The blaze that killed 15 last week at LongFei Recycling Co. Ltd. has been brought to the attention of China's central government. Head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), Li Yizhong, told the press that an investigation is under way with joint forces of a few ministries, according to New Express Daily. But no further information is available at this point.

Plastics News reported on the incident with extensive details in a February 29 story.

SAWS is one of the most closely followed national agencies in China, especially due to notorious coal mine disasters. Chinese workers in general are more vulnerable than their counterparts in other countries where safety measures are better enforced. A study revealed that China's casualty-GDP ratio goes up as the economy accelerates its pace.

The image of SAWS has become so negative that one of its spokesmen complained about being deemed a jinx. This official, Huang Yi, said February 26 during an online public chat that, "if the public feels that I bring nothing but bad news, I really hope I have less and less chance to appear... I'd rather disappear."

Well, it's my hope, too, that the country will cut down workplace accidents.

Yi added that he is sad about how the public equals work safety to accident/disaster. What he meant was, the public is earful of striking work accidents but doesn't hear about how preventive safety measures are put in place or how violators of safety regulations are penalized. Therefore, the terms of "work safety" and "work accidents" mean pretty much the same thing to them.

That is sad indeed.

Everyone knows labor is cheap in China. Unfortunately, it's not just the hourly pay that's cheap. It's also their health and lives. Every time a coal mine explosion happens in China, we hear how victims' families have a hard time getting any compensation and a "decent" settlement on a dead body only requires a few thousands, sometimes even just a few hundreds, dollars.

In my opinion, China won't have world-class manufacturing until the labor condition is improved.