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September 26, 2005
You are on the invidual archive page of China's economic blood and sweat. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
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China's economic blood and sweat
China's economic boom grabs headlines and inspires admiration around the world. However it comes at a steep price. China's economic growth is inefficient - it takes far more investment per unit of GDP than similar economies at similar stages of development (e.g. South Korea and Japan). More chillingly, it is built on a disgraceful and disgusting human toll. Chinese industrial "accidents" resulted in more than 136,000 deaths last year. That's one death per 100 million yuan of GDP, or 178 industrial deaths per million people employed, or 372 deaths per day. What's worse is these numbers are conservative. Many deaths are not reported - for example mine bosses often pay off families with hush money to avoid exposure and to continue their shoddy practices. These numbers also do not reflect on those who are injured but not killed through workplace accidents, a far greater number but with devastating long term consequences. At some point these stop being accidents and become more akin to homicides by negligence. It is yet another seedy underbelly of the "China miracle". posted by Simon on 09.26.05 at 03:00 PM in the China economy category.
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Comments:
As you know, you'll get no argument from me over the general thesis here. You're right. And so is CNN. But I can't let CNN's data pass without three comments. 1. Industrial accident and death figures are somewhat troublesome because road accidents are included in workplace accident and death statistics in China, and if they are removed the figures are substantially reduced. In fact, traffic accidents account for 64.4% of all accidents and 78.2% of all deaths in the 2004 figures. If we look at the figures for industry, mining and commerce, which are generally thought of as industrial accidents, they come down from 130,000+ to 14,702 accidents and 16,497 deaths. This is not to say that things are okay. It's just to suggest that the 130,000+ figure gives the wrong impression. 2. In the story to which you link, it says "CNS didn't give a breakdown of the types of accidents." This is a disgraceful admission for an organisation with the resources of CNN. We produced just such a list online back in February that gave a breakdown (see here). That table was based on official Chinese figures. 3. Take a look at our list and tell me you'll catch a train again in China. posted by: Stephen Frost on 09.26.05 at 06:28 PM [permalink]Thanks, Stephen. I stand corrected on the figures, although it's still horrifying. To be fair to CNN, they've just reprinted an AP story. Luckily sites and people like yourself keep 'em honest. As for your point on trains - point taken. That said my rule is to never fly on an airline with "China" in it's name. posted by: Simon on 09.26.05 at 06:36 PM [permalink] |
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