Chinese embassy releases videos to protect people's safety and rights

The Chinese embassy in the UK released a series of guidance videos for Chinese people living in and visiting to Britain in its latest drive to boost consular protection and raise Chinese people’s awareness of safety and legal rights.

Increasingly close Sino-British relationship has seen a growing number of Chinese people visiting, living and studying in the UK.

Improved people to people exchange between the two countries saw the annual exchanges exceeded 1.5 million in 2017 alone, and more than 170,000 Chinese students now study in the UK’s universities, colleges, and schools.

Safety and legal rights of these Chinese people in the UK is always on top of the embassy’s agenda, said Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, who spoke ahead of a seminar, a parallel event with the guidance videos’ debut.

The embassy’s consular section received 639 reports or requests for assistance in 2017, involving more than 800 Chinese people, according to Fei Mingxing, minister counsellor and consul general at the Chinese embassy.

“Many of the issues involved can be resolved or even avoided if people have more information available and take more precaution”, he said.

More than one-third of the reports are related to non-threatening issues such as stolen certificates, disputes or loss of contact with somebody.

The video, a series with four episodes, gives an all-round aggregation of the knowledge and information to Chinese people who are visiting and living in the UK.

Useful information in the videos cover almost all sectors of daily life in the UK, such as how to register at a police station, how to pay tax and get visas renewed, how to dodge the loopholes in securing trustworthy landlords and even how to buy credible used vehicles.

And part of the services and tips mentioned in the videos could be found at the embassy’s improved consular protection website, chinesejourney2uk.cn, which the embassy introduced in 2015 and has been adding new functions.

The Chinese embassy in the UK is taking the lead in tailor-making such useful website and videos for Chinese people travelling and living overseas, Fei said.

Promising intensified efforts to provide better protection to Chinese people in the UK, Liu said the embassy will endeavour to forge a Great Wall of Consular Protection for Chinese people in the UK.

China’s rising international status and increased Chinese outbound tourism, spending and investment has led to increased attention on overseas Chinese people, while accidents and incidents involving Chinese nationals in foreign countries are easily becoming hot topics both inside and outside China in recent years.

Incidents such as the death of a PhD student at King's College London early this year and the killing of a 24-year-old Chinese student in Tokyo in 2016 generated heated discussion on Chinese social media, highlighting the safety and wellbeing of Chinese people living overseas.

During the seminar, representatives from the judicial sector, overseas Chinese association, lawyer association, tourism agencies, Chinese students and companies shared their observations and suggestions on how to further enhance protection of Chinese people living in the UK.