China should put in place workplace safety legislation for long-term consolidation of the "take the blame and resign" system for officials, said a spokesman for the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) on Thursday.

"The introduction of the 'take the blame and resign' system to handle workplace accidents shows the government's intense concern for people's lives," said Huang Yi.

Recently, several officials responsible for accidents that caused multiple deaths and huge economic losses have resigned, including Ma Fucai, the general manager of China National Petroleum Company, for the gas explosion that caused 233 deaths in Chongqing Municipality late last year; and Haining Mayor Zhang Rengui, who resigned Thursday to take responsibility for a February temple fire in the Zhejiang Province city.

Rules and regulations are necessary to make "take the blame and resign" a widely accepted practice, Huang said.

Recently, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party approved new rules for the resignation of Party and government officials. They include nine instances of poor management for which officials are required to resign if they are found at fault. All nine involve poor decisions that lead to negative political impact or great economic losses, and neglect of duty that leads to serious accidents.

Guangdong Province's Shenzhen Special Economic Zone implemented a similar system as early as June 2001, in which it called for "leading cadres who cause great losses by wrong personal decisions or mistakes in jobs should take the blame and resign."

On November 20 last year, Sichuan authorities unveiled their temporary regulations for leading cadres to take the blame and resign.

During the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference sessions earlier this year, attendees called for a system of blame taking and resignation for civil servants in order to make them responsible for their own acts and to prevent abuses of power.

(China Daily April 30, 2004)