Improvements reduce workplace casualties

China has experienced significant drops in casualties from workplace accidents and natural disasters, thanks to a reinforced emergency management system following an institutional reshuffle in 2018, said Wang Xiangxi, minister of emergency management.

Casualties from workplace accidents across the country last year fell by 46.9 percent from the 2017 level, the minister told reporters in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the sidelines of the ongoing first session of the 14th National People's Congress on Tuesday.

The number of people left dead or missing in natural disasters since 2018 has gone down by 54.3 percent from the average of the previous five years, he added.

In the country's latest institutional reshuffle in 2018, 13 responsibilities from 11 government bodies, mostly related to disaster relief, were shifted to the newly established Ministry of Emergency Management, including fire control.

The reshuffle has yielded significant results, as it "has made the country's emergency management system more systematic, holistic and coordinated", the minister stressed.

He said the reform has addressed the overlapping responsibilities of different government bodies and made rescue operations more concerted and well-coordinated.

Previously, more attention was paid to rescue, and disaster prevention was relatively neglected, he said. Now, rescue and risk control are considered equally important. More preparations are made based on risk assessments, and some rescue forces are dispatched to areas with risks so they can respond rapidly in case of disasters.

He said China has seen the capacity of its national fire and rescue forces increasingly strengthened in the past five years. The team is now capable of coping with many different types of emergency situations.

The operations of the team have been strongly supported by civilian rescue teams and the army, he added.