in the United 
States.  There were 2.8 fatalities per mmt of coal produced 
in 2005, and SAWS expects the rate for 2006 to be 2.2. 
Minister Li acknowledge that this rate is about 100 times the 
rate of the United States (0.03).  Of the total number of 
coal mines, Minister Li said, 23,000 are classified as 
&small,8 meaning they produce less than 30,000 tons per 
 
BEIJING 00024655  004 OF 005 
 
 
year.  Li said these small mines are responsible for most of 
the accidents and fatalities.  Larger mines are highly 
mechanized and have much better safety records, Li said.  The 
small mines are labor-intensive and do not make necessary 
investments in safety.  Li said all small coal mines are 
privately-owned, and that many of them are illegal.  (Note: 
most small mines are owned by township or county governments 
and contracted to private mine operators.  End note.) Li said 
the Central Government and most provincial governments are 
resolved to close these small mines, but face considerable 
resistance from county and township governments.  Li said the 
Government would use economic and technical measures to limit 
these small mines, access to the market, and thus force them 
out of business.  Part of this would be to require mine 
operators to pay royalties for the coal they extract, and 
force them to comply with higher environmental and safety 
standards. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Part of the mine safety problem, Minister Li 
said, is also the level of education of miners.  Fifty-six 
percent of all miners are migrant workers, with no work 
experience aside from farming, and low levels of education. 
The Minister added that in many parts of China, local farmers 
live on top of thin or low quality coal seams, and find it 
more profitable to illegally mine this coal than to farm.  Li 
said government policies to improve rural education would 
hopefully help workers protect themselves. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Recalling his experience as Chairman of Sinopec 
(one of China,s largest state-owned petroleum companies,) Li 
said China,s coal industry is underdeveloped.  Unlike most 
of China,s oil companies, Li said most of China,s coal 
companies are not publicly listed.  He said China,s coal 
sector needs to open itself up to the outside world to 
attract foreign capital and management expertise. 
 
Participants List 
----------------- 
 
¶14. (U) United States Participants 
  --------------------------- 
 
--Elaine L. Chao Secretary of Labor 
--Laura Genero, Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor 
--Robert Athey, USDOL Midwest Regional Representative 
--Randolph Clerihue, Assistant Secretary of Labor 
--Anna Hui, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor 
--Bruce Levine, Embassy Labor Officer (notetaker) 
--Interpreter 
 
Chinese Participants 
-------------------- 
 
-- Li Yizhong, SAWS Minister 
-- Wang Dexue, SAWS Vice-minister 
-- Liang Jiakun, SAWS Vice-minister 
-- Tian Yuzhang, SAWS Director General 
-- Huang Yi, SAWS Director General 
-- Bai Ran, SAWS Director General 
-- Interpreter 
 
 
BEIJING 00024655  005 OF 005 
 
 
¶15.  (U)  Associate Deputy Secretary of Labor Laura Genero 
cleared this message. 
Randt