Chinese Mine Boss Drowns Himself After Deadly Collapse

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Chinese Mine Boss Drowns Himself After Deadly Collapse

By The Associated Press

·BEIJING — Dec 26, 2015, 11:33 PM ET

The owner of a Chinese gypsum mine drowned Sunday after jumping into a well in an apparent suicide during rescue efforts for 17 workers still trapped two days after the mine collapsed and killed one person, state media said.

Quoting a morning briefing by the rescue command center, state media said Ma Congbo, president of Yurong Commerce and Trade Ltd. Co., was assisting with rescue efforts on Sunday morning when he jumped into a mine well and drowned.

Since the mine collapse on Friday, rescuers have pulled 11 workers to safety and recovered one body. Another 17 miners are yet to be found.

. . .

Chinese authorities have typically meted out harsh punishments, including jail sentences, to company management and local work safety officials following major work safety disasters. Still, lack of regulatory oversight prevails, and cost-conscious management fails to pay enough heed to work safety.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mine

[davidpdx]

1. Was it a suicide or an execution?

[Feeling the Bern]

2. Usually suicide. Publicly losing your "mian zi" will cause that. It's a cultural thing

Wife is Chinese from mainland China. She's seen it many times.

[ellenrr]

3. It is the notion of shame. It is fairly common in China (Japan too. I'm not in favor of suicide, but

but we could use some of that shame in the US.
Here, when corporate chiefs cause intense misery to many people, out of greed - they usually get a promotion.
At least in China there is the notion of accountability and shame.
Not that people should kill themselves

[Feeling the Bern]

4. I own a house in China. Wife is from there. :)

And actually, shame normally only applies to people low on the food chain.

Accountability? In my 12 years there, passing the buck was a national pastime. There was a lame excuse for everything and if the excuse didn't work, you blamed an underling.

[ellenrr]

5. then how do you account for executives who kill themselves when they are responsible

for catastrophes?
I remember in the milk scandal, where school children were given milk with a poison in it (lead? I forget what), and many died, and the person responsible killed himself.

[Feeling the Bern]

6. Usually, they are privately given a choice by those higher on the food chain

Eliminate yourself or you go to prison and your family is ruined forever.

It's the way out. Considering that the wealthy business people pretty much own China (as it has been since the fall of the Xia Dynasty), the mid level businessmen (like the milk person) get the brunt.

[ellenrr]

7. oh- thanks. I thot it was the person making the choice.. well that's sad-

not much of a choice.

Yeah-- the economic disparities in China seem to rival the US, or maybe they are worse.
The govt stinks.

[passiveporcupine]

11. melanine. We got some product from China here too, with Melanine in it.

Magic Erasers are melanine foam, so if you use them (and I do) be sure to rinse everything very thoroughly after use.

[Doctor_J]

8. someone forward this to Blankenship

He is still using food and air despite being a mass murderer

[tabasco]

9. Blankenship is a no-conscience sociopath who murdered miners for money

I still see lots of "Friends of Coal" bumper stickers all over the place. Amazing, considering how badly miners have been fucked over by big coal. Propaganda works.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. In the US, he'd get a golden parachute.

[The Jungle 1]

12. Massey mines

So how did the owner of Upper Big Branch mine react (Massey Energies) in the United States when 39 miners were murdered because of the owners irresponsibility. They ignored safety regulations.

Yea, they ran like a pack of rats.

On the up side Ex-Massey CEO Don Blankenship has been indicted. Lock the scum up.

[electricmonk]

15. convicted

And boy did he ever have the book thrown at him.
http://wvmetronews.com/2015/12/28/judge-lowers-blankenships-bond-lifts-travel-restrictions/

[Initech]

13. He should have done the American CEO thing and declared plausible deniability.

Then he can resign amid scandal and collect a cool $200 million.

[bemildred]

14. China: Former official jumps to his death after deadly landslide

Beijing (CNN)A former official in charge of regulating a massive waste dump that collapsed in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has killed himself, local police said Monday.

The former director of the Urban District Administrative Enforcement Bureau in the city's Guangming district where the landslide disaster took place December 20, jumped off a residential building Sunday night, the Shenzhen Nanshan District public security bureau said on its official Weibo social media account.

Police only identified him by his family name Xu but Caixin, an influential financial magazine identified the official as Xu Yuan'an.

Police and state media have not said whether Xu had been directly responsible for authorizing the dump.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/28/asia/china-landslide-suicide/

Here he would have a SuperPAC and political operatives in his pay and be running for President.