During a recent interview to People's Daily, vice foreign minister Song Tao introduced consular protection and the propaganda month activity of the foreign ministry on "building the image of civility of overseas Chinese citizens". On September 29, 2009, People's Daily published a special report entitled Prepare the Lesson on "Going Abroad". A number of Chinese media including people.com.cn, sina.com.cn, sohu.com, chinanews.com.cn and qq.com as well as Singapore Lianhe Zaobao and ifeng.com reproduced the article in full (attached). An Internet visitor commented that "Chinese citizens should indeed pay attention to civility and credibility. While it's important to make money, it's more important to behave well. Relevant efforts should be made at an early age and start from education."

Prepare the Lesson on "Going Abroad"

The foreign ministry, China's embassies and consulates abroad and local foreign affair offices jointly launched the propaganda month activity on "building the image of civility of overseas Chinese citizens" with the theme of "overseas civility" and "overseas security" from July to September this year. The reporter recently interviewed vice foreign minister Song Tao on the activity and consular protection.

Why the propaganda activity on building the image of civility of overseas Chinese citizens is held? How is the activity going and what effects have been achieved?

Song said that the activity mainly aims at reminding Chinese citizens and businesses of enhancing legal awareness, improving their own quality and increasing ability to prevent risks. In recent years, China has experienced frequent consular protection cases a majority of which were caused by external factors, such as political upheavals in the host countries and various unintentional injuries. However, it cannot be denied that some cases were resulted from overseas Chinese citizens and businesses' own problems. For example, some Chinese citizens and businesses do not understand or abide by local laws and regulations, which lead to labor disputes or confiscation of their stores. Some Chinese citizens do not respect local custom or religious taboo and as a result are misunderstood by locals. Some behavior not only results in individual and business losses and even damages the entire image of Chinese people. Therefore, it is fully necessary to advocate the image of civility and good behavior. So long as we build the image of being modest, friendly, law compliant and trustworthy, overseas Chinese will enjoy a greater degree of personal and property safety and win bigger development space, and China will build greater affinity in the world.

Therefore, we printed 1 million copies of General Knowledge on Security for Overseas Chinese Citizens (2009) and Guidebook on Civility for Overseas Chinese Citizens, introducing respectively various security risks to which Chinese citizens abroad are vulnerable and countermeasures and necessary knowledge about civility outside China. We have launched promotional activities in Changle of Fujian province, Qingtian of Zhejiang province and Manchuria of Inner Mongolia and distributed widely at home and abroad through ports of entry and Chinese embassies and consulates abroad. The public can also download the two manuals from the foreign ministry website for free.

What is the current situation of China's consular protection? What efforts have been made in this regard?

Song said that during the 30 years from 1949 to 1979 the total number of Chinese citizens leaving the country was only 280,000 person-times, while in 2008 alone Chinese citizens going abroad numbered 45.84 million person-times. It mirrors China's ever expanding mutually beneficial cooperation and exchanges with the rest of the world on the one hand and means heavier tasks of consular protection on the other hand.

At present, China faces an increasingly complex overseas security situation. The heating up of regional hotspot issues and political turbulence in some countries directly influence the security of overseas Chinese citizens and businesses. Under the impact of international financial crisis, many countries have plunged into economic recession or downturn, which has further deteriorated the environment for Chinese citizens and businesses abroad. Chinese citizens are gradually becoming the direct targets of such untraditional security events as terrorist attacks, kidnapping and piracy in which they only used to be involved innocently. Various criminal crimes and accidents have caused direct injuries and losses of life and property of Chinese citizens.

The Central Party Committee and the State Council attach great importance to protecting the security and legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens and organizations and have made important instructions on consular protection cases. The foreign ministry and Chinese embassies and consulates abroad view consular protection as a major way of implementing the "people-orientation" and "governing for the people" concepts and always give top priority to the interests of the Chinese people. They are ready to work hard for the security of our compatriots. Since establishment the foreign ministry's consular protection center has maintained close relations with Chinese embassies and consulates abroad and prepared to handle consular emergencies at any moment. Our embassies and consulates abroad stand at the forefront. In case of major emergency, all of their staffs from ambassadors to clerks would turn out to protect the safety of Chinese citizens. Sometimes, they were too busy to eat or sleep.

In recent years, we on average have handled more than 30,000 consular protection cases, large or small, each year. In November last year, we rented 12 sorties of chartered civilian flights within a short period of several days and took back over 3,400 Chinese tourists held up in Thailand. Throughout the world, such a large evacuation of citizens abroad is truly rare. Last December, we collaborated actively with the military force in carrying out the escorting operations in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, which has received wide recognition from home and abroad.

With the continuous growth of Chinese economy and improvement of people's living standards, the number of Chinese citizens going abroad will further increase, which undoubtedly will pose a formidable challenge to consular protection. How can we cope with such a challenge? Is there any plan on that?

President Hu Jintao required us to continue to strengthen protection of legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens and legal persons at the 11th meeting of diplomatic envoys held in July this year. We will further improve services and be committed to enhancing consular protection. At present, we have the following priorities: first, improve mechanism development. We will reinforce the overseas security mechanism at the local level and establish an overseas security protection mechanism integrating the central and local efforts; second, increase emergency response ability. Chinese embassies and consulates abroad will continue to develop detailed major security emergency response schemes and improve the working mechanism on rapid response and coordinated disposal; third, step up alarming propaganda. The foreign ministry works with relevant agencies in issuing the "special notice on going abroad" and "consular news" in a timely manner on the Internet and newspapers; fourth, promote consular protection legislation. The foreign ministry will provide active support for consular protection legislation so that consular protection has rules to follow and laws to abide by.