China workplace deaths drop sharply in 2024

The number of deaths in workplace safety accidents in 2024 was 28 percent lower than in 2020, the final year of the 13th Five-Year Plan, senior Chinese emergency officials said on Wednesday, highlighting significant improvements in production safety and disaster response during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–25).

In 2024, the number of particularly serious accidents fell to single digits for the first time, down 44 percent compared with 2020, Minister of Emergency Management Wang Xiangxi said at a news conference in Beijing hosted by the State Council Information Office. He noted that both the number of accidents and related deaths have continued to decline this year.

From 2021 to 2024, the average number of people affected by natural disasters and the number of people dead or missing due to disasters dropped by 31 percent and 23 percent, respectively, compared with the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–20), Wang said.

He underlined that the 14th Five-Year Plan marked a major shift in China's emergency management, "with governance moving toward prevention before crises occur," stressing that the country's emergency response has also become more efficient.

"We have established a national emergency command headquarters, connected 24/7 by audio and video with command centers at the provincial, city, and county levels, building a vertically integrated and coordinated emergency response system," Wang said.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China launched 85 national-level emergency responses, effectively handling major disasters such as the 6.8-magnitude Luding earthquake in Sichuan in 2022, the major wildfire in Chongqing in 2022, and the severe floods in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in recent years.