Laws of the People's Republic of China

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

Order of the President of the People's Republic of China

No.70

The Production Safety Law of the People's Republic of China has been adopted at the 27th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth People's Congress on June 29, 2002, and is hereby promulgated for implementation as of November 1, 2002.

Jiang Zemin, President of the People's Republic of China

June 29, 2002

Production Safety Law of the People's Republic of China ContentsChapter I General Principles

Chapter II Guarantee of Safety by Production and Business Operation Entities

Chapter III Rights and Obligations of Employees

Chapter IV Supervision and Administration of Production Safety

Chapter V Emergency Rescue, Investigation and Handling of Production Safety Accidents

Chapter VI Legal Liabilities

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Chapter I General Principles

Article 1

The present law has been enacted for the purpose of strengthening the supervision and administration of production safety, preventing and reducing safety accidents, defending the safety of life and property of the masses, and promoting the development of economy.

Article 2

The present law shall be applicable to the production safety of the entities that are engaged in to the production and business operation activities within the territory of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the production and business operation entities). Where there are different provisions in laws or administrative regulations concerning the safety of fire control, road traffic and transportation, railway transportation, water transportation, civil air transportation, etc., such provisions shall be applied.

Article 3

For the administration of production safety, the guidelines of "safety first, focus on prevention" shall be observed.

Article 4

The production and business operation entities shall observe the present law and other relevant laws, regulations concerning the production safety, strengthen the administration of production safety, establish and perfect the system of responsibility for production safety, perfect the conditions for safe production, and ensure the safety in production.

Article 5

The major person-in-charge of the production and business operation entities shall take charge of the overall work of the production safety of the entity concerned.

Article 6

The employees of the production and business operation entities have the right to production safety according to law, and shall also be obliged to perform their obligations regarding to production safety.

Article 7

The trade unions shall organizes the workers to participate in the democratic management and supervision of the production safety of the entity where they work so as to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the workers in production safety.

Article 8

The State Council and the people's governments at all levels shall strengthen the leadership over the work of production safety, and support and urge the relevant departments to perform their respective duties of supervision and administration of production safety.

The people's governments on the county level and above shall coordinate and handle the serious problems that exist in the supervision and administration of production safety in good time.

Article 9

The department of the State Council in charge of the supervision and administration of production safety implements comprehensive supervision and administration of the work of production safety of the whole country. The people's governments on the county level and above in charge the supervision and administration of production safety shall implement comprehensive supervision and administration of the work of production safety with their respective administrative jurisdictions according to the present law.

The relevant departments of the State Council shall, according to the provisions of the present law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations, implement supervision and administration of the work of production safety within their respective functions and duties. The relevant departments of the people's governments on the county level and above shall, according to the provisions of the present law and other relevant laws and regulations, implement supervision and administration of the work of production safety within their respective functions and duties.

Article 10

The relevant departments of the State Council shall, according to the requirements of guaranteeing production safety, formulate relevant national standards or industrial standards according to law and in good time, and shall make revisions according to the progress of technology and development of economy in good time.

The production and business operation entities must enforce the national standards and industrial standards that have been lawfully formulated for guaranteeing production safety.

Article 11

The people's governments at all levels and the relevant departments thereof shall take various forms to strengthen the publicity of laws and regulations concerning production safety and knowledge about production safety so as to enhance the consciousness of the workers about production safety.

Article 12

The intermediary institutions that are lawfully established for providing technological services in production safety accepts the entrustment of the production and business operation entities to provide technological services in production safety according to the provisions of laws, administrative regulations and code of conduct.

Article 13

The system of affixing responsibilities to production safety accidents is implemented in our country and those who are held to be responsible for production safety accidents shall be affixed legal liabilities according to the present law and other provisions of the relevant laws and regulations.

Article 14

The state encourages and supports the research of production safety science and technology and the popularization and application of advanced technologies of production safety so as to improve the level of production safety.

Article 15

The state rewards those entities and individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the improvement of conditions of production safety, preventing production safety accidents, and rescue and relief in emergencies, etc.

Chapter II Guarantee of Safety by Production and Business Operation Entities

Article 16

The production and business operation entities shall be equipped with the conditions for safe production as provided in the present law and other relevant laws, administrative regulations, national standards and industrial standards. Any entity that is not equipped with the conditions for safe production may not engage in production and business operation activities.

Article 17

The major persons-in-charge of the production and business operation entities shall have the following duties and responsibilities regarding the production safety of their own entity:

a.

Establishing and perfecting the system of responsibility relating to production safety;

b.

Organizing the formulation of rules of safe production and operational rules of the entity;

c.

Ensuring the effective execution of input in production safety;

d.

Overseeing and inspecting the work of production safety of the entity and eliminating in good time the potential production safety accidents;

e.

Organizing the formulation and execution of plans for emergency rescue and relief of production safety accidents of the entity

f.

Reporting production safety accidents truthfully and in good time.

Article 18

The capital investment necessary for the conditions for the safe production of the production and business operation entities shall guaranteed by the decision-making organ and major persons-in-charge of the production and business operation entities or the investors of the private enterprises who shall be responsible for the aftermaths of insufficient capital investment necessary for safe production.

Article 19

The mines and construction entities as well as those engaged in the production, selling and storage of hazardous substances shall establish an administrative organ for production safety or have full-time personnel for the administration of production safety.

The production and business operation entities not mentioned in the preceding paragraph but have more than 300 employees shall establish an administrative organ for production safety or have full-time personnel for the administration of production safety; if they have fewer than 300 employees, they shall have full-time or part-time personnel for the administration of production safety or entrust the engineering technicians who are equipped with the relevant professional technical qualifications as provided by the state to provide services in the administration of production safety.

Where any production and business operation entity that entrusts engineering technicians to provide services in the administration of production safety as provided in the preceding paragraph, the responsibility for ensuring safe production shall also remain with the entity itself.

Article 20

The major persons-in-charge and the personnel for the administration of production safety of the production and business operation entities shall have the knowledge and management capacity that match the production and business operation activities of the entities concerned.

The persons-in-charge and the personnel for the administration of production safety of the entities that are engaged in the production, selling and storage of hazardous substances and the mines and construction entities shall not take their positions until they have passed the examinations of the administrative departments concerning the knowledge and management capacity of production safety. No fees may be charged for such examinations.

Article 21

The production and business operation entities shall offer education and training programs to the employees thereof regarding production safety so as to ensure that the employees have the necessary knowledge of production safety, know the relevant regulations and rules for safe production and the rules for safe operation, and master the skills for safe operation for their own positions. No employee who has not passed the education and training programs regarding production safety may start to work at his position.

Article 22

Where any production and business operation entities employs any new technique, new technology, new material or new equipment, it must know and have good understanding of the safety and technical feature thereof, take effective measures for safety production and give special education and training programs to the employees concerned about production safety.

Article 23

The special operation staff members of the production and business operation entities may not start to work at their positions until they have passed the special training regarding safe operations and obtained qualification certificates for special operations according to the relevant provisions of the state.

The scope of special operation staff shall be determined by the department State Council in charge of the supervision and administration of production safety in collaboration with the other relevant departments of the State Council.

Article 24

The safety facilities of the newly built or rebuilt or expanded engineering projects of the production and business operation entities (hereinafter referred to as construction projects as a general term) shall be designed, built and put into production and use at the same time of the principal part of the projects. The investment in safety facilities shall be incorporated in the budgetary estimates of the construction projects concerned.

Article 25

Safety conditions argumentations and safety appraisals shall be made according to the relevant provisions of the state to the mining construction projects and the construction projects for the production and storage of hazardous substances respectively.

Article 26

The designers or designing entities for the safety facilities of construction projects shall take responsibility for their designs of safety facilities.

The safety facility designs of the mining construction projects and the construction projects for the production and storage of hazardous substances shall be subject to the examination and approval of relevant departments according to the relevant provisions of the state, and the examination and approval departments and the persons thereof in charge of examinations and approval shall be responsible for the result of examination and approval.

Article 27

The mining construction projects and the construction entities of the construction projects for the production and storage of hazardous substances shall execute the constructions according to the approved designs of safety facilities, and shall be responsible for the quality of the construction of safety facilities.

After a mining construction project or a construction project for the production and storage of hazardous substances is completed and before it is put into production or put into use, the safety facilities thereof shall be subject to check and approval according to the relevant provisions of laws and administrative regulations. They may be put into production or use only after they have passed the check and approval. The department in charge of the check and approval shall be responsible for the results of check and approval.

Article 28

The production and business operation entities shall set up eye-catching safety warning marks at the production or business operation sites that have substantial dangerous elements or on the relevant facilities or equipments.

Article 29

The designing, manufacturing, installation, using, checking, maintenance, reforming and claiming as useless of safety equipments shall be in conformity with the national standards or industrial standards.

The production and business operation entities shall service, maintain the safety facilities often and check them regularly so as to ensure the normal operation thereof. Records shall be made for the services, to which the signature of relevant persons shall be affixed.

Article 30

The special equipment that concerns the safety of life or is rather dangers, the container of hazardous substances or the transportation tool that any production and business operation entity uses shall, according to the relevant provisions of the state, be manufactured by the specialized production entities, and only after it has passed the detections and tests of the detecting and testing institutions that are equipped with the professional qualifications for which a certificate for safe use or a mark of safety has been obtained could it be put into use. The detecting and testing institutions shall be responsible for the results of their detections and tests.

The list of special equipments that concern the safety of life or that are rather dangerous shall be formulated by the department of the State Council in charge of the supervision and administration of such special equipments, and shall be executed after the approval of the State Council has been obtained.

Article 31

The techniques and equipments that seriously endangers the safety of production shall be eliminated by the state.

No production and business operation entity may use any technique or equipment that endangers production safety and that has been explicitly announced for elimination or prevent from use.

Article 32

The production, business operation, transportation, storage and use of any hazardous substances or dispose of or abandon hazardous substances shall be subject to the examination and approval as well as the supervision and administration of relevant administrative departments according to the provisions of relevant laws and regulations, national standards or industrial standards.

For the production, business operation, transportation, storage and use of any hazardous substance or disposal or abandoning of any hazardous substance by any production and business operation entity, the entity shall execute the provisions of relevant laws and regulations as well as the national standards or industrial standards, and establish specialized safety administration rules, take reliable safety measures, and accept the supervision and administration lawfully carried out by relevant administrative departments.

Article 33

Production and business operation entities shall have archivist files for substantial hazardous sources, make regular checks, appraisals, supervisions and controls, make emergency plans, and inform the employees and other relevant people of the emergency measures that should be taken under emergent circumstances.

The production and business operation entities shall report, according to the relevant provisions of the state, the substantial hazardous sources and the corresponding safety measures and emergency measures to the administrative department and other relevant departments of the local people's government in charge of the supervision and administration of production safety for archivist purposes.

Article 34

The workshops, stores, warehouses that produce, manage, store or use hazardous substances may not be located in the same building as the dormitories of the employees, and there should be a safe distance between them and the dormitories.

For the sites of production and business operation and the dormitories of the employees, there shall be exits that meet the requirements for emergent dispersal of people, have eye-catching marks and be clear of obstructions. It shall be prohibited to close or obstruct the exits of the sites of production and business operation and the dormitories of the employees.

Article 35

To carry out the operations of explosions and hoistings, the production and business operation entities shall arrange for special persons to take charge of the on-spot safety so as to ensure that the operational rules be observed and the safety measures be carried out.

Article 36

The production and business operation entities shall educate and urge the employees thereof to observe strictly the regulations and rules thereof for safe production and the rules for safe operations, and shall inform truthfully the employees of the dangerous elements that exist in the site of operations and work positions, of the prevention measures and corresponding emergency measures for dealing with accidents.

Article 37

The production and business operation entities shall provide labor protection articles that meet the national standards or industrial standards to the employees thereof, supervise and educate them to wear or use these articles according to the prescribed rules.

Article 38

The persons in charge of the production safety of the production and business operation entities shall conduct regular inspections over the production safety of the entities concerned by taking the peculiarities of business operation of the entities into consideration. The safety problems that are found out in the inspections shall be dealt with immediately; if they cannot deal with the problems, they shall report to the relevant persons-in-charge of the entities in good time. Records shall be taken for the inspections and the handling of the problems.

Article 39

The production and business operation entities shall arrange funds buying labor protection articles and holding trainings in production safety.

Article 40

Two or more production and business operations that conduct production and business operation activities within a same area and may endanger the production safety of each other shall enter into agreements concerning the administration of production safety so as to specify the duties and functions of each other in the administration of production safety as well as the safety measures to be taken, and shall arrange for full-time persons in charge of the administration of production safety to conduction safety inspections and coordinations.

Article 41

No production and business operation entity may contract or lease any project, site or equipment of production and business operation to any entity or person that does not have the conditions for safe production or have the corresponding qualifications.

In case a production and business operation project or site is contracted or leased to more than one entity, the production and business operation entity shall enter into special agreements with the contractor or leaseholder concerning the administration of production safety, or stipulate in the contracting agreements or leasehold contracts the duties and functions of each party in the administration of production safety. The production and business operation entity shall exercise unified coordination and administration over the contractors and leaseholders concerning the work of production safety.

Article 42

Where any serious production safety accident occurs in any production and business operation entity, the major persons-in-charge of the entity shall organize immediate rescues and may not leave their positions with out permission during the period for investigating and handling the accident.

Article 43

The production and business operation entities must buy employment injury insurances according to law, and pay insurance premiums for the employees thereof.

Chapter III Rights and Obligations of Employees

Article 44

In the employment contracts entered into between the production and business operations and the employees, it shall include stipulations about the guarantee of the labor safety of the employees, the avoidance of vocational injuries, and the buying of employment injury insurances for the employees thereof according to law.

No production and business operation entity may conclude any agreement with the employees thereof so as to exempt or mitigate the liabilities which result from any production safety accident casualties occurred to the employees thereof and which it has to undertake.

Article 45

The employees of a production and business operation entity shall be entitled to know the dangerous elements that exist in the site or position of work as well as the corresponding prevention measures and emergency measures; they shall be entitled to give suggestions concerning the work of production safety of the entity where they work.

Article 46

The employees shall be entitled to criticize, expose or institute legal proceedings on the ground of the problems that exist in the production safety of the entity concerned.

The production and business operation entity may not lower the salaries or welfare or other treatment or dissolve the labor contracts entered into with the employees simply because the employee concerned has criticized, exposed or filed lawsuits on the ground of the problems existing in the production safety of the entity or because he has refused to give directions as against the operational rules or to force people to work in risks.

Article 47

Where any employee finds any emergency that may directly endanger the personal safety of himself or any other person, he shall be entitled to stop work or leave the site of work after taking possible emergency measures.

No production and business operation entity may lower the salaries or welfare or other treatment of the employee concerned or dissolve the labor contract entered into with the employee concerned simply because he has stopped work or left under emergent circumstances as mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Article 48

The employees that suffered injuries in production safety accidents shall be entitled to claim compensations against the entity concerned if, according to the civil laws, they have the right to do so apart from enjoying the employment injury insurances according to law.

Article 49

The employees shall, in work, rigidly observe the rules and regulations concerning production safety and the operational rules of the entities concerned, obey their administration, and correctly wear and use labor protection articles.

Article 50

The employees shall accept education and training in production safety, be equipped with the knowledge of production safety necessary for their work so as to improve their skills in production safety and enable themselves to prevent from accidents and handle emergencies.

Article 51

Any employee who finds out any potential accidents or other insecure elements shall report immediately to the person in charge of the on-spot administration of production safety or the person-in-charge of the entity concerned. The person who receives the report shall handle them in good time.

Article 52

The trade unions shall be entitled to see to it that the safety facilities are designed, constructed and put into use at the same time as the main part of the construction projects, and shall be entitled to their comments.

The trade unions shall be entitled to demand the production and business operation entity to mend up any act thereof that has violated the provisions of any law or regulation regarding production safety and injured the lawful rights and interests of the employees. When they find that the production and business operation entity gives directions as against the rules and regulations, force people to work in risks or discover any potential accidents, they shall be entitled to give their suggestions, and the production and business operation entities shall take into consideration and give replies in good time. When they discover any circumstance endangering the life of the employees, they shall be entitled to suggest the production and business operation entity to organize the employees to leave the dangerous site, and the production and business operation entity to react without delay.

The trade unions shall be entitled to participate in the investigations of accidents, give their comments on the handling of accidents and request relevant personnel to undertake responsibilities.

Chapter IV Supervision and Administration of Production Safety

Article 53

The local people's governments on the county level and above shall, according to the situation of production safety within their respective administrative jurisdictions, organize the relevant departments to inspect, according to their functions and duties, the production and business operation entities within their respective administrative jurisdiction where serious production safety accidents are apt to occur. In case any potential accident is discovered, it shall be handled without delay.

Article 54

If anything relating to production safety shall be subject to examination and approval according to the provisions of relevant laws and regulations (including approval, verification, permission, registration, certification, granting licenses, etc.), the departments that have the duty of supervising and administering production safety according to Article 9 of the present law (hereafter "the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety") shall carry out the examination and approval by strictly following the relevant laws and regulations as well as the conditions and procedures for safe production as required by national or industrial standards. If it is not in conformity with the provisions of relevant laws or regulations or it does not meet the conditions for safe production as required by national or industrial standards, it shall not be approved or shall not pass the examinations for acceptance. In case the administrative department in charge of examination and approval discovers or receives reports that any entity is unlawfully engaged in relevant activities without obtaining approval or without passing the examinations for acceptance, it shall revoke the unlawful act without delay and handle the case according to law. If the entity has already obtained approval according to law and the administrative department in charge of examination and approval finds that the entity no longer meets the conditions for safe production, it shall cancel the original approval.

Article 55

The departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety may not collect any fee for the examinations and approval for the matters relating to production safety, and may not demand the entities subject to examination and approval or examination for acceptance to buy the brands designated thereby or to buy the safety equipments, facilities or other products produced or sold by the entities designated thereby.

Article 56

A department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety supervise and inspect according to law the executions of the relevant laws and regulations concerning production safety and the national or industrial standards by the production and business operation entities, and shall have the following duties and functions:

a.

To make inspections at the production and business operation entities, gather relevant materials, and inquire relevant entities and persons;

b.

To correct the acts violating the statutory provisions of law and discovered in the inspections or demand for correction within a prescribed time limit; to make decisions of administrative penalties according to the provisions of the present law and other relevant laws and regulations to those acts that shall be subject to administrative penalties according to law;

c.

If it finds any potential accident in its inspections, it shall order them to be eliminated without delay. If safety cannot be guaranteed before a serious potential accident is eliminated or in the process of elimination, it shall order the employees at work to leave the dangerous areas, and order that the business operation or production or use be suspended or terminated. The production or business operation or use may not be resumed until the serious potential accident has been eliminated and approval has been obtained upon examination;

d.

Shall be entitled to seal up or detain the facilities, equipments and apparatuses that are believed as not meeting the national or industrial standards for guaranteeing production safety.

The supervision and inspection may not affect the normal production and business operation activities of the examinee entities.

Article 57

The production and business operation entities shall cooperate with and may not reject or obstruct the supervision and inspection personnel of the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety (hereafter "the supervision and inspection personnel of production safety") in their lawful supervision and inspection.

Article 58

The supervision and inspection personnel of production safety shall be devoted to their duties, adhere to the principles, and be impartial in their enforcement activities.

The supervision and inspection personnel of production safety shall, when discharging their duties, show valid certificates of supervision enforcement, and shall keep secret if any of the technological secret or business secret of the entity subject to inspection is involved.

Article 59

The supervision and inspection personnel of production safety shall make written records of the time and place of the inspection, what is the inspection about, the problems discovered and how they are dealt with, and affix their signatures of the inspectors and person-in-charge of the inspected entity. If the person-in-charge of the inspected entity refuses to affix his signature, the inspectors may write the situation down in the records and report to the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety.

Article 60

The departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety shall, in their supervision and administration activities, cooperate with each other by way of joint inspections. If it necessary to make inspections separately, they shall inform each other. If any safety problems found have to be handled by other relevant departments, they shall be transferred to the other departments concerned and keep records for further reference. The departments that accept the transferred cases shall handle them without delay.

Article 61

The government supervision authorities shall, according to the provisions concerning administrative government supervision, be responsible for supervising the execution of duties of production safety supervision and administration by the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety and the personnel thereof.

Article 62

The institutions undertaking the work of safety appraisal, certification, detection, and test shall be equipped with the qualifications as required by the state, and shall be responsible for the results of safety appraisal, certification, detection and test.

Article 63

The departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety shall establish a system of reporting violations, making public the telephone numbers, mail boxes or email addresses for reporting violations, and accept the reports for violations relating to production safety. Any reported violation that has been accepted shall be put down in writing after it has been verified through investigations. If any measure of rectification or improvement have to be taken, it shall be reported to the relevant person-in-charge for execution after the person-in-charge has affixed his signature.

Article 64

Any entity or individual shall be entitled to report to the department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety about any potential accident or any violation of statutory provisions concerning production safety.

Article 65

Any urban residents' committee or villagers committee finds potential accident or violation of statutory provisions concerning production safety exists in the production and business operation entity within its jurisdiction shall report to the people's government or other relevant department of the local place.

Article 66

The people's governments on the county level and above as well as the relevant departments thereof shall reward those that have meritorious acts in reporting important potential accidents or violations of statutory provisions concerning production safety. The detailed measures for rewards shall be formulated by the department of the State Council responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety in collaboration with the public fiscal department of the State Council.

Article 67

The entities such as news agency, publication, broadcasting, movie and television, etc. shall be under the obligation of the publicity and education of production safety, and shall have the right to conduct supervision by public opinions over the acts violating the statutory provisions concerning production safety.

Chapter V Emergency Rescue, Investigation and Handling of Production Safety Accidents

Article 68

The people's governments on the county level and above shall organize relevant departments to formulate emergency rescue plans for the especially serious production safety accidents within their respective administrative jurisdictions, and establish their own systems of emergency rescue.

Article 69

The entities that produce, manage or store hazardous substances as well as the mining and construction building entities shall establish emergency rescue organizations. If a production and business operation is small in scale, it may designate part-time emergency rescue persons instead of establishing emergency rescue organizations.

The entities that produce, manage or store hazardous substances as well as the mining and construction building entities shall be equipped with necessary rescue apparatuses and equipments which shall be serviced and maintained regularly so as to ensure their normal operation.

Article 70

When a production safety accident occurs to a production and business operation entity, the relevant persons at the spot of the accident shall report to the persons-in-charge of the entity immediately.

The persons-in-charge of the entity shall, after receiving the report of accident, take effective measures immediately, organize rescues, and prevent the accident from deteriorating so as to reduce the casualty of personnel and property losses. They shall, according to the relevant provisions of the state, report truthfully to the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety of the local place, and may not conceal anything or report deceitfully or delay the reports or ruin the spot of the accident on purpose or destroy relevant evidences.

Article 71

The departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety shall, after receiving a report of accident, report the accident to the relevant authorities on higher levels according to the relevant provisions of the state. The departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety and the local people's governments concerned may not conceal any accident, report deceitfully or delay the report.

Article 72

The persons-in-charge of the local people's governments concerned and the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety shall, after receiving a report of production safety accident, hurry to the spot of the accident immediately to organize rescues.

All entities and individual shall support and coordinate the rescue of accident and provide all conveniences.

Article 73

The principle of being practical and realistic and the principle of respecting science shall be observed in the investigation and handling of accidents. The relevant people shall find out the accurate causes of the accidents in good time sum up the lessons of the accidents, suggest measures for rectification and mending up, and give their opinions about how to deal with those who are responsible for the accidents. The detailed measures for the investigation and handling of accidents shall be formulated by the State Council.

Article 74

If any production safety accident happened to a production and business operation entity is found, on the basis of investigations, to be an accident due to negligence, the relevant people shall not only find out the liabilities of and fix penalties to the entity where the accident has happened, they shall also find out the liabilities of the administrative departments that are responsible for the examination and approval of the relevant matters concerning production safety. Any person who is found to be guilty of dereliction in duties or malfeasance shall be subject to undertaking legal liabilities according to Article 77 of the present law.

Article 75

No entity or individual may obstruct or interfere with the lawful investigation and handling of accidents.

Article 76

The department of the local people's government on the county level and above who are responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety shall make statistical analyses regularly of the production safety accidents happened within their respective administrative regions, and publicize them to the general public.

Chapter VI Legal Liabilities

Article 77

Any staff member of the departments responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety who commits any of the following acts shall be given an administrative punishment of being demoted or removed from his position. If his act constitutes a crime, he shall be subject to assume criminal liabilities:

a.

Granting approval or accepting on the basis of examination any matter relating to production safety which does not meet the statutory conditions for production safety;

b.

Failing to clamp down or handle according to law after finding or receiving reports that any entity which has not obtained approval or has not passed the examinations for acceptance according to law is engaged in relevant activities;

c.

Finding that an entity which has obtained approval or passed the examinations for acceptance according to law but fails exercise its duties of supervision and administration and failing to withdraw the original approval or failing to investigate and handle any act violating the statutory provisions concerning production safety.

Article 78

Any department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety who demand the entities subject to examination and approval or examinations for acceptance to buy any safety equipment, facility or other product as designated thereby or charge any fees in the examination and approval or examination for acceptance concerning the matters of production safety shall be ordered to mend up by the competent authorities or the government supervision organs on a higher level and be ordered to refund the fees charged. If the circumstances are serious, the person-in-charge and other personnel who are held to be directly responsible shall be given administrative punishments according to law.

Article 79

Any institution that undertakes the work of safety appraisal, certification, detection and test issues false certificates and thus constituting a crime shall assume criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law. If the acts thereof are not enough for criminal punishments, the illegal proceeds shall be confiscated and at the same time, it shall be imposed upon a fine of not less than two times but not more than five times the illegal proceeds if the illegal proceeds are more than 5,000 yuan; or, if the illegal proceeds are less than 5,000 yuan, be simply imposed upon a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 20,000 yuan, and the person-in-charge and other persons who are held to be directly responsible shall be imposed a fine of not less than 5,000 yuan but not more than 50,000 yuan. If injuries have been caused to other people, it shall take several and joint liabilities with the production and business operation entity.

Any institution that has committed any of the illegal acts as mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be disqualified accordingly.

Article 80

If the decision-making organ or major person-in-charge of any production and business operation entity or the investor of any individually run business fails to ensure the capital investment necessary for guaranteeing the production safety as provided in the present law so that the production and business operation entity no longer meets the requirements for safety production, the entity shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period and provide the necessary capital investment. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, the production and business operation entity shall be ordered to suspend business for rectifications.

If any of the illegal acts as mentioned in the preceding paragraph has resulted in any production safety accident and a crime is constituted, the offenders concerned shall assume criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law. If the act is not serious enough for assuming criminal liabilities, the major persons-in-charge of the production and business operation entity shall be given a punishment of demotion, and the investor of the individually run business be imposed a fine of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan.

Article 81

If the major person-in-charge of a production and business operation fails to perform his duty of administering production safety according to the provisions of the present law, he shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If he fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, the production and business operation entity shall be ordered to suspend production or business for rectifications.

If the major person-in-charge of a production and business operation entity commits any of the acts as mentioned in the preceding paragraph so that a production safety accident has resulted, and thus a crime has been constituted, the major person-in-charge shall assume criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law. If the acts are not serious enough for assuming criminal liabilities, he shall be given a punishment of demotion or be fined of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan.

If the major person-in-charge of a production and business operation entity assumes criminal liabilities or is punished by being removed from his positions according to the provisions of the preceding paragraph, he may not be the major person-in-charge of any production and business operation entity within five years starting from the day when the criminal penalty is executed or from the day when he is given the punishment.

Article 82

In any of the following circumstances, the production and business operation entity shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time periond. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, it shall be ordered to suspend production or business for rectifications, and may be fined not more than 20,000 yuan:

a.

Failing to establish an organ for the administration of production safety or to arrange for persons to take charge of the administration of production safety;

b.

The major persons-in-charge or the person in charge of production safety of an entity that produces, manages or stores hazardous substances or the mining or construction building entity fails to passed the examinations according to relevant provisions;

c.

Failing to educate or train the workers according to the provisions of Articles 21 and 22 of the present law or failing to inform truthfully the workers of the production safety matters according to the provisions of Article 36 of the present law;

d.

The special operation staff members failing to receive specialized trainings in production safety and failing to obtain a qualifications certificate for the special operations according to the provisions yet still works at his position.

Article 83

In any of the following circumstances, the production and business operation entity shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, it shall be ordered to suspend construction or suspend production or business for rectifications, and may be fined not more than 50,000 yuan. If serious consequences have resulted and thus a crime has been constituted, the offenders shall be subject to criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

a.

There is no design of safety facilities for a mining construction project or a construction project for the production or storage of hazardous substances, or the design of safety facilities has failed to be submitted to relevant departments according to relevant provisions for examination and approval;

b.

The construction entity of a mining project or a construction for the production or storage of hazardous substances fails to execute the construction according to the approved design of safety facilities;

c.

The safety facilities fail to pass the examinations for acceptance before a mining construction project or a construction project for the production or storage of hazardous substances is put into production or use;

d.

Failing to place eye-catching safety warning marks on the sites of production and business operation or relevant facilities and equipments which are considerably dangerous;

e.

The installation, use, test, transformation or discarding safety facilities as useless is not in conformity with national standards or industrial standards;

f.

Failing to carry out regular maintenance or service or regular tests to the safety facilities;

g.

Failing to provide labor protection products to the workers according to the national or industrial standards;

h.

A special equipment or a container or transportation for hazardous substances is put into use before passing the detection and test of the eligible institutions and obtaining a certificate for safety use or a safety label;

i.

Using any of the techniques or equipments that endanger production safety and that have been explicitly announced to be eliminated or to be prohibited from use.

Article 84

Any one who unlawfully produces, manages or stores any hazardous product without approval shall be ordered to terminate the illegal act or to close down with its illegal proceeds be confiscated and imposed upon a fine of not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal proceeds if such proceeds are more than 100,000 yuan or be simply imposed upon a fine of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan if there are no illegal proceeds or if the illegal proceeds are less than 100,000 yuan. If serious consequences have resulted and a crime has been constituted, the offenders shall assume criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

Article 85

In any of the following circumstances, the production and business operation entity shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, it shall be ordered to suspend production or business for rectifications and may be imposed upon a fine of not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 100,000 yuan. If serious consequences have resulted and a crime has been constituted, the offenders shall be subject to criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

a.

Failing to establish special safety administration systems or failing to take effective safety measures or refusing to accept the lawful supervision and administration of the administrative departments for the production, management, storage or use of hazardous substances;

b.

Failing to create archivist files or failing to make appraisals or monitors or failing to make emergence plans for important sources of danger;

c.

Failing to arrange for specialized administrative personnel to conduct on-spot administration of production safety in the dangerous operations including explosions and hoistings, etc.

Article 86

Any production and business operation entity who contracts or leases any production and business operation project, site or equipment to any entity or individual without the conditions for production safety or without corresponding qualifications shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period and the illegal proceeds thereof shall be confiscated and, at the same time be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal proceeds if such proceeds are more than 50,000 yuan, or be simply or concurrently imposed upon a fine of not if there are no illegal proceeds or if such proceeds are less than 50,000 yuan. If damages have been caused to other people due to a production safety accident, it shall take several and joint liabilities with the contractor or the lessee.

Any production and business operation who fails to enter into a production safety administration agreement with the contractor entity or lessee or failing to specify the duties and functions of production safety administration of the parties concerned in the contracting agreement or leasehold contract or failing to conduct unified coordination and administration of production safety over the contracting entity or lessee shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, it shall be ordered to suspend production or business for rectifications.

Article 87

Where two or more production and business operation entities operate within a same area that may endanger the safe production of the other party or fail to enter into any agreement for the administration of production safety or fail to designate full-time administrative persons of production safety to conduct safety inspections and coordination, they shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If they fail to mend up within the prescribed time period, they shall be ordered to terminate production and business operation.

Article 88

In any of the following circumstances, a production and business operation entity shall be ordered to mend up within a prescribed time period. If it fails to mend up within the prescribed time period, it shall be ordered to suspend production and business for rectifications. If serious consequences have resulted and a crime has been constituted, the offenders shall be subject to criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

a.

The workshop, store or warehouse where hazardous substances are produced, managed, stored or used is in a same building as the dormitory of the employees, or the distance between them and the employees' dormitory does not satisfy the safety requirements;

b.

In the production and business operation site and the employees' dormitories there is no exit which meets the requirements of emergency dispersal and which is eye-catching and unblocked, or the exit to the sites of production and business operation or the employees' dormitories is closed or blocked.

Article 89

Where any production and business operation entity enters into any agreement with any of the employees to exempt or mitigate the liabilities that it has to undertake due to casualties of employees in production safety accidents, such agreements shall be invalid, and the major person-in-charge of the production and business operation entity or the investor of the individually run business shall be fined not less than 20,000 yuan but not more than 200,000 yuan.

Article 90

Any worker of a production and business operation entity who does not obey the administration of the entity or violates the rules and regulations concerning production safety or breaches the operational rules shall be criticized and educated by the production and business operation entity, and shall be given a disciplinary punishment. If any serious accident has resulted and thus a crime has been constituted, the offender shall be subject to criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

Article 91

Where the major person-in-charge of any production and business operation entity fails to organize rescues immediately when any serious production safety accident occurs to the entity or leaves his position without permission or escapes and hides during the investigation and handling of the accident, he shall be punished by being demoted or removed from his position, and be held in custody for not more than 15 days if he has escaped and hid. If any crime has been constituted, he shall be subject to assuming criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

The major person-in-charge of any production and business operation entity who conceals any production safety accident or submits deceitful reports or delays reports shall be punished according to the provisions as mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Article 92

Where the relevant local people's government or the department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety conceals any production safety accident or submits deceitful reports or delays reports, the major person-in-charge or other persons who are held to be directly responsible shall be given an administrative punishment according to law. If any crime has been constituted, the offenders shall be subject to assuming criminal liabilities according to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law.

Article 93

If a production and business operation entity does not meet the requirements as provided by the present law or other relevant laws or administrative regulations or national or industrial standards and still does not meet the requirements for production safety after rectifications during the period of time when it production or business is suspended, it shall be closed down, and the relevant certificates or licenses thereof shall be canceled by the relevant authorities.

Article 94

The administrative punishments as mentioned in the present law shall be decided by the department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety. The administrative punishment of closing down shall be submitted by the department responsible for the supervision and administration of production safety to the people's government on the county level or above for decision according to their division of power as provided by the State Council. The administrative punishment of keeping in custody shall be decided by the public security organ according to the provisions of the Regulation on the Punishments for the Administration of Public Security. If there are different provisions in the relevant laws or administrative regulations concerning administrative punishments, such provisions shall be applicable.

Article 95

If personal casualties or property losses have been caused to other people by any production safety accident of any production and business operation entity, the entity shall be responsible for making compensations. If the entity refuses to make compensations or the persons-in-charge escape and hide, the compensation shall be enforced by the people's court according to law.

If the persons who are held to be responsible for a production safety accident fail to make compensations and the losses of the victims still cannot be compensated in full amount after the people's court has taken enforcement measures, the persons who are responsible shall continue to undertake their obligations of compensations. If the victims find that the persons who are responsible have other assets, they may plead the people's court at any time for enforcement.

Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions

Article 96

The terms as mentioned in the present law defined as follows:

"Hazardous substance" refers to any substance that may endanger the safety of a person or property, including flammable and explosive substances, hazardous chemicals, radioactive substances, etc.

"Important sources of danger" refers to the units (including sites and facilities) where hazardous substances are produced, carried, used or stored for a long term or temporarily and the quantity of the hazardous substances is equal to or has surpassed the threshold quantity.

Article 97

The present law shall become effective as of November 1, 2002.