.China's overall production safety has reported stable improvement with the number of related accidents and deaths both dropping in recent years, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management on Wednesday.

The number of production accidents has declined for 16 consecutive years with related fatalities down to 34,000 in 2018, comparing to a death toll of about 140,000 in 2002, said Sun Huashan, vice minister of emergency management, at a press conference.

China has also seen a decrease in extremely serious accidents, with the number of such incidents down to 19 last year.

In the first eight months of this year, the number of production-related accidents and fatalities declined by 19.8% and 19.4% year on year, respectively.

China will continue to promote the reform of emergency management and strive to prevent severe production safety risks, according to Sun.