China investigates mine-safety official for corruption after deadly gas explosion

BEIJING (AP) — The top mine safety official in one of China’s major coal producing regions is under investigation for corruption following a gas explosion that killed 82 workers in May.

Hu Haijun, the director of the Shanxi Bureau of the National Mine Safety Administration, is suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, the government’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Monday evening.

A brief notice posted on the commission’s website did not provide any details on the violations.

Hu, also the Communist Party chief of his bureau, is the highest-ranking official to be caught up in a widening probe of Shanxi province’s coal mining sector, according to Caixin, a Chinese business publication.

Two researchers in the bureau’s eighth division are under investigation, state media reported earlier this month.

Local authorities announced a blanket inspection following the May explosion, China’s deadliest mining accident in years. Mine safety has been improving in recent years but remains an issue for China, as does industrial safety generally.

The mine, operated by the Shanxi Tongzhou Coal & Coke Group, was placed on a list of disaster-prone coal mines by China’s National Mine Safety Administration in 2024.

Coal remains a major energy source in China despite the country’s massive buildout of wind and solar power. Shanxi province, with some 800,000 mine workers, produced 1.3 billion tons of coal last year, almost a third of China’s total.

In another corruption case, state media reported Tuesday that a former Politburo member, Ma Xingrui, had been expelled from the ruling Communist Party after an investigation.