WATER dripped from the ceiling of the cold Datai coal mine, south of Beijing, on Friday, July 2. Wang Haijun walked through it. The 40-year-old man looked back to the tunnel behind him, to the dripping water, before continuing his journey. After 18 years of service, it was his last day working there. A Chinese media outlet, CGTN, described it.

Datai was the last of 270 mines in the Mentougou District to be shut down. For hundreds