China passes law to curb special equipment accidents

China's legislature on Saturday passed a law on the safety of special equipment including elevators, boilers, cranes and large recreation facilities, amid public concerns following a number of accidents, some of which were fatal. After three readings over the past two years, the law was passed at the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature. The law will take effect on Jan. 1. Accidents involving special equipment claimed 18 lives and injured five people in China last month, said Chen Xitong, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), on Thursday. The law clarifies that enterprises producing, selling, operating, using and testing special equipment take legal responsibility for its safety. The government is responsible for supervision and management. Those violating the law could be fined up to 2 million yuan (325,400 U.S. dollars) in serious cases. Pressure vessels, pressure pipelines, lifting appliances, passenger ropeways and special vehicles are also listed as special equipment. Special equipment is increasingly being used following social and economic development, but illegal activities, a lack of safety awareness and unspecified safety management responsibilities are posing potential threats to the public, said Kan Ke, deputy director of the legislative affairs commission of the NPC Standing Committee. He cited the example of elevators, which soared from 350,000 in 2002 to 2.45 million at the end of 2012, the largest number in the world. However,aging equipment and poor maintenance in some apartment buildings have posed potential threats to safety. Although the rate of accidents in every 10,000 elevators has dropped from 1.56 to 0.15 in the past 10 years, the fatality rate still stands at 0.11 percent, Kan said. According to the law, producers, sellers and users of special equipment shall obtain state-issued licenses and certifications. It also clarifies the compulsory implementation of technological safety standards, which are also applicable to imported special equipment. Government supervision will focus on the use of special equipment in schools, kindergartens, hospitals, bus stations, malls, parks and other public areas. The law requires a recall mechanism for defective equipment and demands that worn-out or potentially dangerous equipment be discarded. The watchdog should keep files on all registered special equipment. Any organization or person can report violations to the watchdog. The law encourages buying insurance for special equipment safety. South China's Guangdong Province has started a trial operation of such insurance. The public is also urged to enhance safety awareness and observe requirements when using special equipment. "We stress public participation and supervision in ensuring equipment safety as administrative management is limited compared with the wide use of such equipment," said Kan. Xu Xinjian, who is in charge of policy and regulation affairs of the AQSIQ, said the administration will modify and specify its current regulations on special equipment safety and strengthen checks in accordance with the law. The third session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) ran from Wednesday to Saturday. As a legislative move to cut red tape and reduce administrative intervention, the legislature also adopted amendments to a package of 12 laws, including those on the protection of cultural relics, grassland, customs, quarantine of imports and exports, and prevention and control of infectious diseases. Laws on taxation, prevention and treatment of polluting solid waste, coal industry, animal epidemic prevention, securities, seeds, the promotion of non-governmental education were also included in the package. According to the amendments, private owners of cultural heritage sites will not need government approval for selling and mortgaging properties or changing the use of them, but they should inform authorities so they can supervise proceedings. The amendments simplify the procedure of running a coal mine and remove the administrative approval for opening a company in the coal business. The revision also shortens the processing time for reviewing applications of tax registration and issuing certificates, from the maximum 30 days to one day. The amendments were a follow-up move after the State Council published a list of items last month that no longer require central government approval or now only need consent from lower-level authorities. The meeting also approved the central government's final accounts for 2012. Legislators heard on Thursday a State Council report on the 2012 accounts given by Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and an audit report on the implementation of the central budget and other fiscal revenue and expenditures for last year.