The term "Chinese-style evacuation of overseas Chinese" has become one of the labels of the mainland, and has also become the pride of the Chinese people, and at the same time makes foreigners envious. You know, when you encounter a crisis overseas, how lucky it is to have the protection of the motherland for the first time. But do you know when the first evacuation of overseas Chinese in Chinese history was? The answer will surprise you, that is, the Beiyang government period that modern people think is dark and decaying. So, how did the Beiyang government withdraw overseas Chinese? Where are the evacuation sites? What crises have been encountered in the process of evacuation? Today, Ah Fan will tell you about the first evacuation of overseas Chinese in China's history, the Republic of China version of the "Red Sea Operation".
Chinese-style evacuation of overseas Chinese
"Hurry! Compatriots are starving, and overseas Chinese are getting less than 4 taels of grain a day..." "They wantonly rob overseas Chinese and use them as vaults..." "Gunfire is thick and overseas Chinese are being slaughtered on a large scale..." Telegrams about overseas Chinese were sent from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to Beijing, and the contents of the telegrams all reflected the difficult situation of overseas Chinese in Vladivostok.
The October Revolution, civil unrest in Russia
With the launch of the "October Revolution" in Russia, a new ideology was provided for the whole world, saving China on the verge of extinction. However, before it gave China new hope, it first brought about a huge crisis, at a time when millions of overseas Chinese, including merchants, and hundreds of thousands of laborers sent to the front during World War I were stranded in Russia. But with the October Revolution, a chaotic civil war began in Russia, which seriously threatened the lives and property of millions of overseas Chinese.
October Revolution in Russia in 1917
Most people have the impression that Russia became a socialist country after the October Revolution, but what few people know is that after the October Revolution, Russia fell into a brutal civil war.
After the October Revolution, lenin reconciled with Germany, the initiator of the First World War, due to the instability of the regime, and the two sides signed the Treaty of Brest, which gave the newly established Bolshevik regime a short respite. However, this nascent and unstable regime is an opportune time for the imperialist countries to expand their territories. Thus, in 1918, the Bolshevik regime faced a great catastrophe.
Lenin and Germany sign the Treaty of Brest
First, Germany rebelled, taking the lead in tearing up the Treaty of Brest, occupying Ukraine, and then marching in the direction of Russia. Immediately afterward, the Allies, who had been in the same camp as Russia, also extended their claws and landed in Murmansk, northern Russia. Moreover, they supported the old Russian forces and prepared to take a fist of Soviet power. In just a few months, Russia lost vast tracts of land, and tens of millions of people fell into the hands of other countries.
At this time, the Far East, far from the revolutionary center of St. Petersburg, also ushered in chaos. Because it was so far away from the center of Russia at that time, the red waves reached the Far East and only a few small waves remained, and it was impossible to control the chaotic situation at that time. After all, the Bolsheviks in the Far East numbered less than 10,000 people, and did not have enough appeal and influence at all, although at the beginning they occupied part of the Far East by means of raids, but they were soon broken by the old forces and had to go underground to carry out guerrilla warfare.
In the Far East, foreign forces were stationed
In the Far East in 1918, the political situation was chaotic, and it was the old forces that occupied the advantage at that time, but in order to seize great power, they began to fight for power and profit, constantly changing the leaders and the names of the regimes, and for a time, several regimes popped up in the Far East. Coupled with the Bolshevik underground guerrilla warfare, the Far East was plunged into a tug-of-war and the people were thrown into chaos. At the same time, millions of overseas Chinese stranded in Russia, in order to escape The Russian civil unrest, gathered in the Far East to wait for China's rescue.
The forgotten Vladivostok unrest
Vladivostok is in turmoil, and overseas Chinese are in danger
When the news of the October Revolution reached the Far East, the situation in Vladivostok and other places also began to be uneasy, riots occurred frequently, and overseas Chinese in the area also became the targets of attack, and the situation was extremely difficult.
In fact, Vladivostok was originally Chinese territory, but in the late Qing Dynasty, due to the weakness of the Qing government and the defeat of the war, China and Russia signed an unequal treaty, resulting in the loss of a large territory east of the Ussuri River, and Vladivostok was one of them. It should be known that Vladivostok is of great strategic importance to Russia, it is located on the Pacific coast, bordering the Sea of Japan, and can attack Japan, retreat to Siberia, and protect the core of Russia. Not only that, but due to the climate, it is possible to sail all year round, so it is also called "ice-free port". Therefore, Russia has been coveting this place since ancient times, but due to the strength of China, it has not been able to succeed until the late Qing Dynasty.
Vladivostok, once the territory of China
Thus, after Russia acquired the land, it changed its very profound name, Vladivostok, which meant Russia's determination to conquer the East, and set up a fleet station here to become an important Russian military base, even today.
We all know that in order for the city to develop, it is necessary to have a large population, and the Chinese workers at that time were very cheap and very useful, so Russia began to recruit a large number of Chinese workers in order to develop Vladivostok. Coupled with the Qing government's policy of closing the country to the outside world has been broken by the Western powers, the policy has gradually become open, as well as domestic wars, disasters and other factors, resulting in a large number of Chinese going to Vladivostok to make a living, becoming one of the gathering places for overseas Chinese. Therefore, at that time, overseas Chinese became the main body of foreign expatriates in Vladivostok, and not only that, Chinese workers also contracted local manual labor.
Vladivostok, one of the gathering places of overseas Chinese
With the outbreak of World War I, the Beiyang government also joined the Allies, became a participant in World War I, and sent hundreds of thousands of laborers to the front. Most of these laborers became logisticians, working in factories in the rear of the Russian Far East. However, after the outbreak of the October Revolution, the Russian railway line was blocked, and millions of overseas Chinese were forced to stay in the Far East. As the situation in Russia continued to deteriorate, overseas Chinese became the target of attack. Hunger, robbery, massacres and other atrocities are staged every day among overseas Chinese, and they are in a difficult situation and flock to Chinese consulates overseas to demand that China send troops to protect them.
Looking at the miserable situation of millions of overseas Chinese, the consulate immediately sent a telegram to the Beiyang government, indicating the situation of overseas Chinese and the situation in Vladivostok, hoping that the Beiyang government could make a decision as soon as possible to protect the Chinese compatriots abroad.
The Beiyang government sent troops to evacuate overseas Chinese
The Beiyang government sent troops to evacuate overseas Chinese
At that time, the Beiyang government immediately consulted with the Navy after receiving the telegram, but because at this time the Beiyang Naval Fleet was preparing to go south to participate in the War of Protecting France and had no time to take care of the evacuation of overseas Chinese, the Navy said that it was powerless and could not help. Seeing that the Beiyang government did not respond, the overseas Chinese in distress began to accuse the Beiyang government, saying that it was weak and incompetent, and disregarded the safety of compatriots. In fact, the reason why the Beiyang government at that time did not reply in time was because they were in the predicament of internal and external troubles.
There were warlords who attacked each other and the First Protector of France led by Sun Yat-sen. In 1917, Sun Yat-sen united with the southwestern warlords in Guangdong and launched the first "Protector of the Law War". At the same time, the First Fleet in the Beiyang Fleet chose to serve the Southern government, which also led to the reduction of the Beiyang Government's naval strength.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen launched the Dharma Protection Movement
There are Japanese obstructions on the outside. It should be known that in order to consolidate its privileges in the northeast region, Japan signed the so-called "Sino-Japanese Military Agreement on Joint Defense against the Enemy" with the Beiyang Government. Therefore, whether the Beiyang government can send troops depends on Japan's face. However, Japan at that time gathered more than 200,000 troops of the Allies and prepared to launch an offensive against Russia, trying to divide Russian territory while the Soviet power was unstable. Therefore, in order not to disrupt the plan, Japan strongly opposed the Beiyang government's dispatch of troops to withdraw overseas Chinese, and not only that, but also began to threaten with force.
As the call of overseas Chinese for the support of the motherland became louder and louder, the domestic people also began to call on the Beiyang government to send troops to evacuate overseas Chinese, and at the same time, various warlords also began to unify their opinions and hoped to send troops to evacuate overseas Chinese. Faced with the unity of the whole country, the Beiyang government, after careful consideration, decided to seek advice from Britain, the United States, France and other countries to explore their attitude towards China's invasion of the Far East. Among them, Lao Mei, who has the highest decision-making power, agreed. In this way, the Beiyang government made a rare heroic decision to send troops to evacuate overseas Chinese. In 1918, the Beiyang government sent troops to the Far East to evacuate the overseas Chinese and declared that it would not interfere in Russia's internal affairs.
Hero of the evacuation: Hai Rong
"Hai Rong" went out to evacuate the expatriates
After careful consideration, the Beiyang government finally decided to send the warship "Hai Rong" to HaishanWei to carry out the task of protecting overseas Chinese abroad. At the same time, they decided to have the War Department, together with Fengtian and Jilin provinces, dispatch the army to the Tumen River to protect the border and protect overseas Chinese.
In this way, after a week of sailing, the "Hai Rong" came to Vladivostok. Seeing the arrival of the Hairong, the tense nerves of overseas Chinese were alleviated, and the local atrocities against overseas Chinese were also reduced a lot. You know, at that time, the Russian army was very cruel to overseas Chinese, and even made a decision to kill overseas Chinese in the street, but all this gradually disappeared after the arrival of the Hai Rong. Not only that, when the Russian army tried to prevent overseas Chinese from boarding the ship, the Hai Rong immediately sent dozens of heavily armed soldiers ashore, firing warning shots, ready to protect their compatriots at any time, although they faced several times the enemy, they were still not afraid.
Hai Rong, proof of the withdrawal of overseas Chinese by the Beiyang government
In this way, millions of overseas Chinese gathered in Vladivostok and returned to China by sea or by land through the three eastern provinces. In this way, the Hai Rong loaded the expatriates back to China, and then returned several times to help evacuate the overseas Chinese. In fact, before the Arrival of the Hai Rong in Vladivostok, another merchant ship, the Flying Whale, was also carrying out evacuation operations.
During the period when the town of Hai Rong was guarding Vladivostok, the safety of overseas Chinese was greatly guaranteed, so that countless overseas Chinese were able to escape the war and return to their hometowns, and after that, the Beiyang government also sent troops with Europe and other countries to defend Siberia, and also rescued tens of thousands of Chinese laborers to bring back to the motherland on the front line of the war.
The Beiyang government sent troops to evacuate overseas Chinese
In fact, during the Hai Rong's garrison in Vladivostok, the Chinese army encountered many problems. The first is that the weather in Vladivostok is very cold, making it difficult to adapt, and the cold weather can also make the warship freeze for a short time. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the hull, the army can only use brute force to break the ice every day. In addition, the army's supply has also encountered many difficulties, the fuel coal of the warship can not be transported from the country, can only buy poor quality and expensive coal in the local area, the most basic problems of eating and drinking can not be guaranteed, can only rely on the Americas from the European region to buy frozen meat, vegetables. Despite the many difficulties, the Chinese military has gone all out to overcome them. In more than a year of stationing in Vladivostok, the Chinese army has safely brought most of the overseas Chinese back to China, ensuring the safety of their lives and property.
This was the first evacuation of overseas Chinese in China's history, although at that time China was in a period of continuous civil strife and oppression by the great powers, but the Beiyang government was able to make a move to withdraw overseas Chinese at this difficult moment, which was also very heroic, and also witnessed that the Beiyang government, even if it was weak and deceitful, would still send troops to protect it in the face of threats to overseas Chinese.
In 1918, the Beiyang government withdrew overseas Chinese
From this, we understand that no matter what era, the state must protect its own people, but the strength of a country's national strength is different from the protection of Chinese living abroad. Just like now, whenever there is a danger in any region, the mainland's response is very fast, which also makes every Chinese person very proud to know that there is a powerful China behind it.
In the more than seventy years since the founding of New China, our country has also carried out several evacuation operations, which have made countless Chinese people lament that "the greatest luck in this life is to be born in China", and foreign friends are also very admired. So, what evacuation operations has New China carried out?
Libyan evacuations in 2011
1. Libyan evacuation in 2011
In 2011, the Libyan civil war broke out, tens of thousands of compatriots were trapped, for which the mainland sent troops to Libya for evacuation at the first time. This was the first time since the founding of New China that military forces were used to evacuate overseas Chinese, and it was also the largest evacuation operation since its inception. Through this evacuation, the mainland's economic, military and diplomatic capabilities were demonstrated to the world, which shocked and amazed the whole world.
After the outbreak of the Libyan civil war, all exit routes were closed, and at the same time, the rioters began to frantically attack mainland enterprises, construction sites, etc. in Libya, not only that, these thugs continued to intimidate and kill our compatriots with guns. At that time, there were tens of thousands of compatriots stranded in Libya, most of whom were people carrying out aid construction. As soon as the outbreak of war in Libya was received, the mainland launched an urgent evacuation mission.
Chinese passport, amulet for overseas Chinese
"Bring back all our compatriots", as soon as the evacuation order was issued, our army immediately began the evacuation of the Libyan nationals. Originally, it was the safest way to evacuate compatriots from Libya directly, but due to the chaos in Libya at that time, it was impossible to determine the risk factor, so the mainland decided to borrow the passage of a third country for evacuation. In this way, our compatriots retreated from the interior of Libya to Greece, Egypt and other Libyan neighbors, waiting for the rescue of our army.
In the process of evacuation, some overseas Chinese needed to cross the war zone, and they held high the five-star red flag of China, held up Chinese passports, and crossed the land of right and wrong unimpeded. After twelve days of evacuation, the mainland successfully brought the compatriots back into the embrace of the motherland. Not only that, but the mainland has also helped evacuate citizens of dozens of countries. It is also this evacuation of overseas Chinese, which has greatly praised the world, and the "Chinese-style evacuation of overseas Chinese" is well-known in the world.
Yemen evacuation operation in 2015
2. Evacuation of yemen in 2015
This was the most thrilling evacuation of overseas Chinese, the first time that the Mainland Navy used real guns and live ammunition from overseas Chinese, and the first time that the Mainland assisted citizens of other countries in completing the evacuation.
In 2015, there was a sudden war in Yemen, and a coalition of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other countries fought against the Houthis in the Yemeni region. Dozens of countries, seeing this, immediately closed their embassies and demanded that all their citizens evacuate. In order to protect the safety of the lives and property of Chinese citizens, the mainland also began to evacuate overseas Chinese at the first time.
In 2015, the War in Yemen broke out
After receiving orders from their superiors, the Navy, which was on escort missions off the Gulf of Aden, rushed to Yemen for evacuation. In this way, our army quickly withdrew its Chinese citizens in Yemen. After seeing the withdrawal of mainland citizens, other weak and small countries have asked for help, hoping that the mainland can help their citizens evacuate Yemen.
In fact, the evacuation of overseas Chinese from Yemen is a very dangerous thing, at that time, the Yemeni area was full of artillery fire, and when our fleet just stopped in the harbor, it found that there was a burst of gunfire not far from the port, and at the same time, the fire and smoke also surrounded the entire port. In order to ensure the safety of mainland personnel, naval soldiers were waiting in strict formation, and the gunfire on the warships was always on standby for emergency needs. As soon as mainland citizens arrived at the port, the soldiers of our army immediately set up a security cordon and set up a warning sign in Both Chinese and English. It follows that the evacuation of nationals from Yemen is an extremely dangerous undertaking.
Yemen evacuated its overseas Chinese, and our army was heavily armed
In the face of other countries' requests for help, the mainland adhered to the principle of friendship and mutual assistance and began to assist many countries in evacuating overseas Chinese, according to statistics, the mainland helped more than 200 foreign citizens from 15 countries to evacuate. Afterwards, these countries thanked the mainland and gave high praise.
Evacuation of Nepalese
3. Evacuation of Nepalese nationals
On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake broke out in Nepal, and in the following month, more than 200 aftershocks of magnitude 4 or higher struck, killing more than 8,000 people and injuring more than 20,000 people. You know, Nepal is a very famous tourist country, and a large number of tourists come to visit every year, so there were a large number of foreign tourists stranded in Nepal at that time. At the first moment of danger, the mainland quickly sent planes to the rescue.
At that time, many Chinese tourists were also stranded in Nepal, and they were very excited when they saw the Arrival of Chinese planes. You know, at that time, many countries had already arrived, but Nepal only allowed the mainland and India to evacuate overseas Chinese first, so the mainland was the first country to complete the evacuation. It is not difficult to see the influence of the mainland in the world. In this way, the mainland dispatched more than 50 aircraft to bring Chinese citizens back to the motherland safely and unharmed.
Evacuations in Nepal due to the earthquake took place
In fact, since the founding of New China, we have carried out many evacuation operations. Such as Solomon's evacuation in 2000, New Zealand's evacuation and Israel's evacuation in 2016, and the evacuation of overseas Chinese under the new crown epidemic in 2020. Although most of them are due to war or natural disasters, which have caused our compatriots overseas to suffer. But the mainland will always appear at the first time, bringing our compatriots back to the embrace of the motherland from thousands of miles away. "I am fortunate to be born in China" is the thing that each of us Chinese is most proud of.
In fact, looking back at the withdrawal of overseas Chinese by the Beiyang government, we will find that while withdrawing overseas Chinese, the Beiyang government has also made great contributions to China. They launched a series of moves to regain state power: abrogating the Sino-Russian-Mongolian Agreement, sending troops to Outer Mongolia, revoking outer Mongolia's autonomy in November 1919, and almost successfully returning to China; Actively proposed to amend the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, signed a new partial trade agreement with the local government of the Soviet Union in May 1920, and abolished many unequal provisions of the Old Testament; In September of the same year, the consular jurisdiction of Russian overseas Chinese was abolished and the Russian Concession was reclaimed; In 1922, it was announced that the russian merchants would abolish the privilege of land tax reduction and exemption. These actions are of great significance to future generations.
The Beiyang government launched a series of moves to reclaim state power
From the depiction of history, it is not difficult for us to find that the Beiyang government has always been a decadent and incompetent existence, they have cut up land and paid compensation, and signed many unequal treaties with western powers, but in the evacuation of overseas Chinese in 1918, they had to admit that the Beiyang government still has a heroic side, they can withstand domestic and foreign pressure, send troops to evacuate overseas Chinese, and protect the lives and property of overseas Chinese.
The evacuation of overseas Chinese in 1918 was the first time in China's history that military force was used overseas to protect the interests and security of overseas Chinese, although China was still warlords at this time and weak in national strength, but it made the world look at China with astonishment. Nowadays, China's national strength is increasing day by day, its international influence is also rising, there are Chinese figures all over the world, the great evacuation of overseas Chinese in 1918 and the many overseas evacuations in recent years have told all Chinese: The motherland will always be your strong backing.
No matter where you are, the motherland will always be the backing
Today, the new China that was in ruins has long become a world power, and in the face of overseas emergencies, it has enough ability to protect overseas compatriots at the first time, and all these changes are inseparable from the efforts of our ancestors.
After more than seventy years of development, the mainland's weapons and equipment have been comprehensively developed, from weak to strong, from mechanization to modernization, from the introduction of imitation to independent research and development, and constantly improve the ability of independent research and development. Over the past few years, the mainland's military strength has continued to develop, and it is inseparable from the rapid development of the mainland's economy.
Today, China is on the rise
In the past seventy years or so, the mainland's economy has developed rapidly, and since the 1980s, the income of the people on the mainland has been increasing, the living standards have been significantly improved, and they have gradually entered a well-off life. With the continuous development of the economy and science and technology, all fields on the mainland have also developed rapidly. Nowadays, we have long since changed from being slaughtered by others to becoming the second largest power in the world, and our international position has become more and more important, and our ability to protect overseas Chinese has become higher and higher.