China Senior Legislator Expresses Concern for Aging Elevators

Xiao Jie, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, has urged the Chinese government to pay more attention to the management of elevators in residential buildings, as the safety risks they pose increase with age, China Daily reports. Xiao’s report was compiled based on feedback from inspection tours taken by lawmakers to various provincial-level regions, including Liaoning, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Zhejiang has 86,000 residential elevators that have been in operation for more than 15 years, while Fujian has 32,000 such elevators, which amounts to roughly 10% of their total elevators. Xiao noted various factors have been hindering the safety management of aging residential elevators, including that there are multiple entities involved in their upkeep, property management companies sometimes choose the lowest prices for maintenance services and some owners in major cities are not willing to provide the funds to repair and maintain elevators. Some local governments offer subsidiaries to cover these costs, but only a small number have been upgraded, he said.