More than ever before, Chinese people are going abroad where
they face increasing risks from labor disputes, fraud,?
robbery, kidnapping, and even terrorist attacks. There are more
than 500,000 Chinese workers overseas and a similar number of
students. The government takes the safety of every one of them very
seriously.
Two Chinese women were cruelly killed in their house in the
district of Richmond, Vancouver on Sept.1. Police named the victims
as 70-year-old Wang Shuzhi and her 45-year-old daughter Li Aijuan.
They had just immigrated to Canada from China’s Hainan
Province.
Li and her husband Meng Weizhong bought the house last May. The
couple lived in the second floor of the house with their
20-year-old son and Li’s mother. They rented out two rooms on the
first floor to a family of five and two girls currently studying at
a local university. Now with the murder still under investigation,
everyone remaining in the house is under police protection.
Once again, the personal safety of Chinese abroad is attracting
the attention of the Chinese people.
In 1978, just 200,000 Chinese citizens went abroad. By 2003, the
figure had risen to 20.2 million, a hundred-fold increase in the
space of 25 years.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been 10 separate
incidents in which Chinese citizens have been attacked or killed
overseas. These have left more than 70 dead or injured. People are
becoming increasingly aware of the many risks ranging from natural
disaster, terrorists attack, violent crime, and violation of their
legal rights. There have been incidents in Kirghizstan, Pakistan
and Afghanistan.
On July 21, Zhao Yan, a 37-year-old businesswoman from Tianjin,
felt tired during a sightseeing trip to the Niagara Falls. She
stopped for a rest near the Rainbow Bridge linking the United
States and Canada. She was to suffer for taking this rest. A US
custom officer assaulted Zhao with his knee and then drove her head
into the pavement. He had wrongly suspected her of being involved
in a marijuana related crime.
In Afghanistan, some 20 gunmen burst onto a construction site.
They killed 11 Chinese workers and wounded four more in one of the
bloodiest attacks on foreigners in that country.
On May 23, two Chinese nationals were killed and another injured
when a large portion of the vaulted roof of a new passenger
terminal caved in at the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. They
were with an eight-member trade delegation from a Beijing company
and had been waiting for a flight from Paris to Mexico.
On May 3, members of a terrorist group remotely detonated a car
bomb in an attack on Chinese engineers at Gwadar port, in southwest
Pakistan. It killed three and injured nine others. The Chinese
engineers had been helping the South Asian country with the
construction of this important port project.
On April 11, seven Chinese nationals were seized as
international hostages in war-ravaged Iraq. They were eventually
released after 36 hours following a successful intervention by
Chinese diplomats. The seven workers were from east China’s Fujian
Province. They had been traveling to Baghdad from Jordan to
look for work in Iraq.
Nine Chinese nationals have been killed in South Africa since
the start of the year. The most recent case was the robbery-related
murder of a visitor from Guangzhou, Guangdong
Province. The South African authorities reported 52 armed
robberies involving Chinese victims in the period January to August
this year.
Robberies involving Chinese victims have been frequent
occurrences in Britain too. According to a report by the
Shanghai Evening Post, there have been a string of attacks
linked to robberies in the northwest England seaport of
Liverpool.
The most recent case involved a father and son surnamed Huang.
They run a Chinese restaurant and a hotel in Liverpool. Robbers
broke into the Huang home and demanded money. They stabbed Jimmy
Huang in the shoulder when he refused. They then stabbed his
32-year-old son Kenny cutting his carotid artery. He ended up in
hospital.
Liverpool has seen a recent and as yet, unsolved murder case
involving a Chinese man by the name of Jiang Xingjiang. After
having been missing for several days he was found dead in an
apartment near his house. The police said he was probably beaten to
death. According to the local media 51-year-old Jiang had just
arrived from China. He had no regular employment and had been
frequenting gambling houses in and around Liverpool.
Meanwhile in London, there were some 50 burglaries targeting
Chinese students in the first half of this year. Typically, the
perpetrators would stake out accommodation that had been rented by
Chinese students before carrying out a robbery involving the use of
weapons. The local police have now set up a special team to deal
with such cases.
Experts have suggested that traditional Chinese customs might be
encouraging the criminals to target Chinese victims. Even though
the Chinese economy has seen rapid and sustained growth in recent
years, it is still a common Chinese practice to keep money in the
form of cash and to pay bills in cash. This tends to make Chinese
business people and tourists particularly attractive to the
criminals. A murder case in South Africa serves as an example. On
July 16, two armed men robbed Wang Xiande. He was in Johannesburg
on a business trip from Shanghai. They killed Wang's cousin and
wounded Wang after stealing from them. The criminals fled with
US$6,500 and 120,000 rand (US$20,000).
Recently, Chinese tourists have become the targets of criminals
in European cities. Women and old people are especially vulnerable.
Some have even been robbed before they left the airport.
Chen is an elderly man from Fuyang in southeast China’s Zhejiang
Province. His passport and money were stolen on his second day
in Paris.
Liao Junqiao, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce,
suggests that three characteristics of the Chinese tourists may be
getting them into trouble. They speak loudly, carry large amounts
of cash and are big spenders.
Guo Longlong, a researcher with the Shanghai Institute for International
Studies, says it is common for overseas Chinese to pay in cash
because this is the custom in China. They are not familiar with the
use of the credit or debit cards that are so widely used
internationally. Some are unable to read and speak English, so how
else other than by tendering cash could they pay bills they are not
able to understand?
The Chinese government has begun to pay great attention to the
safety of overseas Chinese. However, up to May 2004, China had
entered into only 21 bilateral extradition agreements. This lack of
reciprocity hinders its efforts to protect its citizens
overseas.
On July 19, the State Council, China’s cabinet, held a special
working conference to discuss the safety and protection of Chinese
citizens and organizations overseas.
The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has set up a new department for external security
affairs. Its remit is to tackle the increasing number of new
security threats affecting Chinese citizens overseas, and to study
the developing situation.
China’s top legislature has passed a resolution ratifying the
Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated
Personnel. This will help protect the safety of a number of its
overseas citizens.
Experts point to the complexity and urgency of the problem,
which they say should prompt the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
other government bodies to come up with additional measures
designed to protect Chinese citizens abroad. They suggest that
China should learn from the experience of the Western countries
while establishing a sound and effective system to minimize the
risks to Chinese citizens overseas.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan September 28, 2004)