Tongzhou Group has reportedly received two administrative penalties in 2025 for safety violations. In 2024 the Liushenyu mine was named by the Chinese National Mine Safety Administration in a nationwide list of coal mines with “severe hazards”, state media reported.
“This incident not only exposes the superficiality of local daily supervision and the low cost of violations, leading to repeated violations by the company,” another Weibo user wrote.
This is among hundreds of thousands of posts and comments discussing the tragedy.
In the case of previous disasters, criticism of the government has usually been scrubbed off the internet in China. This time, much of the anger is directed at Tongzhou Group, rather than the authorities.
In the 2000s, deadly accidents were common in coal mines across China, occurring so regularly that they were rarely reported by large news outlets unless the death toll was at least in the dozens.
In more recent years, there has been a concerted effort by the government to clean up the industry by bringing in international mine safety experts, strengthening enforcement of regulations and, crucially, shutting down coal mines that are illegal or flout safety practices.
“China’s gradually improving state of coal mine safety cannot be disrupted, much less reversed,” Hu Xijin, former chief editor of the Global Times, wrote on Weibo hours after the blast.
“There’s still much room for improvement in coal mine safety, and plugging these gaps is of utmost urgency.”
Rescue efforts at the mine are still ongoing, with hundreds of personnel deployed to search for at least two missing people, state media reported, with their family members waiting outside the mine for news.
A man who hasn’t been able to contact his brother since the blast told AFP he did not dare to tell his parents that his brother was missing. He also said he wasn’t sure what to believe.
“They say two people are missing, but who knows if that’s accurate? We honestly don’t know.”