China Launches Safety Crackdown on Fireworks

(MENAFN) China's Ministry of Emergency Management is deploying inspection teams to enforce end-to-end safety oversight across the fireworks supply chain, the ministry announced Wednesday, as authorities move to contain mounting risks during one of the country's busiest pyrotechnics periods.

The ministry, convening jointly with the Office of the State Council Work Safety Committee, held a high-level meeting Wednesday calling for intensified monitoring across every stage of the fireworks lifecycle — from production and transport to retail sales and public use — alongside a broader push to strengthen safety awareness among citizens.

The meeting flagged the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival as peak-risk windows, warning that fireworks-related dangers rise sharply during both holidays. Local authorities were urged to treat the matter with urgency, mobilizing immediate on-the-ground inspections to detect and eliminate safety hazards at retail stores and distribution outlets across the country.

Officials took direct aim at high-risk practices fueling the danger, ordering a clampdown on excessive stockpiling and the storing of products outside designated areas. The meeting issued an unambiguous directive: smoking and the use of open flames inside fireworks stores are strictly prohibited.

Inspectors have also been instructed to target higher-risk locations beyond conventional retail — specifically vacant buildings and warehouses — to root out illegal fireworks storage operations before the festival rush reaches its peak.

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