Chinese government considers safety of people's life above everything else: white paper

The Chinese government considers the safety of life of the people above everything else, according to a white paper on China's human rights progress in 2004 issued by the Information Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

In recent years, the state has taken a series of measures to enhance production safety and check the occurrence of all sorts of accidents, says the paper.

In 2004, the state promulgated one administrative law, 15 departmental regulations, five industrial standards on production safety and more than 70 regulatory documents to tackle the problem of industrial hazards. Small coal mines and other industrial enterprises which did not meet the requirements for production safety were resolutely shut down.

In 2004, the total number of accidents of the whole year somewhat decreased. The number of accidents and deaths throughout the country were reduced by 16.22 and 0.23 percent, respectively, compared with the previous year. The number of gas-related accidents in coal mines dropped by 15.6 percent, and that of deaths by 7.8 percent, according to the paper.

The paper says that the state attaches great importance to combating natural disasters and carrying out related relief work, making sure that people hit by natural disasters are able to subsist.

In 2004, natural disasters caused great damage throughout China. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance jointly appropriated four billion yuan in relief funds, plus 4.89 million yuan in donated funds, and dispatched 31,000 tents to the disaster- stricken areas. The government helped evacuate and resettle 6.11 million disaster victims, and rebuilt more than 1.4 million houses that had been destroyed in the disasters. During the spring and winter of 2004, when crops were not harvested, some 90 million people received relief aid, and their fundamental needs for food, clothing, lodging, water and medical treatment were met.

The state continues to provide special aid to minimum-income urban families whose members either suffer from critical illness or are seriously handicapped and without any financial income, says the paper.

In 2004, a total of 550,000 vagrants and beggars received much- needed assistance from the government. Now there are 909 assistance and management centers across the country and 130 assistance and protection centers for vagrant children. A system of guaranteeing the minimum standard of living for rural residents has been established in 1,206 counties (cities), with 4.96 million beneficiaries.

The paper says that China attaches great importance to the health conditions of the people. A new rural cooperative medical service system has been tried out in 333 counties (cities) across the country. It covers about 100 million rural residents so far, including 80.4 million farmers.

The paper says that the government attaches great importance to the prevention and treatment of AIDS and that it cares about AIDS patients. President Hu Jintao has visited AIDS patients in hospitals in 2004. The State Council has issued the "Notice on Enhancing the Prevention and Treatment of AIDS." A working committee on the prevention and treatment of AIDS was set up, and a national conference on the prevention and treatment of AIDS was held to implement various financial supports for the AIDS patients.

To ensure the people's health and safety, and to protect their interests and right to enjoy a wholesome environment, the state revised the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste," issued the "Measures on the Licensed Management of Dangerous Waste," "Measures Regarding Administrative Penalties for and Management of Medical Waste" and the "National Plan for the Construction of Installations for the Disposal of Dangerous and Medical Waste."

In order to ensure the people's health and protect the environment, the government launched a special campaign to rectify and punish enterprises which illegally discharged pollution. In the campaign, it dealt with 3,365 severe cases of environmental pollution that seriously harmed people's rights and interests, and closed down 6,462 enterprises that seriously polluted the environment, according to the paper.

At present, the general health of the Chinese people is better than that of the average level of middle-income countries, and ranks among the top of the developing countries in this respect, said the paper.

The average life expectancy has increased from 35 years before the birth of New China in 1949 to the present 71.4 years. The mortality rate of women in child-birth has dropped from 1,500 out of 100,000 in 1949 to 51.3 out of 100,000 in 2003, and the infant mortality rate from 200 per thousand before the birth of New China to 25.5 per thousand in 2003.