China refines workplace safety, disaster response

The number of deaths related to workplace safety accidents in 2024 was 28 percent lower than in 2020, the final year of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), senior emergency officials said on Wednesday as they highlighted improvements in production safety and disaster response during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

In 2024, the number of particularly serious accidents fell to single digits for the first time, down 44 percent from 2020, said Emergency Management Minister Wang Xiangxi at a news conference in Beijing hosted by the State Council Information Office.

He said both the number of accidents and related deaths have continued to decline this year.

From 2021 to 2024, the average number of people affected by natural disasters fell 31 percent, and the number of people dead or missing as a result of disasters dropped 23 percent, compared with the 2016-20 period, Wang said.

He said the 14th Five-Year Plan marked a major shift in China's emergency management, "with governance moving toward prevention before crises occur", and stressed that the country's emergency response has also become more efficient.

"We have established a national emergency command headquarters, connected 24/7 by audio and video with command centers at the provincial, city and county levels, building a vertically integrated and coordinated emergency response system," Wang said.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China has launched 85 national-level emergency responses, handling major disasters such as the 6.8 magnitude Luding earthquake in Sichuan province in 2022, the large wildfire in Chongqing in 2022 and severe floods that have affected the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in recent years.

At the briefing, Wang Kun, director of the China Earthquake Administration, outlined prevention and response efforts to major earthquakes over the past five years, stressing that China is among the most earthquake-prone continental countries in the world.

He said rolling assessments of seismic risks and pre-evaluations of potential losses in key regions have been conducted to provide scientific support for disaster prevention and relief.

Authorities at all levels initiated more than 1,000 emergency responses during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

In 2024, China also completed the world's largest earthquake early warning system, Wang said.