On the morning of March 28, the 20th temporary flight to evacuate Chinese citizens from Ukraine arrived safely in Fuzhou from Bucharest, Romania, marking the end of China's evacuation of Ukrainian citizens.
Since the sharp escalation of tensions in Ukraine, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has quickly activated the emergency mechanism for consular protection, organizing, guiding and coordinating the evacuation and evacuation of Chinese citizens at the first time. In the past month, many reporters have continuously tracked the progress of the evacuation of Ukrainians, contacted our embassies and consulates in Ukraine, Romania, Poland and other countries, and interviewed a number of overseas Chinese, Chinese-funded institution personnel and Chinese students who personally experienced the evacuation, trying to record all aspects of this miraculous operation in a panoramic way.
Through their stories, we saw the ambassadors who did not give up on every compatriot, the diplomats who were stationed at the port for 8 days and 8 nights, the overseas Chinese who were not afraid of hardships and dangers to escort their children out of the country, the student party members who stepped forward to take care of others, and the love relay between different departments... The figures in this great action have jointly spelled out the "Chinese strength" under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and also painted a touching picture of the sons and daughters of China watching out for each other and overcoming difficulties together.
Set a "five-of-a-kind" record
How did the solution come out?
The Chinese Embassy in Ukraine told reporters that before the situation in Ukraine deteriorated, there were more than 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine, not only a large number, but also distributed in many different places. In addition to the self-evacuated personnel, the Chinese Embassy and Consulates in Ukraine organized, guided and coordinated the evacuation of more than 5,000 people. This huge evacuation operation also set a record for the "five most" - "the most complex environment", "the most dangerous situation", "the most difficult to evacuate", "the most worrying and worrying evacuation group", "the largest number of embassies and consulates involved in the evacuation operation".
This "impossible task" began on February 24. Early that morning, an hour after the explosion sounded over Kiev, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine quickly issued its first safety alert and immediately activated the emergency plan. At the same time, in order to facilitate the masses, the embassy has quickly increased the number of security assistance telephones to 3 in normal times, and 24 hours a day to answer the calls of students studying in Uzbekistan and other Chinese citizens to provide them with safety guidance.
"In those days, on average, thousands of calls came in every day." A consular staff member of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine told reporters, "We are facing a huge and complex test: we must not only keep a close eye on the situation, but also pass on the correct message, but also guide our compatriots not to panic, enlighten and help them evacuate safely under the right circumstances." ”
With the rapid deterioration of the security situation in Ukraine, a large-scale evacuation plan was officially launched. However, in the face of fierce artillery fire from both sides of the military conflict and the resulting security risks, "how to withdraw" has become a difficult problem facing our diplomats in Ukraine, and the implementation of the plan must take security as the primary goal.
My embassy has studied various evacuation options, such as charter evacuations. According to China's strength, charter flights are of course no problem, but the fierce fighting has made the conditions for safe flight no longer available. In the unlikely event that an aircraft is in distress in the air, the consequences are unimaginable. If evacuated from the sea, it means that there will be a transit next, and the need to unify compatriots scattered across Ukraine to Odessa means that the risk is a little more common. Moreover, it takes a long time to find the right vessel, and the more you wait, the less safe it becomes. If you evacuate by land, how many passages will be opened? What means of transport is the safest? Can Chinese citizens without a Schengen visa enter a neighboring country smoothly? Every detail needs to be coordinated and confirmed many times.
In addition to "stability", "fast" is also an important challenge facing Chinese diplomats in Ukraine. They said that the situation in Ukraine is changing rapidly, such as some roads, which are still open today, and will not be open tomorrow because of the exchange of fire, even in the morning, and in the afternoon, "how to respond to the changes at the fastest speed and find safe passages is also a very headache for us."
After careful study and judgment, our embassy and consulate in Ukraine finally decided to adopt the following evacuation plan: use buses and trains to transport the people to be evacuated from Kiev, Kharkiv, Samui and other cities, divert them through the two major passages of Lviv and Odessa near the Ukrainian border, evacuate everyone to Poland, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and other neighboring countries, and then arrange temporary flights back to China.
Under the unified coordination of the embassy and consulate, on the evening of February 28, two groups of Chinese students were evacuated from Kiev and Odessa to the west. Although the evacuation convoy was escorted by local military police, this does not mean that there is no danger. A consular staff member who escorted 88 students to Moldova by bus that night told reporters that less than an hour after the departure, there were three bomb explosions in the right front of the car. Along the way, we went through at least 15 levels, full of soldiers with guns.
On February 28, the first batch of Chinese students were evacuated westward from Kiev under the organization of the embassy and consulate
Open the evacuation channel
The ambassador went all the way to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine
In fact, the two routes from Kiev and Odessa are already "relatively safe", and the withdrawal of Kharkiv and Sumy, which are at the center of the exchange of fire between the two armies, is the real problem. It is understood that when the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict broke out, there were more than 100 Chinese students in Kharkiv and Samui.
"In the past period, we have experienced many firsts in our lives, the first time we have been subjected to artillery fire, the first time we have hidden in air raid shelters, the first time we have experienced war, and the first time we have overcome all kinds of difficulties and dangers to evacuate." Dong Hao, an international student at the School of Culture and Art of Samui National Normal University, lamented to reporters, "During those few days of detention, whenever guns rang out, my classmates and I had to hide in a small air raid shelter. Everyone sat on the dark and dirty ground, unable to eat, drink or sleep, no toilets, no internet. The only thing we could do was stare blankly at the dim ceiling and pray that the war would end soon. ”
Located in northeastern Ukraine and bordering Russia, Sumy became a place of contention for Russian and Ukrainian armies the day after the war began. Dong Hao recalled that due to the rapid changes in the war, the evacuation plan of more than 100 Chinese students in the Samui area also experienced many twists and turns.
The students' initial idea was to evacuate to the Russian border city closest to Samui, which is only 70 kilometers from Samui, but the embassy quickly rejected the plan because withdrawing to one of the countries involved in the war was inappropriate and safety was a big problem. Later, everyone discussed a lot of plans, but they could not guarantee 100% safety, and they did not make the trip.
"On March 6, we received good news: we gathered at 12 noon and prepared to evacuate! After hearing this news, everyone was immediately excited. Dong Hao told reporters, "But in the midst of war, everything is destined not to be so easy." Due to the failure of the Russian and Ukrainian sides to agree on humanitarian routes, the evacuation plan for the day was stranded. That night, none of us fell asleep. The next day, the loud roar of the bombers sounded again in our heads, and within a minute the shells landed on the street where our dormitory was located, and when the smoke rose, we thought that we might not really be able to walk in the short term. ”
Unexpectedly, with the unremitting efforts of the embassy and consulate, things turned around. The two sides finally reached an agreement to open humanitarian access in the Sumy area on March 8. "Under the arrangement of the embassy, we were the first to evacuate early in the morning. Fortunately, the second group of personnel could not be evacuated in the afternoon because of the resumption of fighting. Dong Hao said.
"Later, we learned that in order to allow us to evacuate safely, Ambassador Fan Xianrong and other diplomats in the embassy worked tirelessly for 4 days and 4 nights, and even found Vice Premier Wu all the way to coordinate the evacuation route for us." They really haven't given up on any of us," Dong Hao told reporters with emotion, "When ambassador Fan Xianrong stood on a small bench in Lviv and said to us, 'Children, classmates, you are safe now', my tears couldn't stop flowing down. ”
Courtesy of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine
According to the staff of our embassy in Ukraine, the group of students evacuated from Samui is the last batch of Chinese citizens to be evacuated from the dangerous areas of Ukraine on a large scale. "On their bus to Slovakia, we have a staff member for each car, both to escort the car and to soothe everyone's anxious mood. Their safe withdrawal also marked the successful conclusion of a centralized evacuation operation inside Ukraine. ”
Diplomats were stationed at the port for 8 days and 8 nights
Vehicles full of Chinese citizens drove out of Ukraine, and immediately ushered in the "baton" of our embassies and consulates in Moldova, Romania and other neighboring countries. According to the reporter's understanding, after the evacuation operation began, our embassies in neighboring countries in Ukraine immediately activated the emergency response mechanism, emergency deployment, mobilization of the whole museum, and determined the work plan.
Under the arrangements of our Embassy in Romania, the coordination group, the port group, the information group, the airport group, and the logistics support group were quickly established one by one and coordinated under the unified command; our ambassador to Romania, Jiang Yu, personally went into battle, contacting the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the police station, the border defense, civil aviation, and other departments one after another at the first time, and received strong support from the Romanian side in the areas of exit and entry of evacuated personnel, flight approval, and safety guarantees, and ate for people who had just left the war and were still in shock." Reassuring Pills".
In February, Romania is icy and snowy, and the cold wind is biting. However, in order to quickly open up the evacuation channel, the staff of our embassy braved the wind and snow overnight, and the soldiers rushed to the Galaţi port and the Skuleni port of Several hundred kilometers from the capital Bucharest to garrison, just to ensure that the compatriots who arrived in Romania could see the embassy personnel as soon as they entered the customs and could let go of the anxious and panicked hearts that had been there for a long time.
On March 1, 518 Chinese compatriots entered Romania through two ports of entry and arrived in Bucharest by bus arranged by the embassy, which marked the smooth opening and safe and smooth operation of the passage between china and Ukraine. From that day until March 20, about 3,500 Chinese citizens entered Romania directly from Ukraine or through Moldova, of whom more than 2,400 entered romania from March 1 to 3 alone.
Equally busy was my embassy in Poland. A staff member of the Chinese Embassy in Poland told reporters that on the afternoon of receiving the order to evacuate overseas Chinese, the embassy set off urgently and rushed to the 8 ports on the border between Poland and Ukraine, from south to north, one by one to check whether the customs clearance at the ports was smooth, and confirmed that Chinese citizens, regardless of whether they had visas or not, as long as they had Chinese passports, could enter the country smoothly. To this end, the diplomats of our embassy in Poland were stationed at the border crossing for 8 days and 8 nights, and the local overseas Chinese group also set up 6 temporary reception points.
Successfully receiving compatriots is only the first step, and the next step is to transfer and resettle these tired compatriots along the way to ease their tension. In Romania, Bucharest's capacity to resettle is close to saturation in the face of tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and people from various countries in Ukraine who flock to Romania every day. In the face of this difficult problem, our embassy in Romania not only made full use of its own resources, but also mobilized more than ten overseas Chinese groups in Romania, mobilized Chinese-funded enterprises and chambers of commerce, tried every means to rush to book hostels and hotels, and quickly finalized a number of resettlement sites so that the first batch of overseas Chinese compatriots arriving in Romania could have rooms to live in and have food to eat.
Board the plane and sing the national anthem
Sending compatriots safely to their flight home is the last link in the task of evacuating overseas Chinese, and it is also one of the most important links. At the same time as resettling the compatriots evacuated from Ukraine, some of the staff of our embassies in Romania and Poland quickly transferred to the airport to coordinate the docking charter process.
Register for screening, communicate with airlines, determine nucleic acid test results, reasonably arrange the order of boarding, take care of the elderly, sick, disabled and pregnant students and international students.... It is difficult for outsiders to imagine how arduous and tedious it is to complete these tasks in a short period of time, especially when the domestic anti-epidemic work is still facing the huge challenge of "external defense import and internal defense rebound".
"We have extensively contacted the testing agencies in Bucharest to promote the other side to prioritize testing for our personnel, and in just a few days, we have increased the testing volume of our personnel to more than 1,000 people per day," the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Romania told reporters, "In response to the new requirements for rapid antigen testing before boarding, we urgently sent people to more than 20 pharmacies for 6 hours to purchase more than 600 reagents to meet the needs of the next day's flight, and then bought enough reagents through online shopping and other methods." ”
Behind the evacuation flights, is the patient and meticulous work and efforts of countless staff: an international student suffers from a brain tumor and urgently needs to return to China for surgery, but the local nucleic acid test results usually need a day to come out, my embassy urgently contacted the testing agency to do the work, got the results within 3 hours after the test, and sent the patient to the plane on the same day; some compatriots lost their passports, the embassy urgently handled travel documents for them, so that they could successfully board the plane to return home; some evacuees were emotionally anxious because of the diagnosis of new crown pneumonia and other reasons. The Embassy patiently persuaded, reassured, and actively facilitated and assisted it...
On March 9, Chinese citizens arrived at Lanzhou Zhongchuan International Airport on a temporary flight
"The moment I boarded my flight home and saw the flag on the plane, my heart really let go," Mr. Li, the head of a Chinese company stationed in Ukraine, recalled reporters. The captain told us, 'You have boarded this flight, which is equivalent to having set foot on the land of the motherland.' Welcome home! At that moment, my emotion could not be described in words. Later, everyone sang the national anthem in unison and applauded together to thank all those who helped us along the way. ”
The "Provisional Party Branch" rushed to the front
In this huge and rapid evacuation operation, there are countless touching moments, converging into a grand picture of the sons and daughters of China watching out for each other in times of crisis.
In Odessa, the international student Xiao Zhou was originally on the first batch of evacuation lists, but he took the initiative to give up his place to others, and he continued to insist on it, helping to arrange for everyone to evacuate every day. Xiao Zhou silently went first and left at the latest every day, working until his throat was hoarse and his eyes were bloodshot, but he never complained. He and his family persisted until all the evacuees had been safely removed before leaving for the last time.
In the Ukrainian border city of Uzhgorod, an overseas Chinese volunteer known as Lao Yi touched everyone: Faced with the problem of insufficient capacity of transit trains, Lao Yi used his own car to transport groups of compatriots out of this war-torn country for Slovakia and Hungary free of charge. In just one month, he helped no less than 100 people.
At the Moldovan port, the staff of my embassy in Ukraine, who escorted Chinese students out of the country, recalled: "When I sent the students to the return car, I found that the children quietly left me some food, maybe they found me hungry, and there were two eggs in it." You may not believe it, eggs are usually nothing, but in this special period, these two eggs are too precious. ”
In Samui, the story of the formation of a "temporary party branch" is particularly impressive. "When we greeted the Chinese citizens evacuated from Samui in Lviv, 7 party members approached the embassy personnel and said they were a temporary party branch, among whom someone took out the party emblem. They played an important role in leading students out of danger zones. The performance of young Chinese party members in a critical moment is surprising! A staff member of my embassy in Ukraine said.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on March 28, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, more than 5,200 Chinese citizens in Ukraine have been safely evacuated to neighboring countries in Ukraine. Except for 1 person who was injured and treated safely on the way to the car, the rest of the compatriots who voluntarily evacuated were all safe, and the war evacuation was "no death, no group injury".
He said that as of March 28, more than 4,600 Chinese citizens evacuated to neighboring countries in Ukraine had taken 20 temporary flights arranged by the Chinese government to return to their motherland. All Chinese compatriots in Ukraine and neighboring countries helped each other to tide over difficulties, and overseas Chinese and Ethnic Chinese organizations assisted in completing the evacuation work on many occasions, carrying forward the fine tradition of the Chinese nation in helping the poor and the needy, and showing the fine quality of unity and mutual assistance of the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation.
Although the evacuation of Chinese citizens in Ukraine has come to an end, the work of Chinese diplomats is not over, and they continue to help Chinese citizens who have voluntarily remained in Ukraine to address their security concerns.
"The journey of protecting the life safety and legitimate rights and interests of overseas compatriots is always on the road. In the next step, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese embassies and consulates abroad will continue to actively promote the construction of consular protection mechanisms, continue to build a safe China overseas, and tell every overseas compatriot with practical actions that no matter what time, no matter where you are, you have us by your side and the motherland behind you. Wang Wenbin said.
END
Editor: Li Man
Checker: Floret
Source: Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, Global Network
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