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Abstract
The 1950s witnessed high accident rates in China’s industrial workplaces. Previous scholarship has attributed this phenomenon to enterprises prioritizing production over safety and to the impotence of China’s labor unions in enforcing safety policies. This article proposes a third approach by exploring the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mass-based safe production regime, which was designed for political struggle against capitalists as well as fulfilling its political commitments to workers, while also aiming to enhance safety. Consequently, China’s labor authorities often adopted a principle of absolving workers from accident responsibilities, often shifting blame to enterprise leaders. This approach was ineffective in preventing accidents. In addition, the party’s safety education policies fell short because they romanticized older workers as safety-conscious mentors to the younger workforce but overlooked the reality that these veterans were often more prone to accidents. The generational gap in China’s workforce also impeded the dissemination of safety knowledge and practices.
Notes
1 People’s Daily, June 7, 1950, 2.
2 People’s Daily, June 7, 1950, 2; June 24, 1950, 6.
3 Mao Zengqing (毛增青), “A Discussion of the Causation of the Four Periods of High Incidence of Accidents in China and the Countermeasures” (对我国四次事故高发原因及对策的探讨), in Proceedings of The National Workshop on Safety Production Management Regulations《全国安全生产管理法规研讨会论文集》, ed. Labor Protection Science and Technology Society of China (中国劳动保护科学技术学会) (Beijing: n. p., 1994), 414.
4 In 1956, the Department of Labor introduced the first nationwide accident reporting system. A joint report by the Department of Labor and the National Statistics Bureau in 1960 highlighted significant problems in the system’s implementation. These problems included delays in submitting monthly and quarterly accident reports, inaccurate and late accident statistics, and inconsistencies in the data from different areas. National Bureau of Statistics of China (中华人民共和国国家统计局), “Circular of the Ministry of Labor on Further Implementation of the Regulations on Employee Casualty Reporting and Trial Implementation of the New Casualty Statement” (劳动部关于进一步贯彻执行工人职员伤亡事故报告规程和试行新的伤亡事故报表的通知), January 28, 1960, Tianjin Municipal Archive (TMA), x0283-c-000978-006.
5 Richard E. Wokutch and Josetta S. McLaughlin, “The U.S. and Japanese Work Injury and Illness Experience,” Monthly Labor Review, vol. 115, no. 4 (1992): 3–11.
6 Jeremy Brown, “When Things Go Wrong: Accidents and the Legacy of the Mao Era in Today’s China,” in Restless China, ed. Perry Link, Richard P. Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), 15.
7 Joel Andreas, Disenfranchised: The Rise and Fall of Industrial Citizenship in China (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 27.
8 Dahe Daily (大河报), October 12, 2012, A12.
9 Wang Yinshuan (王银栓) and Wang Fuqing (王富清), “A Rare Gas Explosion in the Yiluo Mines” (罕见的宜洛煤矿瓦斯爆炸), Literary and Historical Materials of Yiyang《宜阳文史资料》, vol. 8 (1994): 131.
10 In the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference adopted by the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on September 29, 1949, article 32 stipulated that: “Inspection of industries and mines shall be carried out in order to improve their safety devices and sanitary facilities.” See The Common Program and Other Documents of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1950), 12.
11 Mao Qihua (毛齐华), Seventy Years of Trials and Hardships《风雨征程七十春》(Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1997), 236.
12 Dahe Daily, October 12, 2012, A12.
13 People’s Daily, June 24, 1950, 6.
14 The executioner was named Ning Tianbao, a part-time “gunner” from the mine police office. As a native of Yiyang County, Zhang Baosan was lucky to have relatives who buried his corpse after getting a bullet. Mao Decai, a native of Hebei Province, was shot and fell headfirst into a pit. He was left alone for a long time, becoming a “lonely ghost.” Dahe Daily, October 12, 2012, A12.
15 Mao, Seventy Years of Trials and Hardships, 236.
16 People’s Daily, June 7, 1950, 2.
17 Available evidence suggests that the term zeren shigu in Chinese was a loanword of Japanese origin. It was originally used to refer to locomotive mechanical breakdowns, railway disasters, as well as inconveniences to railway passengers brought about by the negligence of railroad crew in Showa Japan by emphasizing “responsibility for one’s own behavior” (jiko sekinin). On March 31, 1942, the Zhangjiakou Railway Bureau run by the North China Transportation Corporation 華北交通株式会社 launched a month-long campaign to “eradicate zeren shigu.” This was the first time this term appeared in the context of modern China. Since the CCP took control of the railways in North China in 1949, this term had begun to appear in the party’s lexicon. See Mengjiang Periodical《蒙疆新报》, April 12, 1942, 2; People’s Daily, June 27, 1950, 2; For more studies of the term liability accidents in modern Japanese history, see Yoshida Yutaka (吉田 裕), “Research on Railway Accidents in the Era of National Railways: From the Perspective of Human Factors” (国有鉄道時代における鉄道事故の研究－ヒューマンファクターの視点から) (PhD diss., Kansai University, 2016), 15–84.
18 People’s Daily, June 27, 1950, 2.
19 Anson Rabinbach, The Eclipse of the Utopias of Labor (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), 53–91.
20 Committee for the Compilation of Gansu Historical Gazetteer (甘肃省地方史志编纂委员会), Gansu Gazetteer: Coal Industry Gazetteer《甘肃省志: 煤炭工业志》 (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin cubanshe, 1989), 330.
21 This structure was spearheaded by China’s labor departments in collaboration with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and the Ministry of Labor. At the enterprise level, safety was overseen by agencies such as the Safety Engineering Branch and the Labor Protection Committee, which were integrated into factory administrations and trade unions, respectively. Jiang Tao (江涛), “Mass-based Labor Protection Work in the Past Two Years and Suggestions on Future Work” (两年来的群众劳动保护工作和对今后工作的意见), in Experience on Conducting Labor Protection Work in Grass-roots Unions《基层工会劳动保护工作经验》, ed. Labour Protection Department of the ACFTU (中华全国总工会劳动保护部) (Beijing: Gongren chubanshe, 1957), 7.
22 Andreas, Disenfranchised, 27.
23 “Order by the Ministry of Industry of the Northeast People’s Government on Enhancing Safety Responsibility System and Conducting Safety Inspections” (东北人民政府工业部关于加强安全责任制进行保安大检查的指示), Non-ferrous Metal《有色金属》, vol. 5 (March 1950): 2–7.
24 People’s Daily, March 23, 1950, 2.
25 Di Zuozhi (邸作之), “Labor Protection Work in Local Industrial Enterprises and Suggestions on Future Work” (地方工业企业劳动保护工作和对今后工作的意见), September 27, 1957, TMA, x0084-c-000533-013.
26 People’s Daily, December 14, 1949, 2.
27 “Investigation of Current Safety and Health Inspections in Some Factories” (目前少数工厂安全卫生检查工作调查情况), September 6, 1951, TMA, X0084-c-000070-015.
28 “Investigation of Current Safety and Health Inspections in Some Factories,” September 6, 1951, TMA, X0084-c-000070-015.
29 Labor Protection Section of Tianjin Labour Bureau (天津市劳动局劳动保护科), “Current Condition of Safety and Health Inspection and Existing Problems in a Few Factories in Tianjin” (目前天津市少数工厂安全卫生检查工作情况及存在的问题), September 6, 1951, TMA, X0084-c-000070-014.
30 In a People’s Daily article published on September 14, 1953, the author Lao Xuan wrote that conducting safety inspections was just a “staged approach” suitable for the condition of the national economic recovery period rather than a thoroughgoing approach to prevent accidents in China’s industrial workplaces. See People’s Daily, September 14, 1953, 2.
31 This type of agreement was first introduced by the Soviet Trade Unions as a type of collective agreement designed to ensure the “development of social democracy in the sphere of production.” Morris L. Weisberg, “The Transformation of the Collective Agreement in Soviet Law,” University of Chicago Law Review, vol. 16, no. 2 (Spring 1949): 444–81.
32 Jiang Tao (江涛), “Turning Around Mental Blocks and Carrying the Signing of Labor Protection Further” (清除思想障碍, 进一步开展签订劳动保护协议书的工作), in Doing the Signing of Labor Protection Agreements Well《做好签订劳动保护协议书的工作》, ed. Labour Protection Department of the ACFTU (中华全国总工会劳保部) (Beijing: Gongren chubanshe, 1956), 9.
33 Ministry of Labor (劳动部), “Joint Circular of the Ministry of Labor and the ACFTU on the Preparation of Planning Safety Measures and the Signing of Labor Protection Agreements” (劳动部全国总工会关于编制1957年安全技术措施计划和签订劳动保护协议书的联合通知), September 21, 1956, TMA, x0084-c-000462-001.
34 Zang Yanhu (臧衍祜), “Situation and Opinions on the Signing of Labor Protection Agreements in Textile Enterprises” (关于纺织企业签订和实现劳动保护协议书的情况和意见), Labor《劳动》, no. 1 (January 1956): 26–28.
35 Tianjin Committee of the First Machinery Trade Union of China (中国第一机械工会天津市委员会), “Summary Report of the Signing of Labor Protection Agreement and Its Accomplishment in 1956” (1956年劳动保护协议书的签订和实现情况的总结报告), TMA, January 28, 1957, x0045-y-000035-005.
36 Labor Protection Department of Tianjin Federation of Trade Unions (天津市工会联合会劳动保护部), “Investigation Report of the Signing of Labor Protection Agreements and the Labor Protection Work in Employee Representative Assembly” (关于劳动保护协议书与职工代表大会中的劳动保护工作的情况调查报告), TMA, November 15, 1957, x0044-y-000375-002.
37 Shanghai Light Industry Committee (上海市轻工业委员会), “Summary Report on the Work of Signing Labor Protection Agreements in Shanghai Factories by the Ministry of Light Industry” (中轻部在沪工厂签订劳动保护协议书工作总结报告), May 15, 1956, Shanghai Municipal Archive, c11-2-209-147.
38 Municipal Labor Bureau (市劳动局), “Summary Report of the Speech in the District-level Labor Protection Symposium” (区劳动保护座谈会总结发言材料), November 8, 1957, TMA, x0084-c-000533-007.
39 Sun Andi (孙安弟), “1949–1978: Labor Protection in New China was Moving Forward in a Zigzag Way” (1949–1978年: 新中国劳动保护在摸索中曲折前进), Labor Protection《劳动保护》, no. 6 (June 2021): 18.
40 Beijing Committee of the First Machinery Trade Union of China (中国第一机械工会北京市委员会), “Work Summary of Labor Protection Branch in 1955” (1955年劳保科工作总结), December 1955, Beijing Municipal Archive (BMA), 079-001-00055-058.
41 “Report of the Working Group of the Department of Labor Protection of the Ministry of Labor on the Inspection of Labor Protection Work in Shanghai and Hangzhou” (劳动部劳动保护司工作组检查上海杭州两地劳动保护工作情况的报告), 1955, BMA, 110-001-00613.
42 Beijing Committee of China First Machinery Trade Union, “Summary by Labor Protection Department in 1955,” BMA, December 1955, 079-001-00055-058.
43 Public Health Bureau of Tianjin Municipal People’s Government (天津市人民政府公共卫生局), “Summary of the Tianjin Industrial Hygiene Exhibition” (天津市工业卫生展览会总结), September 25, 1951, TMA, x0053-y-000106-014.
44 Control Commission of Tianjin People’s Government (天津市人民政府人民监察委员会), “Investigation Report of the Industrial Accident of Worker Li Haishun from the Tianjin Woolen Factory” (天津毛织厂工人李海顺工伤事故调查材料), October 1952, TMA, x0104-c-000685-006.
45 The Third Engineering Division of Ministry of Electricity (电力部第三工程处), “This is How Our Safety Department Worked on Safety Work” (我们安技组织是怎样开展劳动保护工作的), TMA, 1956, x0084-y-000432-035.
46 Li Jiazhi (李家治) and Xu Liancang (徐联仓), “A Preliminary Analysis of the Causation of Industrial Accidents” (工业事故原因的初步分析), Acta Psychologica Sinica《心理学报》, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1957): 192.
47 Committee for the Compilation of Contemporary China Series (《当代中国》丛书编辑委员会), ed., Labor Protection in Contemporary China《当代中国的劳动保护》 (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1992), 234–37.
48 “Experience of Technical Safety Education in the Dalian Chemical Plant” (大连化学厂技术安全教育的经验), Labor Protection Bulletin《劳动保护通讯》, no. 12 (December 1953): 115–21.
49 Safety Engineering and Labor Protection Bulletin《安全技术劳动保护通报》3, July 28, 1953, TMA, x0084-c-000189-003.
50 Safety Engineering and Labor Protection Bulletin 8, November 24, 1953, TMA, x0084-c-000189-003.
51 Safety Engineering and Labor Protection Bulletin 8, November 24, 1953, TMA, x0084-c-000189-003.
52 Interview with Guan Qingwen.
53 Office of the Municipal People’s Committee (市人委办公室), “Report Materials about Injuries and Accidents in 1957 by the Municipal Ministry of Labor” (1957年市劳动局有关伤亡事故问题的报告材料), July 30, 1957, TMA, x0053-c-001479-001.
54 As Li Xuefeng stated in 1957: “The working masses can be roughly divided into three groups. The first group consists of old workers [who began their careers] before liberation. They experienced torture in the old society. After liberation, they have been stood the test of previous movements. They are the backbone of enterprises. The second group consists of workers who joined enterprises after liberation. They have experienced democratic reform and the education of General Line. The third group consists of workers who joined enterprises after 1954 without being toughened by intense class struggle and education.” People’s Daily, August 22, 1957, 1.
55 Tianjin Daily, April 23, 1953, 2.
56 China Youth Daily, March 19, 1954, Contemporary China Research Collection, Hong Kong Baptist University (CCRC).
57 John Fabian Witt, The Accidental Republic Crippled Workingmen, Destitute Widows, and the Remaking of American Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 32.
58 For more on the history of workplace fatalism in China, see Sun Andi (孙安弟), History of Safety in Modern China, 1840–1949《1840–1949中国近代安全史, 1840–1949》 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2009), 2–51.
59 Workers’ Daily, June 14, 1953, CCRC.
60 Guangzhou Daily, November 17, 1953; November 28, 1953; December 5, 1953; March 13, 1954, CCRC.
61 “Speech by Ma Peixun, the Chairman of the Shanxi Provincial Federation of Trade Unions” (山西省总工会马佩勋主席的讲话), March 8, 1957, Shanxi Provincial Archive (SPA), c006-0009-0382-0010.
62 Guangzhou Daily, July 13, 1953, CCRC.
63 Internal Reference, February 24, 1955 (34): 173.
64 Commissioner’s Office of the Linfen District of Shanxi People’s Government (山西省人民政府临汾区专员公署), “Regarding the Submission of the Investigation Report of the Accidents in the Xiguo Coal Mine and Yicheng Coal Mine in the Linfen District and Processing Opinions” (关于送呈山西省临汾区西郭煤矿与翼城煤矿事故调查报报告书的报告及处理意见), June 20, 1953, SPA, c006-0005-2000-0004.
65 Labor Wages Division of the Construction Department of Anhui Province (安徽省建筑厅劳动工资处), ed., Construction Safety Clapper Talks《建筑安全生产快板》 (Hefei: Anhui renmin chubanshe, 1961), 34–35.
66 Labor Protection Department of Tianjin Committee of China Textile Trade Union (中国纺织工会天津市委员会劳保部), “Summary of Labor Protection Work in 1953” (1953年劳保工作总结), January 22, 1954, TMA, x0045-y-000099-009.
67 Labor Protection Department of Tianjin Committee of China Textile Trade Union, “Summary of Labor Protection Work in 1953,” January 22, 1954, TMA, x0045-y-000099-009.
68 Labor Protection Department of Tianjin Committee of China Association of Heavy Industry (中国重工业协会天津委员会劳保部), “A Few Problems About Safe Production” (有关安全生产方面的几个问题), July 4, 1957, TMA, x0045-y-000020-013.
69 Labor Protection Department of Tianjin Committee of China Textile Trade Union (中国纺织工会天津市委员会劳保部), “Work Summary of the First Quarter” (一季度工作总结), 1954, TMA, x0045-y-000105-001.
70 “Takeover officials” (jieshou dayuan 接收大员) were officials authorized by the KMT government to confiscate properties of the Japanese or collaborators after the Sino-Japanese war in 1945. See Paul G. Pickowicz, China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), 140.
71 Propaganda Department of the CCP Shenyang Rolling Stock Factory Committee (中共沈阳机车车辆工厂委员会宣传部), The Cradle of Trains《列车的摇篮》 (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1959), 105.
72 Cai Yongbin (蔡永彬), After Working as a Labor Protection Inspector《当了劳动保护检查员以后》 (Beijing: Gongren chubanshe, 1956), 16.
73 Tianjin Federation of Trade Unions (天津市工会联合会), “Experience of Safe Production by Teng Yunzhi Work Team from the Joint Public-private Fuxing Flour Factory” (安全生产经验介绍: 公私合营福星面粉厂滕运支小组), December 1957, TMA, x0044-y-000375-0014.
74 Internal Reference, February 3, 1959 (2701): 10.
75 Since late 1957, the safe production movement had begun to step into a very difficult position. From 1957 to 1958, many enterprises and mines dissolved their safety agencies or merged them with other functional departments in response to Mao’s proposition of “streamlining our organizations.” This signalled the disintegration of the mass-based safety management system established in the 1950s. In 1958, the CCP launched the Great Leap Forward. As many historians have pointed out, the bloody pursuit of profits and production outputs during the Leap rendered the safe production policy null and void. In the 1960s, the CCP rehabilitated the safety policies and regulations which had been abandoned during the Great Leap. In addition to continued emphasis on the mass-based safety production policy, the CCP’s practice of labor protection underwent a remarkable adjustment as safety science began to take off, marked by the development of the prevention and control of occupational diseases and safety engineering. In short, the safe production policies established in 1950 had a pervasive impact throughout the entire Mao era. But the guiding principle of safety management remained largely unchanged until 1983 when the Ministry of Labor introduced a new slogan “Safety First, Making Prevention a Priority,” signalling that China’s safety policies began to switch over to the standard of “Safety First” adopted by most advanced capitalist countries since the early twentieth century. Committee for the Compilation of Contemporary China Series, ed., Labor Protection in Contemporary China, 3–28.
76 Sun Jixiang (孙继香), “Workplace Accidents that Occurred in the Anshan Steel Company in the Past 32 Years and the Discussion of the Preventive Countermeasures” (鞍钢32年来工伤事故分析及预防对策探讨), in Analysis of Accident Injury and Death in Metallurgical Industry: Selected Paper of the Symposium on the Analysis of Major Accident Injuries and Death in Metallurgical Industry《冶金企业伤亡事故分析: 冶金工业重大伤亡事故分析学术讨论会论文选编》, ed. Metallurgical Safety Committee of the Society for Metals of China (中国金属学会冶金安全学术委员会) (Wuhan: Zhongguo jinshu xuehui yejin anquan xueshu weiyuanhui, 1983), 90–94.
77 “Securing the Bottom Line of Work Safety: Interpretation of the New Work Safety Law” (牢牢守住安全生产底线: 新《安全生产法》解读), General Administration of Sport of China (国家体育总局), December 31, 2021, https://www.sport.gov.cn/n4/n23777478/c23885279/content.html.
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Rui Zhang
Rui Zhang is currently an instructor at the Department of History, Douglas College. He received his doctoral degree from the History Department, Simon Fraser University, and his research interests include labor history and the history of everyday life in Maoist China. His PhD dissertation explores the individual experiences of Chinese workers through the lens of labor protection policies (Health, Safety, and Environment) during the Mao era. Correspondence to: Rui Zhang.