和其它许多国家一样，中国正忙于制定计划，从深陷危机的利比亚撤出本国公民。真正令人意外的是有这么多中国人居住在那里。中国外交部没有确切数字，但估计有3万至4万人。
在利比亚的这一大批中国人为至少27家中国公司工作，他们彰显出在经济利益扩张之际，中国面对的新矛盾之一。
出于部分政治、部分商业的各种原因，如今世界上不少最动荡和危险的地方都有中国人的身影，包括一些反华情绪（针对就业机会和劳动条件）正在升温的地方。
首批警讯之一出现在2007年，当时一批中国妇女在巴基斯坦遭到绑架，最终导致拉合尔(Lahore)的红色清真寺被围困。同年，9名中国石油工人在埃塞俄比亚被杀。近年，中国工人先后在喀麦隆、刚果和阿富汗遭到绑架。
在公开场合，中国外交官们承认，中国需要更好的应急预案处理此类情形。但在私下里，他们担心的是另一个问题，即这些事件将迫使他们在更大程度上介入他国的国内政治斗争，削弱中国政府对不干涉政策的承诺。
一些中国外交官和学者承认，噩梦将是一批中国公民遭到大规模暴力攻击，继而在中国国内引发强烈的民族主义反应，迫使政府采取自己试图避免的干预姿态。
上周四，北京方面决定派遣原来在索马里海岸外执行打击海盗任务的徐州号护卫舰赶赴利比亚，此举在一定程度上透露出中国在未来将如何做出回应。徐州号表面上的任务是保护撤侨行动，但它也是向利比亚境内任何可能攻击中国利益的势力发出的一个警告，而且是中国海军全球行动能力不断加强的最新迹象。
正如美国海军战争学院(US Naval War College)中国专家安德鲁•埃里克森(Andrew Erickson)所指出的：“这一最新举措是中国在世界各地不断增强的实力、存在和影响力的一部分，不应让人意外。拥有全球利益的中国不能永远搭便车，它需要在关键地区和形势中展示自己的存在，以便行使自己的话语权。”
译者/和风
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001037153
Like many other nations, China has been scrambling to put together evacuation plans for its citizens stuck in crisis-torn Libya. The real surprise has been just how many Chinese are living there. The foreign ministry does not know for sure but puts the figure at 30-40,000.
The huge contingent in Libya, who work for at least 27 Chinese companies, has brought to light one of the new dilemmas facing China as its economic interests expand.
For a mixture of reasons that are partly political, partly business, Chinese workers are now present in many of the most volatile and dangerous parts of the world, including places where anti-Chinese sentiment over jobs and working conditions is on the rise.
One of the first wake-up calls was in 2007, when a group of Chinese women were abducted in Pakistan, an event which led to the siege of the Red Mosque in Lahore. In the same year, nine Chinese oil workers were killed in Ethiopia. In recent years, Chinese workers have been kidnapped in Cameroon, Congo and Afghanistan.
Publicly, Chinese diplomats admit that the country needs better contingency plans to deal with this sort of situation. Privately, they worry about a different issue: that such incidents will force them to get much more involved in domestic political disputes in far-off lands, pulling the government away from its commitment to a policy of non-interference.
The nightmare, a few diplomats and academics admit, would be a large, violent attack on a group of Chinese which then prompted an intense nationalist reaction at home, forcing the government to take the sort of interventionist positions it tries to shun.
Beijing gave some indication of how it will respond in the future with the decision on Thursday to send the frigate Xuzhou, currently conducting anti-piracy drills off the coast of Somalia, to Libya. Its ostensible mission will be to help the evacuation effort, but it is also a warning to any in Libya who might attack Chinese interests, as well as the latest indication of the growing global reach of China’s navy.
As Andrew Erickson, a China expert at the US Naval War College says: “This latest initiative is part of a larger ongoing increase in Chinese power, presence, and influence around the world, and should come as no surprise. China has global interests, cannot free ride forever, and requires a presence in critical areas and situations in order to have a voice.”
没有评论:
发表评论