Safety of Chinese nationals overseas in the spotlight

Four Chinese nationals were among the victims in two separate terrorist incidents overseas last week. Their deaths highlight the increasing threat terrorism poses to the personnel safety of Chinese citizens traveling abroad.

On Friday, three Chinese nationals were among the 27 people killed in the terrorist assault on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, the Malian capital. The three Chinese victims were all senior executives of China Railway Construction Corporation, and they were in Bamako to discuss a project with Mali's transport ministry.

A day earlier, the Islamic State extremist group declared it had killed both a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage, and China's foreign ministry confirmed the death of Fan Jinghui, a Chinese citizen who went missing in the Middle East region earlier this year.

Chinese leaders have responded to the deaths by vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice and calling for more international efforts and cooperation in the global anti-terror campaign.

As a country which deems terrorism and extremism a common enemy of mankind, China is poised to play a more active role in combating these evil forces both at home and abroad. This will not only help protect its own citizens, but also shore up international efforts to combat global terrorism.

There are many other ways that China can contribute to the international efforts against terror without engaging in direct participation in military operations against the IS group in the Middle East, such as intelligence sharing, helping to cut off the financing channels of terrorist groups and eradicating the soil that breeds terrorism.

With both an increasing number of Chinese people traveling abroad and growing Chinese interests overseas, the country should heighten its capability to deal with emergencies when its personnel or properties are under threat overseas.

Last year, the number of outbound trips by Chinese citizens was more than 100 million and more than 20,000 Chinese enterprises have set up overseas representative offices. There are also millions of Chinese nationals living and working abroad.

In recent years, due to civil wars, social unrest and the rise of extremist groups in some countries in the Middle East and North and West Africa, the number of organized crimes and terrorist attacks targeting foreigners traveling to those part of the world have been on the rise, which in turn threatens the overall safety of Chinese people and interests overseas.

The two tragedies that happened last week should prompt the country to actively address these challenges so that it can better protect its citizens and economic interests overseas.

Cooperative operations such as military exercises, peace keeping missions and search and rescue operations, as well as those aimed at escorting civilian shipping and evacuating Chinese nationals out of dangerous spots are necessary measures for China to improve its overall emergency response mechanism abroad.

In March, when the security situation worsened in Yemen, China redirected its warships on anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden to evacuate 613 Chinese citizens and helped 15 countries evacuate 279 foreign citizens from the war-torn Middle East country.

With the turbulence in the Middle East showing no sign of abating, the country should prepare itself for more such operations abroad.

As to individual Chinese, they too should be vigilant and be aware of the potential risks that may imperil their personnel safety when traveling or working overseas. They should check the travel alerts issued by the foreign ministry and its diplomatic missions abroad before embarking on any overseas trips.

For Chinese companies seeking expansion overseas, they should do more to analyze the security situation in the target country and evaluate the potential risks that may stem from differences in culture and customs. Risk control on security aspects needs to be part of their scientific decision-making process when investing abroad.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. wanghui@chinadaily.com.cn