Tens of thousands of Chinese workers are scrambling to escape the chaos in Libya, highlighting the risks taken by Chinese businesses piling into unstable African countries in search of oil, gas and other resources.
Beijing is taking unprecedented steps to aid with the evacuation, sending charter flights and ferries along with military transport planes and dispatching a navy frigate to provide security for its nationals in Libya, where increasingly violent clashes are threatening to transform a 15-day popular rebellion into a civil war.
About 32,000 Chinese — most working on construction projects or providing oil field services — had been whisked out of Libya as of Wednesday, with another 3,000 waiting to be airlifted out of the desert in the country's deep south, according to China's Foreign Ministry.
The fighting between rebel forces and loyalists of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi isn't expected to have an impact on China's burgeoning economic links with Africa, but analysts say it serves as a reminder of the need for contingency plan when working in unstable or politically repressive countries where conditions can turn dramatically desperate. More...
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