China is bringing workers home from Syria, its commerce minister said yesterday, in an apparent attempt to avoid a repeat of last year’s eleventh-hour rescue of Chinese nationals from Libya when violence engulfed the country.
Only about 100 Chinese workers will be left behind to guard work camps and equipment, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming (陳德銘) said, without giving figures for the total number of Chinese citizens or projects in Syria.
“The Chinese government and ministries must seriously undertake the protection of Chinese firms’ production and projects overseas, and the protection of the lives of Chinese citizens overseas, especially engineering teams,” Chen said.
Beijing sent an envoy to Damascus this week, even as closed-door meetings were held at the UN to discuss a US-drafted resolution urging an end to the Syrian government’s increasingly lethal crackdown on a year-long revolt.
China joined Russia to veto previous UN resolutions on Syria in October last year and last month, moves which drew fierce international condemnation.
China was caught off guard last year when a civil war erupted in Libya.
Nearly 36,000 of its nationals exited the country, some by hastily chartered ships, while others fled by foot or by bus into Egypt.
Chinese workers were involved in Libyan projects worth US$17 billion, Chen said, describing those projects as primarily residential construction projects, in or near Libyan cities.
“The tragedy is that these projects were badly damaged during the instability, the civil war and the foreign intervention,” Chen said. “So we are negotiating with the Libyan government, we hope that the Libyan government can actually begin compensation for these projects in accordance with international norms.”
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