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SCMP Reporter

Three days after the first of the miners trapped in a flooded Shanxi pit were rescued, Guo Qinqin still has no idea whether her husband, Shi Weike, is among the 115 saved.
Despite mounting public pressure and requests from relatives, authorities have insisted on keeping the list of survivors secret. And the wait has been agonising.
Guo and other family members have repeatedly begged officials in the rescue command centre outside the entrance to the Wangjialing Coal Mine  to tell them whether Shi was among the saved.  The replies have been the same: 'We will call you if there is any news.'
There has been no phone call from her husband or officials. 
Repeated queries to the hospitals by Guo and other family members were also rejected. Shi's uncle Yang Shirong    finally resorted to his guanxi, or connections, to see if Shi was among the miners now being treated at the three  main hospitals in Hejin , and the answer was a disappointing no.
 With every minute quietly drifting away, Guo's heart sinks further.
'If he has been saved, he will certainly give me a call. But so far there is no news,' said Guo, who looked frail and pale after many sleepless nights.
More heart-wrenching is the picture of her seven-year-old daughter pleading with everyone to know  the whereabouts of her father.
'She asked every adult she met: 'When is my father coming back?' 
'I could only tell her: 'Just wait a bit longer',' said Guo, 32, fighting back tears.
No survivors were found for a second day, following the miraculous rescue of 115 miners on Monday. 
China Central Television said the confirmed death toll had risen to nine, and 29 were still trapped underground last night.
Rescuers told the China News Service  that many corpses had been found in the mine, but the authorities only raised the official death toll by three, from Tuesday's six.
Some survivors have borrowed mobile phones from nurses to speak to their families. State media said the government would only allow some of the rescued workers to meet their family members when their conditions were more stable.
A police officer outside a hospital told the South China Morning Post that relatives were barred from meeting the survivors out of fear of infection.
Less than a month ago, Shi and Guo considered his job in the Wangjialing mine the lifeline for their poverty-stricken family of five. 
Shi, the family's only breadwinner, had been an electrical technician in illegal coal mines for more than 10 years, but  lost his job during a crackdown on illegal coal mines in 2008 and since then farming had provided an income too meagre to pay the school fees for Shi's daughter and the living expenses of his elderly parents.
It was a relief for the destitute family when Shi found a job helping build the state-owned Wangjialing pit in late February, which brought the family 103 yuan (HK$117) a day. 
'There are not many job opportunities in this area. The land here is parched, and there is not much land for each household. One can hardly survive on farming,' Guo said.
Few local people are willing to work in the coal mines, as they are well aware of the danger, so many miners are poor migrants.
Curiously, Guo said she could not recall any dangerous situations Shi had faced during his 10 years in the illegal  mines. But she has one overriding reason for regret  - that she did not notice the danger when her husband came home with soaked trousers two days before the mine was submerged, trapping 153 workers. Guo had to dry the trousers by putting them next to a stove, as he had no others.
Yang, an experienced miner who quit years ago, was furious that work had continued even after water was found leaking underground.  'I really don't understand why the team leaders didn't order the workers to leave when water was already leaking in the mine two days before,' he said. 'If I had been told about the water leaks, I would not have let him go to work.'  
Yang said the mine operator should bear the full responsibility for the disaster. 'They only care about progress; they don't care about the lives at all,' he said.




Lucky wife or miner's widow? Cadres won't say