End ahead for China's fatal fireworks region

A woman is rescued after an explosion at a fireworks factory in China

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- Authorities in Jiangxi Province, China, have bowed to domestic and international pressure by deciding to close down the region's fireworks industry in two years.

An explosion late last month in a fireworks factory in Wanzai county, which killed at least 39 workers, was reported around the world.

Last March, another explosion in a village school in the same county caused the death of 33, most of them pupils who were forced to assemble fireworks during classes.

The Jiangxi media on Wednesday quoted provincial party secretary Meng Jianzhu as saying in a meeting on economic work that "Jiangxi's economic development cannot be built on dangerous production activities."

Provincial officials said the 9,000-odd factories and companies connected with the lucrative fireworks business would be asked to switch to other product lines.

The same day that the provincial meeting was held, another detonation in a poorly equipped Jiangxi fireworks factory killed three workers.

Source in the provincial capital of Nanchang said Meng and other local cadres had been put under heavy pressure by Beijing.

Officials in Nanchang and Wanzai were also criticized for forcibly turning away reporters after the December explosion, and for claiming that only 14 had perished in the incident.

It is understood however, that individual officials in Nanchang have opposed closing down the fireworks plants, which export to 60 countries.

Unemployment

Jiangxi, a landlocked province that has relatively little foreign investment, has been hard hit by unemployment.

After the explosion in the village school last March, which prompted Premier Zhu Rongji to order an independent investigation, the then provincial party boss Shu Shengyou was replaced by Meng.

Meng, a former vice party boss of Shanghai and protégé of President Jiang Zemin, is considered a rising star in Chinese politics.

This time, only the party secretary and chief administrator of Wanzai, known as the fireworks capital of the world, were sacked.

The new Wanzai party boss, Guo An, said on Tuesday even though the fireworks business contributed at least half of the county's revenue, it had to be terminated within one year.