Chinese President Expresses Concerns Over Factory Safety 　　Following a boiler explosion which injured a number of people earlier this week, Chinese president Jiang Zemin has telephoned a senior official in the State Economic and Trade Commission about the incident in northwest China's Ningxia Autonomous Region, urging him and his colleagues to place great importance on people's lives. 　　I saw the news on TV and it made me very uneasy. The quality of boilers and similar high-pressure containers within state properties can affect people's lives. There should be no negligence," Jiang told Sheng Huaren, minister of the State Economic and Trade Commission, on January 16. 　　Jiang urged Sheng to increase quality control inspection of such products, as the commission is responsible for safety production. He added that any hidden danger must be removed and ample precautions be taken when boilers are in operation. 　　Jiang said that the country had introduced a tight safety mechanism dozens of years ago, but now it has become lax again in some aspects and the situation is very dangerous. Therefore, lessons should be learned from such incidents to ensure perfect safety. 　　The explosion two days ago caused a big fire and injured a number of people. 　　For the past month China has been hit by a series of explosions, the collapse of buildings and bridges and other incidents, many of them the results of poor construction owing to the corruption of officials. 　　The commission has decided to take a series of measures to implement Jiang's instructions, including closing firms illegally engaged in producing boilers, improving inspection controls, and punishing officials responsible for such incidents. 　　 HomeNews 1999-01-19 Page1 Full Story in Chinese