New | ‘Not enough’ consular officers to serve Chinese nationals, foreign ministry says

An official from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that the number of Chinese consular officers assisting and protecting citizens overseas is insufficient.

The Southern Metropolis Daily reported today that only several hundred consular protection officers around the world are serving Chinese citizens, which means on average, one Chinese consular officer needs to serve more than 190,000 Chinese citizens overseas.

This ratio is 13 times higher than Russia’s, and 15 times more than Japan’s, the report said. In some Chinese embassies and consulates, there is only one consular protection officer to protect all citizens in that country.

In the last year, Chinese consulates in total handled more than 40,000 cases – or more than 110 cases daily – the report said.

According to Huang Ping, Director General of the Department of Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consular officers’ work overload has become a severe problem. And the main reason is that the total amount of overseas trips keeps increasing whereas the number of consular officers, especially those conducting consular assistance and protection, remains low.

More than 98 million overseas trips were recorded by Chinese nationals in the past 12 months, and the number has increased by an average rate of more than 10 million a year for four years in a row. Meanwhile, about 20,000 Chinese companies are located in more than 180 countries and regions.