Police close the door of an ambulance carrying the body of a Chinese worker killed during a kidnapping, after he was handed over to Chinese Embassy representatives by a Sudanese Red Crescent representative at the Chinese-run Hawasha hospital in Khartoum February 7, 2012.
From the jungles of Papua New Guinea to the deserts of Libya, some of the wildest and most dangerous corners of the world have one thing in common these days: Chinese workers.
They are the front-line soldiers in China's new commercial empire. But as Beijing's global investment rises dramatically, reaching about $60-billion today, its foreign workers are increasingly vulnerable to attack from criminals, rebels, militia factions, disgruntled employees and unhappy locals – especially in Africa.
In the two latest incidents, more than 50 Chinese labourers were kidnapped in Sudan and Egypt, with a Chinese worker killed in the Sudan attack. All of the Chinese have now been released, including a group of 29 who were freed on Tuesday in Sudan. Yet the dilemma remains: how can Beijing protect its people in the riskiest regions of Africa and elsewhere?
The Chinese government is increasingly worried by the threats to the safety of its overseas workers, and its concerns have provoked – for the first time – a willingness to use its military muscle to rescue its citizens abroad.
In total, about 5.5-million Chinese citizens are living or working abroad today, a sharp increase from 2005 when only 3.5-million were overseas. A further 60-million Chinese are expected to travel abroad this year, with the number projected to climb to 100-million by the end of this decade.
At state-owned companies alone, an estimated 300,000 Chinese workers are stationed overseas, often in remote locations at oil fields, mining sites and road construction projects.
They are targets because of their isolation, but also because of their business habits. "They keep lots of cash on hand, hire mostly fellow Chinese, have a very closed management style, and use money as a solution whenever encountering unexpected problems," said an analysis in Economic Observer, a Chinese newspaper.
"For all of these reasons, Chinese workers are easy targets in foreign lands," the article added. "Even if we don't look for trouble, trouble can still find us."
The risks seem to be rising. Last year, China evacuated about 48,000 of its citizens from Libya, Egypt and Japan. Most of the evacuations were caused by the uprisings in North Africa, especially Libya, where China sent military aircraft and a naval frigate to help rescue about 35,000 of its workers.
A few months later, the dangers were further demonstrated when 13 Chinese merchant sailors were killed under mysterious circumstances on two cargo ships on the Mekong River in northern Thailand.
Targeting Chinese workers can be a convenient way for rebels to apply pressure on governments. In both the recent Sudan and Egypt cases, the Chinese workers were kidnapped by anti-government factions. The workers in Sudan, who were involved in road construction in the South Kordofan region, were captured on Jan. 28 by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group affiliated with South Sudan.
The attacks have become so frequent that Beijing has expressed alarm. "China should deeply study the diplomatic protection issue," the state-run People's Daily said this week. "China should also discuss how China strengthens its diplomatic influence … so that China can safeguard its national interests and protect its citizens to the maximum extent."
This safeguarding could include military tactics. China's decision to deploy one of its naval frigates to Libya to help evacuate its stranded workers, along with its deployment of long-range military transport aircraft for the same mission, was a historic and unprecedented step in projecting its power abroad.
"The deployments send a clear diplomatic message: Beijing is unwilling to tolerate Chinese citizens being harmed by large-scale political violence overseas," said an analysis by the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S.-based think tank.
Another think tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, noted that Chinese military attaches from across Europe and the Middle East played a key role in the Libya evacuations. They were posted at evacuation points along the Libyan border to co-ordinate the operation, the institute said.
Geoffrey York