Huang Ping, director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs (Centre for Consular Assistance and Protection) of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, exchanged views with people.com.cn readers online on Monday afternoon.
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Huang Ping, director-general of the Department of Consular Affairs (Centre for Consular Assistance and Protection) of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, talks with people.com.cn readers online on Jan 16, 2012. [Photo/people.com.cn] |
Topic: Safety concerns of overseas Chinese
Q: The tragedy that happened to a Chinese father and his daughter in Italy at the beginning of this month highlights the safety concerns of overseas Chinese. What's your comment on this issue as an increasing number of Chinese companies and individuals go abroad?
A: Overseas safety concerns generally fall into two categories - conventional concerns like national political turmoil and the increasing unconventional concerns such as the impact of the economic crisis, terrorist attacks, pirates, epidemics and natural disasters.
As the safety concerns become more diversified and more complicated, there are more challenges to consular protection. Chinese citizens must be aware of the dangers and take necessary precautionary measures when they go abroad so as to ease the enormous challenge facing our consular protection work.
Topic: Consular Affairs on Weibo
Q：Will the Department of Consular Affairs open an official Weibo?
A: At present, we publish the related information mainly on the consular service website (http://cs.mfa.gov.cn/) and owing to staff limits we haven't opened an official Weibo.
But we always post information about consular affairs through the Foreign Ministry's official Weibo which already has millions of fans.
We will try to make better use of the new technology to improve the consular service work in the future.
In addition to the website, we also provide security alert messages on short message platforms via cooperation with China Unicom and we plan to widen the service scale to China Mobile and China Telecom users through cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the two telecom operators in 2012.
Topic: Consular protection
Q: Can all the oversea Chinese nationals and enterprises seek help from local Chinese embassies and consulates?
A: Based on Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, any Chinese in trouble is entitled to seek assistance from China's oversea embassies and consulates. But the consular protection only covers their lawful rights and interests. One cannot disrupt the routine work by coming up unreasonable requests. Chinese embassies and consulates when dealing with matters will also pay respect to local laws, regulation and customs. And correlative fees may be charged on help seekers depending on occasions.
Q: Is there any specific law in China that expounds on the definition of consular protection? If not, has China ever considered such legislation?
A: Not yet. The current consular protection is carried out in accordance with Common Program that was established at the beginning of PRC's foundation in 1949. China is making efforts on a specific law on consular protection.
Topic: Preventative consular protection
Q: What is preventative consular protection? What dose the Department of Consular Affairs do in this area?
A: The best consular protection is to reduce or avoid bad things happening. Among the 30,000 cases we deal with every year, most of them could be avoided.
Many people lack security awareness or safety precautions and this can lead to loss of life and property. We have done a lot of work in constructing an emergency response mechanism from the central government to local authorities, from enterprises to overseas embassies and consulates. We have mobilized local foreign affairs sectors to conduct safety education and carried out safety training in enterprises and schools. We also opened a website to offer overseas safety information, as well as consular services, in November 2011.
