In recent years, the Chinese government has launched several major evacuation missions. In 2010, it rescued 48 Chinese nationals from earthquake-hit Haiti and 1,299 from socially volatile Kyrgyzstan. In 2011, it evacuated some 1,800 Chinese nationals from Egypt and 35,860 from Libya. And last year, as the crisis in Libya crisis deepened, it evacuated another 1,177 Chinese nationals from the country.

China's overseas rescue and relief programs have become increasingly sophisticated with many Chinese embassies and consulates setting up their emergency response mechanisms to act instantly. Despite the scale of the Yemen evacuation being smaller, it was still an improvement on the one launched in Libya in 2011. For instance, Beijing needed just hours to decide to evacuate the Chinese nationals from Yemen because of prior preparations to correctly read a given situation and plan a response accordingly.

Apparently, China had made various contingent plans on how to respond to the worsening situation in Yemen. It had worked out all diplomatic procedures vis-à-vis Yemen and Djibouti, including the docking of its first ship to begin the evacuation. Since the Chinese nationals were working for about 20 Chinese organizations in more than 10 places across Yemen, the Chinese embassy devised an effective means of communicating with and bringing all of them together. Accordingly, the Chinese naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden readied to start the evacuation.

The key to success is China's recent upgrading of security and safety mechanisms. The newly established National Security Commission has been playing an increasingly important role in protecting Chinese nationals overseas. After top leader Xi Jinping emphasized the concept of overall national security last year, China has accorded priority to human resources, and protecting Chinese nationals overseas has become its crucial element.

With a vast government machinery to operate, the NSC is an authoritative organization to facilitate inter-agency coordination, that is, bringing the foreign, defense, information and other related sectors together to deal with emergencies. Apparently, China's institutional modernization is bearing fruit for its nationals, both at home and abroad.

The author is a professor at and associate dean of the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai.