Libyan turmoil prompts Chinese naval firsts

Jeremy Page - 

China has sent one of its most modern warships to protect vessels extracting thousands of its citizens from Libya, in the Asian power’s first naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea and its first deployment of military hardware in a civilian evacuation mission.

The Chinese navy diverted the Xuzhou, a 4,000 ton missile frigate, from anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia and dispatched it to the Libyan coast on Thursday, according to a statement on the Chinese Defense Ministry’s web site.

The Chinese government has also sent civilian ships and aircraft to evacuate about half of the roughly 30,000 Chinese citizens Libya amid escalating violence there, in what the state-run Xinhua news agency has described as China’s biggest civilian evacuation operation.

The evacuation reflects the mounting pressure on China’s government to protect the growing number of Chinese citizens living and working overseas, especially in unstable regions where China is seeking supplies of oil and other key raw materials to feed its booming economy.

The Xuzhou’s deployment also illustrates the Chinese navy’s increasing capacity to operate far beyond China’s own shores in order to protect the country’s perceived interests, including the security of its businesses and citizens.

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Dai Zongfeng/ChinaFotoPress/Zuma Press

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