Mining in Sangjiangyuan in Qinghai and Deforestation in Dunhunag, Gansu Should be Thoroughly Investigated!
2021/2/2 16:02:00 本站

[Editor’s note:]

 

On January 21, Wen Guodong, the former vice governor of Qinghai Province, was formally arrested. On the same day, an anti-corruption feature film of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection revealed the inside story of Wen Guodong and the illegal coal mining in the Muli mining area behind him. Wen Guodong knew that Ma Shaowei had been mining illegally, but he never asked him how to mine and how serious the environmental impact was. Now it has been found out that it is precisely these underlying interest chains and collusion between officials and businessmen that have made the ecological environment in the northwestern region "scarred", but for a long time no one, no agency, or organization was called to account! The reality of frantic destruction but unattended reflects the existence of a powerful umbrella.

 

Coincidentally, when the "sky hole" of the Qinghai Sanjiangyuan Reserve was exposed to the public, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) filed an environmental public interest litigation as early as 2017 and listed the Qinghai Provincial Department of Land and Resources, which illegally approved mining, as the defendant. However, the case had not yet left Qinghai, and it was dispelled by the two levels Qinghai Provincial Courts on the grounds of spurious. Similarly, the environmental public interest litigation filed by the CBCGDF was blocked by the court of first instance in response to the illegal act of arbitrarily cutting down large areas of shelter forests in Dunhuang, Gansu. The judicial relief of social public environmental rights has also encountered a strong cold wave in Gansu.

 

The Qinghai Muli Coal Mine case exposed the operating routines of the black interest chain, using power to coordinate various forces, combat retaliation, suppress reports, and hinder judicial remedies such as environmental public interest litigation. Its purpose is only for illegal interests, and the ecological environment has long been left behind.

 

We hope that the illegal mining of Sanjiangyuan in Qinghai, the case of illegal logging of shelter forests in Dunhuang, Gansu can also be thoroughly investigated like the Muli coal mine case, breaking the ecological black interest chain, digging out the protective umbrella behind it, and protecting the ecology of the Northwest!

 

Original title:

 

The Deputy Governor Acts as a Protection Umbrella for Illegal Coal Mining, and Environmental Governance Must First Govern the “Conjoined Officials and Businessmen”

 

After every major environmental violation, there are often "conjoined people" with interests.

 

On January 21, Wen Guodong, the former vice governor of Qinghai Province, was formally arrested. On the same day, an anti-corruption feature film by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection revealed the inside story of Wen Guodong and the illegal coal mining in the Muli mining area behind him. In the film, it is revealed that the reason why Ma Shaowei, the controller of Xingqing Company, was able to exploit the Muli coalfield in Qinghai is mainly due to his special relationship with Wen Guodong. In the words of Wen Guodong, he and Ma Shaowei "The 30-year relationship is beyond a kind of friendship. Because we have been too long, we feel that we are conjoined. I feel I believe in him like I believe in myself."

 

Ma Shaowei carefully managed his personal relationship with Wen Guodong by giving money and gifts. In the first Spring Festival when Wen Guodong took office as Secretary of the Haixi Prefecture Party Committee, Ma Shaowei gave him 200,000 red envelopes at once. It is precisely because of Wen Guodong's support that many relevant leading cadres in Haixi Prefecture know that the illegal exploitation of Xingqing Company is intensifying, but they evade this problem.

 

Wen Guodong knew that Ma Shaowei had been mining illegally, but he never asked him how to mine and how serious the environmental impact was. It was not until August last year that Wen Guodong visited the mining site for the first time. He was dumbfounded by the dark sky hole, and he felt that "the sky was falling”.

 

In August 2020, the "Economic Information Daily" published a major report that revealed the truth about illegal coal mining in the Muli mining area. Illegal mining and sailing close to the wind for many years, Ma Shaowei of Xingqing Company made himself the "invisible richest man" in Qinghai through this illegal business, which surprised the outside world. At that time, public opinion was all about the umbrella behind the illegal coal mining in Muli.

 

Sure enough, Ma Shaowei's umbrella was actually the leader of Haixi Prefecture at the time. No wonder he was able to do whatever he wanted there. Under Wen Guodong's intervention, the relevant local regulatory authorities not only turned a blind eye to Xingqing's crazy stealing, but also became a community of interests. They colluded with Xingqing Company’s fraudulent procurement activities to forge environmental restoration, the superior department came to inspect or investigate, and only pointed and looked at the observation platform, passing by the illegal mining site. Under their umbrella, Xingqing Company, which has no mining license, illegally mined 11.95 million tons of coal. Wen Guodong took at least tens of millions of bribes.

 

Wen Guodong's fall was obviously not accidental. After every major environmental violation, there are often "conjoined people" with interests. This has almost become an iron law. Three years ago, the Qilian Mountain ecological environment protection issue was notified by the central government, and many officials were held accountable. In 2014, in the Tengger Desert pollution incident that shocked the country, 24 officials were punished by party and government disciplines, and the deputy director of the local environmental protection bureau was pursued criminal responsibility and so on.

 

After the illegal mining of coal in the Muli mining area was exposed, Qinghai Provincial Committee Member and Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee Yin Bai said these words: "The political ecology determines the natural ecology." Obviously, if there is not a clean and upright officialdom, if there is no clear line between government and business circles, if it is impossible to put an end to the distorted view of political achievements and the corrupt behavior of benefit transmission, the governance of the ecological environment will only get half the result with twice the effort.

 

In this regard, the governance of the ecological environment must basically start with the "conjoined officials and businessmen", and environmental accountability must be "duty." For any clues to environmental violations, not only should the illegal companies be held accountable, but also the official crimes that may exist among them should not be easily let go. Only in this way can the official and business “conjoined twins” have nowhere to hide, and prevent the resulting environmental pollution and damage from being delayed to serious or even terminally ill.

 

Wen Guodong was dumbfounded until he witnessed the black pit under the blue sky. This dramatic ending is also a wake-up call for other officials - don’t blind your eyes for profit, don’t have any fluke, under the state's iron-handed governance and strong social supervision, environmental pollution and destruction may be concealed for a while, but it is absolutely impossible to conceal it for a lifetime.


http://file.cbcgdf.org/T18/O125/image/20210128/20210128121552_2573.jpg

Ma Shaowei (left), Wen Guodong (right) (Photo credit: CCTV News)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/15204.html


By / Zhang Yue Modified / Maggie