Top work safety official investigated

Nation's top anti-graft authority says Tianjin's ex-deputy mayor violated 'discipline and laws'

Yang Dongliang, China's top work safety official and a former deputy mayor of Tianjin, has been placed under investigation.

Yang, 61, "seriously violated Party discipline and laws", a phase often used to refer to corruption, according to a statement published by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The top anti-graft authority also published his profile on its website.

Yang, a native of Hebei province, worked his way up from being an oil driller in 1972 to become director of the State Administration of Work Safety in May 2012.

He worked for an oilfield in northern China, now named the Petro China Huabei Oilfield Co, and made his way through the ranks to become deputy head there in 1987.

After a stint in senior positions at an oil company affiliated to China Petrochemical Corp, Yang was posted to Tianjin in July 1994 as deputy manager of a chemical company. He remained in the city for nearly 20 years.

In 1996, he became deputy head of the city's economic commission.

He was appointed deputy mayor of Tianjin in March 2001, holding the position for more than 10 years until he was promoted as the top work safety regulator in 2012.

At an international meeting in December, Yang said in his keynote speech that the general work safety situation in China last year was satisfactory.

The number of major workplace accidents had been greatly reduced and the country had stepped up efforts to cut the number of coal mines.

Two huge blasts in Tianjin just before midnight last Wednesday ripped through a warehouse storing hundreds of tons of toxic chemicals, killing 114 people and affecting 17,000 households and 1,700 enterprises. At least 6,000 residents have been displaced.

As of Monday morning, 698 people were still in hospitals, 57 of them in critical condition.

Among the dead, 50 were firefighters and six were police officers. Fifty-two firefighters are among the missing, according to authorities in the city.

zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/19/2015 page4)