中國使領館霸氣護民

On the east side of the Mediterranean Sea, massive wild fires rage across a coastal city. The *blaze causes around 60,000 residents to flee and leaves thousands of firefighters battling the *rampant flames.

地中海東岸，一場野火席卷了一座海濱城市。大火導致約6萬名民眾流離失所，數(shù)以千計的消防員在肆虐的火場中奮力撲救。

This isn’t a scene from an apocalyptic Hollywood movie. It was a devastating fire that spread across Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa two weeks ago.

這并不是好萊塢災難片中的場景。兩周前，一場毀滅性的大火席卷了以色列第三大城市海法。

International residents were left *scrambling, trying to figure how to get out of the fire-stricken city by contacting overseas relatives. The Chinese embassy in Israel *sprung into action, successfully *evacuating and resettling 159 Chinese students from the University of Haifa.

僑民們則陷入了混亂之中，他們通過嘗試聯(lián)系身在海外的親朋好友，希望逃離這座被大火吞噬的城市。中國駐以色列大使館迅速展開行動，將海法大學的159名中國學生成功疏散，并重新安置到安全的地方。

Those evacuees were later being offered food, drinks and accommodation in a hotel. Jia Xinglong, one of the rescued students, later made a post on social media. “I am *indebted to my motherland. I feel grateful as a Chinese,” he said.

這些被疏散的學生不久后得到了食物和水，并被安置到酒店住宿。得到救援的學生賈興龍隨后在社交媒體上發(fā)帖，“感恩祖國，感恩自己作為一個中國人，”他說道。

Rewind to earlier last month when a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand. The Chinese consulate rented helicopters and evacuated 126 Chinese tourists from the disaster areas.

而上個月早些時候，新西蘭克賴斯特徹奇發(fā)生7.5級地震，中國領事館租用了直升機，從地震災區(qū)疏散了126名中國游客。

“The Chinese government is the only foreign government that has organized evacuation, which has been quite a relief for us,” Li Wei, one of the earthquake’s last evacuees, told the Xinhua News Agency.

李薇是地震最后一批被救出的游客之一，她在接受新華社采訪時表示，“中國政府是唯一組織安全轉移公民的外國政府。”

The efficient consular protection offered by the government gained *accolades from overseas Chinese, and stirred up an online *sensation domestically praising the domineering power of the Chinese passport.

中國政府所提供的高效的領事保護獲得了海外同胞的一致贊譽，并在國內互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上引起轟動，大家紛紛為中國護照的霸氣點贊。

Those are two examples of how the Chinese government manages to protect its nationals with effective consular services.

再舉兩個中國政府用高效的領事服務保護中國公民的實例。

This July, more than 200 Chinese nationals were successfully evacuated from the conflict-hit South Sudan. Last year, when the security situation worsened in Yemen, China redirected its warships on anti-piracy *escort missions in the Gulf of Aden to evacuate 613 Chinese citizens from the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

今年7月，200多名中國公民成功從爆發(fā)戰(zhàn)亂的南蘇丹撤離。在去年也門安全局勢不斷惡化的情況下，中國令正在亞丁灣執(zhí)行反海盜護航任務的軍艦調轉方向，前往這個飽受戰(zhàn)火摧殘的中東國家?guī)椭?13名中國公民撤離。

China has committed to, “weave a full-time ‘safety net’ that spans the globe to make sure our *compatriots receive timely consular protection and service from the motherland wherever they are,” said Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a statement.

外交部部長王毅在一份聲明中指出，中國已經(jīng)承諾“編織一張覆蓋全球的全天候‘安全網(wǎng)’，確保我們的同胞無論在哪，都能夠及時獲得來自祖國的領事保護和服務。”

Continuous improvement

持續(xù)不斷的進步

Protecting its nationals is not the only factor in China’s consular service. “The increasing complexity of security overseas has, to some extent, contributed to the boom in China’s consular assistance service,” Li Wei told China Daily. Li is an anti-terrorism studies researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

保護中國公民并非中國領事服務的唯一要素。李偉是一名中國現(xiàn)代國際關系研究院反恐研究學者。他在接受《中國日報》采訪時表示，“在某種程度上，海外安全形勢的日益復雜，促進了中國領事援助服務的快速發(fā)展。”

This year, the foreign ministry is expected to launch a system of “emergency” consular *liaison volunteers to keep refining China’s consular services. The program aims to help Chinese citizens in the first instance if they encounter difficulties abroad.

外交部預計于今年建立起“緊急情況”領保聯(lián)絡員機制，以不斷改進中國的領事服務。這一機制旨在當中國公民海外遇到困難時，能夠第一時間為他們提供幫助。

The Chinese government has made continuous headlines and has the responsibility of assisting its citizens when they are in danger or facing problems. But consular protection is by no means unlimited, and will never go beyond the framework of law.

中國政府有責任在其公民遇險或遇到困難時從旁協(xié)助，也因此頻上頭條。但領事保護絕非毫無限制，也從不會超出法律的框架。

“Our government, embassies and consulates, cannot work beyond the law,” Yin Fei, an inspector with the Beijing Government’s Foreign Affairs Office, told China Radio International. “We can help you, but cannot *exempt you from legal punishment or compensation.”

“我們的政府、使館以及領事館都不能越過法律的約束，”北京市人民政府外事辦公室巡視員殷飛在接受中國國際廣播電臺采訪時表示。“我們可以幫助你，但卻不會讓你免于法律的懲處。”