From Miners to Manufacturers: China’s Most Dangerous Jobs

From Miners to Manufacturers: China’s Most Dangerous Jobs
Jul 23, 2013 By Trey Archer , eChinacities.com

Whether it be hacking away at rocks in a dusty, dimly lit mine or policing the streets late at night, China, like any country in the world, has its fair share of dangerous occupations. Yet, with frequent reports of lax safety regulations and at times worryingly unprofessional work ethics, work-related perils in China seem to be accentuated. In light of these often harrowing reports, the government and private corporations have taken initial steps to improve the overall physical and mental well-being of workers. Below is a glimpse at some of the most dangerous jobs in China as well as an overview of what’s being done to make them safer.

1) Manual laborers
This category is largely occupied by migrant workers in the fields of construction, logging and especially mining. In the past four years alone, China has witnessed numerous mining disasters, including 104 deaths in the Hegang coal mine in Heilongjiang in 2009, 45 dead at the Xiaojiawan coal mine in Sichuan Province in 2012 and 66 deaths in the Tibetan Gyama mine in March of this year. With countless small, unregulated coalmines and accusations of illegal overproduction, it’s no wonder that mining is widely considered the most dangerous job in China. In fact, China Daily in 2004 reported that China leads the planet with 80 percent of the world’s coal mining fatalities. And in terms of death per every 100 tons of coal extracted, China is 100 times more deadly than the US and 30 times more deadly than South Africa.

With such alarming statistics, China has had to take action. Following data from the same article, in 2000 the government invested 4 billion RMB (480 million USD) for the State Work Safety Supervision Administration—an agency directly under the State Council that supervises and regulates worker safety. As of 2006, the number of accidents had in fact decreased, while the death rate dropped by 20.1 percent, much to the praise of China’s leaders. More recently, in 2010 the government stepped up their policy with a six-point safety system, part of which was creating rescue facilities at every mine. Even though it’s much safer to work in Chinese mines now than it was a decade ago, the government is still criticized for covering up many mining catastrophes and allowing small unregulated mines to operate under their noses, leading critics to declare that Beijing still isn’t doing enough.

2) Menial factory jobs
In recent years, there has been a wave of suicides among the low-wage workers at large Chinese factories (or at least more emphasis now on reporting it). According to Time, life on a Chinese assembly line only pays about 130 USD (less than 1,000 RMB) per month and has minimum 10-hour shifts with significant overtime. Workers also live on site in crowded dormitories with zero privacy. With such weight on the young laborers (usually between 18-24 years of age) and the pressure to make a living via a monotonous, lackluster routine, it’s not difficult to see why a megafactory like Foxconn—a contract manufacturer for reputable companies like Dell, Apple, Sony and Nokia—has been plagued by suicide after suicide during the past several years. Since 2010, there have been at least 22 suicide attempts resulting in 17 recorded deaths at Foxconn facilities.

After Foxconn and its Western business partners fell under mass scrutiny in the wake of the 2010 suicides (the worst year with 14 deaths), Steve Jobs pointed out that, proportional to the size of its employment pool, the number of suicides at Foxconn was not actually that bad, going so far as to say that the overall rate of suicides in the US is actually much higher. But this unseemly albeit arguably accurate comparison did little to help repair Foxconn’s image, and in the time since the company has opted to undergo some changes to make living and working conditions more humane. Time reported that after 2010 the company even installed a library, sports facilities and other leisure activities for its employees. Nevertheless, labor activists still scream that the cooperation needs to raise wages to prevent employees from working themselves to death while trying to make an extra few RMB during long overtime sessions. While mundane life at the assembly lines may not be as dangerous as other hazardous occupations, the mental torture that’s associated with dehumanizing workers into lifeless machines will likely continue to be an issue in China’s manufacturing sector for years to come.

3) Law Enforcement
According to the GB Times, “In the past five years a minimum of one [Chinese] police officer has been killed in the line of duty and nine have been injured on average every day.” (In comparison, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, on average 153 American officers were killed per year during the past five years, about 50% less than China, though this is not factoring in the difference in population size). So what was the top cause of death for Chinese police officers? According to Ministry of Public Security figures (as quoted in the GB Times article), nearly half of Chinese police deaths are actually from cardiac-related issues, stirred from intense physical and mental stress, while assaults (accounting for 32.4% of injuries) along with traffic accidents also kill/hurt many Chinese law enforcement agents.

Another branch of Chinese law enforcement system is the infamous chengguan (城管), or the City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau. On paper, chengguanare responsible for urban management and enforcing bylaws related to environment and sanitation among others. However, in the wake of social media sharing, these guys have developed a horrible reputation across the country for actually being nothing more than vicious thugs who carry out the dirty work of the local government. You’ll often hear reports of the chengguan kicking people out of their houses for developmental projects, harassing street vendors and assaulting individuals for petty crimes. Being a chengguancan therefore be quite dangerous, since so many citizens are fed up with their ruthless antics. In fact, one chengguan in Guangzhou was recently stabbed repeatedly while bystanders refused to help. Another in Hubei was killed when someone struck him in the head with a gardening hoe. With so much public anger aimed at this branch of the police, it should be no surprise that Timenoted that the word chengguan has become a Chinese slang term for “terrorize” or “bully.”

Not surprisingly, official statistics for this sort of thing are often misreported or censored. Though the official word is that there’s been a sharp drop in China’s murder rate in recent years, the Economist, using data from the World Health Organization and governmental records, argues that crime in China has actually been steadily rising, from less than 10,000 homicide-related deaths in 1981 to more than 38,000 in 2002. With China having a similar wealth gap as some of Latin America’s most dangerous countries and with that gap widening each year, violent crime is expected to increase, which will likely make the jobs of Chinese cops and chengguan even more treacherous. But since stress kills more policemen now than bullets (or gardening hoes), perhaps the government could take a lead from Foxconn and implement shorter hours, more holiday time and better pay? While that may help alleviate some problems temporarily, in the long-term China’s leaders will ultimately need to improve the country’s rule of law, so the authority of policemen and chengguan is kept in check and the people can learn to view them as upholders of the legal system instead of hired thugs. It’s an incredibly difficult dilemma to say the least.

 4) …White collar workers?

From the perilous pits of an unregulated mine shaft to the life-draining assembly lines, it’s readily apparent why some jobs in China are lethal and/or mentally exhausting. However, China Whisper recently ran a story suggesting that even many “comfortable”, decent-paying white-collar professions in China are rather precarious.

Web editors, reporters and Taobao.com shop owners are specifically prone to stress-related deaths or mental breakdowns due to the pressure to meet deadlines, and often have irregular work schedules with little or no sleep. Doctors have been violently attacked by patients more than 10,000 times between 2000-2010 (resulting in 11 deaths). And civil servants often must go out to socialize with their bosses, where they’re forced to drink and smoke a lot, which no doubt leads to many health problems down the road. Perhaps the new health care reforms outlined in the recent NPC Sessions and Xi Jinping’s crusade against outlandish banquets and government overindulgence will help make these professions safer and healthier, but as mentioned before, it's a very difficult problem that’s going to require broad institutional reforms, not just a few “Band-Aid” reforms that make for good sound-bites.

Conclusion

The first step to any recovery is admitting there’s a problem. Fortunately, since common people are now able to talk about such issues more openly than ever before through channels like Weibo, the government and private organizations alike are facing increasing pressure to do something about these problems, be it small scale measures like the six-point safety system for coalmines and extra facilities at mega-factories like Foxconn or broad promises to push forward institutional reforms for the health care and legal systems. China still has a long way to go toward improving worker safety, but hopefully this increased exposure will be the driving force. As the old saying about transparency goes, “sunlight is the best disinfectant”. 

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Keywords: most dangerous jobs in China China’s most dangerous jobs

4 Comments

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expatlife26

Foxconn catches a ton of flak for suicides, but seriously they employ over 900,000 people and had 14 suicides. Less than 10% of the national average. Those people are all employed and being paid a market wage. At almost a million people theres gonna be a few that have underlying problems that will lead them to suicide. It's tragic but I hate how the factory itself was vilified. You could write a story saying that working at foxconn is a fantastic suicide prevention system. I genuienly admire the social consciousness of western people over the total apathy we see here; but sometimes we're too eager to find a bad guy in big companies that just doesn't exist.

Nov 15, 2013 11:52 Report Abuse

13david

Being a poet or writer or dissident is probably even more dangerous

Jul 25, 2013 13:49 Report Abuse

tigertiger

conclusions. Any work in China can shorten your life expectancy and quality of life through unnecessary risks and/or stress.

Jul 24, 2013 07:54 Report Abuse

RachelDiD

If I get killed in China, I want my family to write me the following epitaph: "Here lies RachelDid. Caring sister. Loving daughter. Should have learned Japanese."

Jul 24, 2013 13:12 Report Abuse