Zhao, also director of the State Administration for Coal Mine Safety, issued the warning on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature. In his government work report to the NPC on Sunday, Premier Wen placed an unprecedented emphasis on improving work safety. "We will conduct in-depth investigations into cases of dereliction of duty and corruption related to work safety and severely punish those responsible," Wen said. Illegal investment in coal mines by government officials have been widely blamed for their disregard of illegal or unsafe operations in the lucrative business.