"We only chose those whom we deemed eligible and experienced to effectively supervise and ensure safe underground production," he said. "The company has the right to name any person to any post."

Li said all the assistants are aged between 30 and 50, with extensive experience in production technology, resources extracting and machinery.

"If assistants to managers are not senior enough to meet the requirement, the coal mine can promote several more managers committed to the mission. The only issue then will be the decentralization of the company's power," he said.

But Li stressed that the move is just a trial.

"The regulation has yet to become effective. If our move is wrong, we'll correct it," he said.

A related story published on the website of Beijing News had drawn more than 9,700 comments from netizens by Monday, with most of them saying, "the central government's policy has been neutralized by local counter measures".

Zhao Tiechui, director of the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, earlier said that past practice has shown that as long as coal mine leaders go down into the mines with their workers, a considerable chunk of incidents can be avoided.