China makes headway in consular protection

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

China has made great achievements in the emergency coordination mechanism and prevention mechanism of consular protection, according to Xia Liping, deputy director of the Department of Diplomacy, China Foreign Affairs University.

Seen from the three evacuations of Egypt, Libya and Japan, the emergency coordination mechanism of China’s consular protection has withstood severe test and made some innovation and development. Meanwhile, efforts in prevention first in the consular protection mechanism were deepened and consolidated further in 2011.

Wang Yizhou, Vice President of School of International Relations of Peking University, said consular protection is probably one the most challenging tasks of the world's large powers at present. The cases involving Chinese diplomatic and consular protection amount to more than 100 each day. China faces very heavy pressure in consular protection as more than 60 million Chinese people go abroad each year.

China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said it is not easy to do a good diplomatic job under the new situation. Today’s world has been changing unprecedentedly and China has been developing rapidly.

Although China's GDP has ranked second in the world, the “cake” of China’s economy is much smaller than that of the United States, Europe and Japan, and China’s cake eaters are much more than these countries’.

The complexity of China's national conditions leads to different understandings of motherland and different demands for diplomacy by Chinese people. China will also encounter many new diplomatic situations and problems.