WSJ. Com: Valuing Life and a Free Press

Sunday's rescue of nine men trapped for 77 hours in a western Pennsylvania coal mine 240 feet underground is being hailed as a "miracle." We're not about to deny the Deity his due, but this was reality a story of bravery and remarkable technical skill. And just as importantly, it's a testament to the value which a free and open society places on human life.

Contrast the uplifting tale from Pennsylvania, which engrossed everyone with access to CNN, with the untold stories of thousands of miners who die in China every year. Beijing puts the number of mine fatalities for 2001 at 5,300, but after many accidents not only is the rescue operation minimal, but the whole incident is also covered up, so that the true death toll is unknown. That's because a large proportion of mines are illegal and their owners are in cahoots with corrupt local authorities. And since the workers have traveled from poorer areas looking for jobs, their families learn of their deaths too late to demand an investigation.

The Pennsylvania miners broke through into a disused shaft filled with water on July 24, a week after the one-year anniversary of a very similar event on the other side of the earth's crust, in the Chinese town of Nandan in Guangxi province. But after that common misfortune, the two stories diverge. In China the governor didn't rush to the scene, and days of frantic drilling were not followed by high-fives and scenes of happily reunited families. Instead of calling for outside help, the mine's owner and the local Communist Party secretary cut telephone lines and prevented reporters from entering the area. More than 80 miners were later confirmed dead.

The callous disregard for workers' lives of a party supposedly devoted to protecting their interests might never have come to light if it weren't for the persistence of reporters from commercially driven newspapers like the Shanghai Youth Daily and Yangcheng Evening News. Their reports eventually forced the central government to investigate and arrest the local officials and mine managers. The party secretary was turned into a scapegoat and sentenced to death, and a largely ineffective campaign to close illegal mines followed.

It's worth recalling that the U.S. once also had a horrific record of mine safety, with 3,200 miners killed in one month in 1907. Last year just 72 American miners died. The stark contrast between those two figures isn't just due to lower production; the number of deaths per million tons of coal recovered has fallen to one-600th of its highs. Certainly rising wages and the resulting investment in better equipment played a significant role in bringing down the fatalities. But the critical factor was relentless pressure from the public and the government on mine owners to develop the technology and practices to ensure safety.

China can more quickly benefit from the experience of other countries by adopting those practices, but its mine operators are unlikely to do so until a freer media is allowed to focus public attention on the extent of the problem. Under the limited pressure now exerted by the state-run newspapers, the government is changing its ways, but only slowly. After an explosion at a gold mine in Shanxi province killed at least 36 late last month, once again it was only the work of braver members of the press which prevented a cover-up. There may have been some small improvement from last year in that the official response was faster. But there's still a long way to go before China can share in the kind of triumph the world enjoyed watching from afar in Pennsylvania.