Anger in China's coal country as miners feel left behind

Hanging from a highway overpass two hours' drive from the Siberian border, a local government banner reads like a last-gasp exhortation to this exhausted coal community: "Improve our structure, change our methods, transform our city." This area has transformed in dire ways as China has retreated from coal and heavy industry. Li Jiuxian, who hasn't been paid for half a year, sees only mounting debts and anger. "I don't even have anywhere left to borrow money from," said the 51-year-old miner as he stepped outside a squalid mahjong parlor reeking of smoke and drink where miners while away days without work or pay. "There isn't going to be change." Read more