It is a dangerous world out there and, as China is finding out, it is getting more dangerous by the day. Beijing was shocked last month when terrorists believed to be linked to al-Qaeda kidnapped two Chinese engineers working on a dam project in a tribal area in Pakistan. The kidnappers demanded that Pakistan release several militants being held in custody.
Pakistani forces mounted a rescue attempt, in the course of which all five kidnappers were killed. However, one of the Chinese engineers, Wang Peng, was killed during the firefight. The other, Wang Ende, was released.
This was only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Chinese. On April 11, seven Chinese men were seized in Iraq and held hostage for 36 hours before being released. The kidnappers apparently mistook them for Japanese.
On May 3, three Chinese were killed and nine injured while on the way to work when a remote-controlled car bomb exploded at Gwadar, in southwestern Pakistan. And on June 10, more than 20 gunmen raided a Chinese construction site in Had Bakshi, in northern Afghanistan, killing 11 Chinese railway workers as they slept, and wounding four others.
As China becomes increasingly outward-looking and encourages private companies to operate overseas, more and more Chinese will work or travel abroad. Last year, more than 20 million Chinese went overseas. As the number increases, they will inevitably face growing dangers. Many thousands are working in Israel, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. In South Asia, they are concentrated in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Globalisation, too, has created problems. In September, Spanish mobs targeted Chinese-owned shoe firms. Warehouses and a truck belonging to the Chinese were set on fire, while protesters holding banners that said 'Chinese out' smashed windows. Damage was estimated at close to US$1 million. Such incidents have prompted the government of President Hu Jintao, which prides itself on being 'people-centred', to create a new organisation to co-ordinate the work of safeguarding Chinese expatriates. The body, within the Chinese Foreign Ministry, is called the Department of External Security Affairs.
At a press conference in July, the ministry's spokesman explained the department's work. 'Nontraditional security factors are mounting in the current international arena,' he said. 'The new department is to study and tackle the changing situation. It is yet to operate in a fully fledged way, and its responsibilities are still to be further defined.'