Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged the safeguarding of
the production and transport of coal for power generation, in light
of the severe weather affecting much of the country.
Hu spoke during an inspection of coal fields in Datong in Shanxi
Province and Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei province, through which much
of Shanxi's coal is shipped.
Hu urged governmental officials accompanying him in his special
plane to give priorities to people's needs and interests, noting
the most urgent task at present is to to maintain normal order of
transportation and power supply.
In footage shown on CCTV on Thursday evening, Hu entered a coal
mine more than 400 meters underground, taking an elevator down to
meet miners of the Datangtashan coal mine co-op in Datong who had
worked overtime in temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius to
increase supply.
He asked the miners to produce as much coal as they could safely
to provide more fuel for generating electricity amid a nation-wide
shortage.
"Disaster-hit areas need coal and the power plants need coal,"
Hu told administrators and workers of the mine, saying that coal
supply had been a crucial part in fighting the snow disaster.
"I pay an early New Year call here to those miners who will not
go back home to celebrate the Spring Festival for the coal
production," Hu said loudly to the miners who responded with New
Year greetings and applause.
Hu Jintao also visited Hudong station on a special railway
linking coal mines in Datong to the Qinghuangdao Port near
northeast China's Bohai Gulf.
In the monitoring room of the station, Hu was told that the
daily average transport volume for coal in recent days was 960,000
tons, 15.6 percent over the same period last year. The station was
striving to achieve a daily volume of 1 million tons.
At the side of a facility that transfers coal to vessels in
Qinhuangdao Port, Hu told dockworkers to maintain all equipment in
good condition and improve the efficiency of coal transportation to
vessels.
"The southern areas were hit by heavy snows and ice. We must
take the overall situation into consideration," Hu said, "I hope
you can make more contributions to disaster relief in the southern
areas."
Qinhuangdao Port is the busiest shipping port, which transfers
coal for power generation from Shanxi Province to southern China by
ship, with a special railway connecting Datong.
To maintain uninterrupted coal supplies, the port has been
operating around the clock since the severe weather hit central and
southern China.
As of Sunday, 17 provinces, municipalities and autonomous
regions had suffered blackouts, and power grids in central Hubei
and Hunan provinces and southern Guizhou and Guangdong provinces
had been seriously damaged.
The blackouts shut down electrified railways in those areas as
well.
More than 30 million people have been affected by the power
shortages, many of them stranded en route home for Spring Festival
family reunions.
The snow, the heaviest in a decade in many places, has been
falling in China's east, central and southern regions since Jan.
10, causing deaths, structural collapses, blackouts, highway
closures and crop destruction.
(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)
