中国使领馆霸气护民

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.

地中海东岸，一场野火席卷了一座海滨城市。大火导致约6万名民众流离失所，数以千计的消防员在肆虐的火场中奋力扑救。

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.

这并不是好莱坞灾难片中的场景。两周前，一场毁灭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.

侨民们则陷入了混乱之中，他们通过尝试联系身在海外的亲朋好友，希望逃离这座被大火吞噬的城市。中国驻以色列大使馆迅速展开行动，将海法大学的159名中国学生成功疏散，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.

这些被疏散的学生不久后得到了食物和水，并被安置到酒店住宿。得到救援的学生贾兴龙随后在社交媒体上发帖，“感恩祖国，感恩自己作为一个中国人，”他说道。

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.

而上个月早些时候，新西兰克赖斯特彻奇发生7.5级地震，中国领事馆租用了直升机，从地震灾区疏散了126名中国游客。

“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，她在接受新华社采访时表示，“中国政府是唯一组织安全转移公民的外国政府。”

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.

中国政府所提供的高效的领事保护获得了海外同胞的一致赞誉，并在国内互联网上引起轰动，大家纷纷为中国护照的霸气点赞。

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

再举两个中国政府用高效的领事服务保护中国公民的实例。

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多名中国公民成功从爆发战乱的南苏丹撤离。在去年也门安全局势不断恶化的情况下，中国令正在亚丁湾执行反海盗护航任务的军舰调转方向，前往这个饱受战火摧残的中东国家帮助613名中国公民撤离。

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.

外交部部长王毅在一份声明中指出，中国已经承诺“编织一张覆盖全球的全天候‘安全网’，确保我们的同胞无论在哪，都能够及时获得来自祖国的领事保护和服务。”

Continuous improvement

持续不断的进步

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.

保护中国公民并非中国领事服务的唯一要素。李伟是一名中国现代国际关系研究院反恐研究学者。他在接受《中国日报》采访时表示，“在某种程度上，海外安全形势的日益复杂，促进了中国领事援助服务的快速发展。”

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.

外交部预计于今年建立起“紧急情况”领保联络员机制，以不断改进中国的领事服务。这一机制旨在当中国公民海外遇到困难时，能够第一时间为他们提供帮助。

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.

中国政府有责任在其公民遇险或遇到困难时从旁协助，也因此频上头条。但领事保护绝非毫无限制，也从不会超出法律的框架。

“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.”

“我们的政府、使馆以及领事馆都不能越过法律的约束，”北京市人民政府外事办公室巡视员殷飞在接受中国国际广播电台采访时表示。“我们可以帮助你，但却不会让你免于法律的惩处。”