Break the history! Ministry of Emergency Management: There have been no particularly serious accidents in the country for 25 consecutive months

The Information Office of the State Council is scheduled to hold a press conference at 10:00 a.m. on November 8, 2021 (Monday), inviting Zhou Xuewen, member of the Party Committee and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Song Yuanming, member of the Party Committee and Vice Minister, and Qiong Se, member of the Party Committee and director of the Fire and Rescue Bureau, to introduce the situation of accelerating the modernization of the emergency management system and capabilities, and answer reporters' questions. China.com live broadcast, the following is the transcript:

Zhou Xuewen, Vice Minister of Emergency Management: Good morning, everyone! First of all, on behalf of the Ministry of Emergency Management and Minister Huang Ming, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all journalists and friends for their long-term concern and support for the cause of emergency management.

Three years ago, on November 9, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally presented the flag to the national comprehensive fire rescue team at the Great Hall of the People and delivered a speech, clearly putting forward the "four-sentence policy" of loyalty to the party, strict discipline, going to the soup and fighting the fire, and serving the people wholeheartedly, guiding this new people's team to raise the flag and embark on the journey.

In the past three years, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the national emergency management department and the national comprehensive fire rescue team have taken the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important precepts as the guide, resolutely implemented the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, closely focused on the important responsibilities of preventing and resolving major safety risks and responding to and handling various disasters and accidents in a timely manner, while reforming, emergency response, and construction, charging ahead in critical moments, and bravely taking on a series of major disasters and accidents in a strong and orderly manner. The overall stability of the security situation has been maintained, and the safety of people's lives and property and social stability have been safeguarded. It is mainly reflected in the following five aspects:

The first is to vigorously promote institutional reform and basically form an emergency management system with Chinese characteristics. The newly formed Ministry of Emergency Management integrates 13 functions of 11 departments, including 5 national deliberative coordination bodies, involving the transformation of nearly 200,000 armed police officers in 2 armed police, which is difficult to reform and heavy in tasks. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, the Party Committee of the Ministry of Emergency Management has steadily promoted various reform measures, successfully completed the establishment of institutions, the integration of functions, and the transfer of personnel, straightened out the relationship between emergency management unification and division, prevention and rescue, realized the transformation from "physical addition" to "chemical reaction", and achieved the expected effect of "1+1>2". During this period, the State Mine Safety Supervision Bureau was also established, strengthening the construction of hazardous chemical regulatory agencies and forces, deepening the reform of comprehensive administrative law enforcement and fire law enforcement in emergency management, improving institutional mechanisms such as flood prevention and drought control, forest and grassland fire prevention, etc., basically forming an emergency management system with Chinese characteristics with unified command, special and regular, responsive and linked from top to bottom, and exploring and building a new emergency management work system.

The second is to give full play to the advantages of comprehensive overall planning and continuously improve the level of national comprehensive emergency response capabilities. On the one hand, give full play to the role of overall coordination and comprehensive advantages, take the lead in establishing and improving the cross-departmental linkage mechanism of the whole process such as risk research and judgment, information sharing, coordinated disposal, recovery and reconstruction, etc., gather the strength of all parties to the greatest extent, solve the outstanding problems such as the dispersion of resources and the sharing of each pipe in the past, improve the systematic integrity and synergy of emergency management, and significantly enhance the synergy of the integration of prevention and rescue. On the other hand, actively promote the implementation of key projects for the prevention and control of natural disasters, build an emergency command information network at the four levels of ministry, province, city and county, build a platform for the whole process of supervision and traceability of emergency materials, build a "one map" for emergency management, a big data platform and a satellite monitoring system, realize comprehensive network monitoring of major dangerous sources of dangerous chemicals, coal mines, etc., continuously improve the risk monitoring and early warning capabilities of disaster accidents, basically establish an emergency command system from top to bottom, scientifically smooth distribution and overall mobilization of emergency forces, and all kinds of disasters. The comprehensive rescue capability of large emergencies has been significantly improved.

The third is to maintain an emergency state at all times and respond to major disasters and accidents in a strong, orderly and effective manner. Taking "always ready" as a conscious pursuit, establishing a "night watchman" mechanism, the whole system is on emergency duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, more than 500,000 cadres and workers and fire rescue commanders and fighters always maintain an emergency state, strengthen emergency preparedness from the aspects of disaster situation rapid reporting, force pre-positioning, material reserves, equipment optimization, etc., and respond to various sudden disasters and accidents at any time. Since the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management, it has organized a total of 830 emergency consultations, launched 246 emergency responses, and sent 603 working groups to the front line to effectively deal with the exceptionally heavy rainstorms in Zhengzhou, Henan, the continuous earthquakes in Yangpi and Qinghai, the severe flood situation in the country in 2020, the forest fire in Nyingchi in Tibet, the landslide in Shuicheng in Guizhou, the dammed lake in Jinsha River and Brahmaputra River, the flood disaster in Shouguang in Shandong, as well as the explosion of oil tanks in Cangzhou, Hebei, the explosion of the gold mine in Qixia Wat Mountain in Shandong, and the collapse of the Quanzhou Hotel in Fujian. Jiangsu Xiangshui Chemical Plant explosion and a series of major disasters and accidents.

The fourth is to solve the problem of both symptoms and root causes, and continue to consolidate the foundation for emergency management development. Always regard safe production as the basic disk and fundamentals of emergency management, and insist on weekly consultation on safety production work. Lead the special supervision of the State Council's Jiangsu safety production and Sichuan forest and grassland fire prevention and extinguishing, as well as the investigation of exceptionally heavy rainstorm disasters in Zhengzhou, Henan, to improve the ability and level of national safety precautions. Organize the implementation of the national three-year action plan for special rectification of safe production, carry out special rectification in nine key industries and fields, and improve the level of intrinsic safety. Promote the construction of the rule of law in emergency management, revise the Safety Production Law, the Fire Protection Law, and so forth, promote the addition of crimes such as dangerous operation crimes to the amendments to the Criminal Law, and persist in strictly standardizing fair and civilized law enforcement. Establish a standard system for three categories: safe production, fire rescue, disaster reduction and relief, and comprehensive emergency management, and promote the revision and improvement of various emergency response plans at all levels. Implement the project of improving the safety quality of enterprises, carry out safety skills training for employees in high-risk industries, and train 7.868 million people in 2020. Carry out the construction of a national comprehensive disaster reduction demonstration community, build a team of nearly 1 million disaster information personnel, and build a solid people's defense line for disaster prevention, mitigation and relief.

The fifth is to benchmark the major emergency response of all kinds of disasters and comprehensively build and strengthen the emergency rescue force with Chinese characteristics. The national comprehensive fire rescue team adheres to the positioning of the main force of emergency rescue and the national team, benchmarks the needs of the task of "all disasters and major emergencies", strengthens the standard of combat effectiveness, accelerates the transformation and upgrading, and newly establishes more than 3,000 professional teams in waters, mountains, earthquakes, air service, flood control, chemical industry, etc., and the rescue capabilities are significantly enhanced, the operational efficiency is significantly improved, and the rescue effect is significantly improved. Construct professional emergency rescue forces, and build nearly 100 national emergency rescue teams of more than 20,000 people such as earthquakes, mines, dangerous chemicals, tunnel construction, engineering rescue, and aviation rescue; local governments have built a professional force of about 34,000 and 1.34 million people. At present, China has initially built an emergency rescue force system with Chinese characteristics with the national comprehensive fire rescue team as the main force, the professional rescue team as the coordination, the army's emergency force as the surprise, and the social force as the auxiliary.

With the joint efforts of all parties, the national safety production situation continued to improve steadily, from 2018 to 2020, the number of various production safety accidents and the number of deaths decreased by 26.9% and 27.6% respectively compared with the first three years of the Ministry of Emergency Management, of which major accidents fell by 41.9%, 39.7%, and special major accidents fell by 66.7% and 77.1%, and the country has not had any special major accidents for 25 consecutive months, that is, there have been no special major accidents with more than 30 deaths. Previously, the longest in the history of our country was 11 consecutive months without occurrence, and this time it also broke the record; the disaster prevention and mitigation and relief work has achieved remarkable results, and the number of deaths and disappearances due to natural disasters in the country, the number of collapsed houses, and direct economic losses have dropped by 41.5%, 65.0% and 10.6% respectively compared with the previous three years of the Ministry of Construction.

Although certain results have been achieved, the cause of emergency management in the new era has just started, and compared with the requirements of the Party Central Committee and the expectations of the people, we still have many shortcomings and weaknesses, which need to be further deepened and solved. Standing at a new historical starting point, the Ministry of Emergency Management will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the General Secretary's important precepts, adhere to the supremacy of the people and life, adhere to the overall development and security, continue to promote reform and development, make every effort to prevent and control major risks, continuously consolidate the foundation at the grass-roots level, deeply promote the modernization of the emergency management system and capabilities, and create a good security environment for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country! Below me and my colleagues would like to answer your questions, thank you!