The National Day holiday has just passed, have you all rested? I don't know if you have used the vacation to go out and watch a movie? In the National Day file that just passed, there was a movie that was very popular. That's right, I'm talking about " " about the evacuation of overseas Chinese.
The trailer for the movie "The Journey Home"
estimates that many listeners of this movie may have already seen it. It doesn't matter if anyone hasn't seen it yet, this film will not be offline for a while, so please hurry up and watch it.
Speaking of which, the reason why this "Homecoming" is so popular is because the movie is well shot, um, this sentence sounds a bit like nonsense; secondly, it is also because the subject matter selected for this movie is very attractive.
I guess everyone has watched the news. The film is based on the 2011 Chinese evacuation of its citizens from Libya.
Back then, in order to allow tens of thousands of Chinese compatriots stranded in war-torn areas to return home safely, the Chinese government sent a most capable team to the war-torn areas to organize compatriots to evacuate.
It is no exaggeration to say that all the thrilling things that happened during the evacuation operation were not inferior to the movie at all. Do not believe? Then listen to me talk to you in detail.
The Libyan civil war, why are the Chinese people
Our story has to start in 2011. In February of that year, a civil war broke out in Libya .
At that time, no matter whether it was in Libya or the international community, everyone except Libya's leader Gaddafi was not surprised by this civil war.
why? Because the internal conflicts in Libya accumulated very serious back then, and in the end, it has reached the point where conflicts are bound to occur as long as someone picks the lead.
Finally, on February 15, 2011, in Libya's second largest city, , Benghazi, , a serious anti-government demonstration broke out. .
It stands to reason that civil war is definitely not a good thing, but after all, this is Libya's domestic affairs and has nothing to do with outsiders. But it's just like the old saying in China - don't be afraid of bad people if you don't have good people.
With the outbreak of the civil war in Libya, the United States, which has been unhappy with Gaddafi for many years, and France, which has always wanted to regard North Africa as its own backyard, jumped out one after another and actively provided weapons and equipment to the Libyan opposition, so that this The civil war continued to escalate.
Just like this, many cities in Libya were thrown into chaos, and a large number of thugs flooded the streets, starting all kinds of beating, smashing and looting.
Speaking of this, it is estimated that some people will be curious, no matter how messed up Libya is, what does it have to do with us in China? Is Libya not far from us? Are there many Chinese people there?
I really have to explain a few words here: You must know that our relationship with Libya has always been good. To use an official saying, Libya is an important trading partner of China. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the data released on the website of our country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 2020 The trade volume between China and Libya is nearly 3.5 billion US dollars. There are also a lot of cultural exchanges between the two countries. China also has many construction projects in Libya.
Projects of Chinese companies in Libya
Before the outbreak of the civil war, there were more than 30,000 Chinese working and living in Libya plus short-term travel, which is not a small number!
Of course, due to the good relationship between the two countries, after the Chinese government announced the evacuation of overseas Chinese, both sides of the Libyan civil war said that they would not block it and would provide various conveniences.
However, the convenience of the official does not mean that it is safe. After all, there are many unreasonable thugs in the riots and riots, and the Chinese in Libya have become the wallets of many thugs.
The Chinese company
was robbed. It's no wonder that we Chinese are hard-working, simple and capable, can make money and like to save money?
How chaotic Libya was at that time, let me give you an example: just around Benghazi, there are three construction sites aided by China Hydropower Corporation, one of which is located in a port called Zuwara .
One night after the civil unrest broke out, dozens of unidentified thugs, armed with various earthen guns and machetes, launched a siege.
Fortunately, the Chinese compatriots at the construction site were well prepared. As early as when the civil strife was just beginning, they dug a trench nearly 5 meters wide and 5 meters deep at the periphery of the station. After all, the compatriots here are skilled construction workers, digging a trench is a matter of minutes.
Relying on this ditch, plus throwing objects such as stones and tiles, they finally blocked the mob's attack.
But the angry thugs did not stop there. They still robbed large vehicles and equipment parked outside the camp, and set a fire to burn down warehouses and many building materials.
Just think about it, these thugs dare to rob even such a large camp where the Chinese gather. As for the Chinese scattered all over Libya, the safety of life is not guaranteed at all.
Evacuation action is urgent! !
In order to protect the lives of our compatriots, on February 22, 2011, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an instruction, requiring the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make every effort to rescue and bring back tens of thousands of compatriots trapped in Libya.
The image of the worker in the movie
So, in the face of so many people, what method should the Ministry of Foreign Affairs use to rescue them?
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs first set up a headquarters for the evacuation of overseas Chinese. After that, it sent a group of capable diplomats to the front line in Libya. Their task was to go deep into the war-torn area and bring every compatriot out safely. As a result, the largest evacuation operation in the history of China's diplomacy began.
Shortly after the evacuation began, the situation in Libya further deteriorated. The two sides in the civil war were not idle except for sparring on the battlefield. On the one hand, they said that they would send planes to completely blow up each other's command post; Results like
make our evacuation all the more urgent - why? It's very simple. Neither side of the civil war admits to counseling. When they hit the back, they will definitely deny their six relatives. In order to prevent our people from lying innocently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must race against time to find a way to get them out.
Although the time is very urgent, the problem before us is also very real. There are more than 30,000 Chinese trapped in Libya. What kind of transportation can we use to take them all away?
After some weighing, the commander of the Ministry of Foreign AffairsOfficers decided: let most people evacuate by sea.
There are two reasons: one is that about 60% of the compatriots are concentrated in the area near the sea in the north of Libya, so they can be evacuated on the nearest ship to save time and effort; relatively safe. After
made the decision to evacuate by sea, new problems surfaced again. The number of compatriots in the coastal areas is close to 20,000. Where can they find a ship large enough to ensure the evacuation of so many people?
The best option would be to send a ship to Libya ourselves. At that time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted China Ocean Shipping Corporation and China Shipping Group, dispatched a number of ships around Libya, and rushed to Libya to pick up the people.
This includes China Shipping's signature giant ships "New Fuzhou" and "New Qinhuangdao", which are all giant ships with a length of nearly 300 meters and a load of nearly 70,000 tons.
These large ships, which were originally the main cargo ships, have now been transformed into ships that save the lives of compatriots.
This is not the end. In addition to dispatching ships, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also leased two large cruise ships from Greece and Malta .
Listeners who are familiar with maps of the Mediterranean Sea should be able to find that Greece and Malta are not far from Libya, and they are both countries that started out by sailing. The most important thing is boats, and these two countries are also very loyal, and they are happy to rent boats. It was given to us and helped the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to successfully evacuate a large number of compatriots.
Around the same time, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy also received an order from the Central Military Commission, asking them to fully cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the evacuation of its citizens from Libya.
coincidentally, at that time the PLA Navy happened to have warship participating in the escort operation in the Red Sea Gulf of Aden , about this operation is another story, it has little to do with our program today, I will not tell you about it said.
In a simple sentence, the naval frigate "Xuzhou", which was on duty in the Gulf of Aden at that time, immediately went north through the Suez Canal and entered the Mediterranean Sea .
Some people may also question, the tonnage of the frigate is not large, nor can it hold many people, can it really help to evacuate overseas Chinese? You have to think this way, after all, the evacuation of overseas Chinese is from a war-torn area. With a warship of our own supporting it, everyone feels that they have the backbone.
Besides, if there is a situation that threatens the safety of the evacuated ships, there is one of their own warships, and they can fight back at any time.
later recalled the compatriots who experienced this evacuation. At that time, they had just boarded the evacuated civilian ship from Misurata , and suddenly someone shouted: "Look! There is our warship over there!"
heard With this sentence, all the Chinese people ran out of the cabin. When they saw the huge banner of "Motherland Welcomes You" hanging on the "Xuzhou" frigate, everyone burst into tears.
At this time, the voice of greetings came from Xuzhou : All officers and soldiers of the 530 ship extend their cordial greetings to you, please rest assured, compatriots, we will ensure that you arrive at the port of destination safely, I wish you an early return home, and Family reunion!
There is no land or sea connection, so the compatriots on the coast can be evacuated by sea, but there are still a group of compatriots who were trapped in the inland areas of Libya at that time.
Since this country is already in war, there is no way toAll from the inland to the sea port. So how should the commanders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pick them up?
In addition to the evacuation by sea, the Chinese government at that time also arranged 91 civil aviation flights and 35 foreign charter flights to go to Libya to pick up the evacuation of compatriots.
such a large fleet has opened up an air corridor along the Libyan coast.
But just when this air corridor took batches of compatriots away, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got the news: There are about 5,000 compatriots still trapped in Libya's inland city Sabha , what is this place?
Sebha is the central town of Libya and the capital of the province of Sabha at that time. Because they are in the hinterland of Libya, because of the war, these compatriots have been unable to reach the coastal areas smoothly by land.
The good news is that Sabha has Libya's third largest international airport, capable of taking off and landing large passenger planes.
In order to rescue the compatriots trapped here, the Chinese government tried every means, contacted the civil aviation departments of various countries, and requested a chartered flight to Sabha to evacuate the compatriots.
But you have to know that the war was very serious at that time, and the airlines of various countries either canceled their regular flights, or just waited and watched, and were unwilling to send planes into the hinterland of Libya. What should we do?
After some weighing, the Central Military Commission made a decision, specially approved the PLA Air Force , and dispatched four Il 76 transport planes to Sabha.
In those days, the Il-76 was the with the largest carrying capacity in our air force.
This makes me want to add that now our Air Force already has the Y-20, a large transport aircraft developed by itself. Whether it is carrying capacity, flight performance or electronic equipment, it is better than the Iraqi one bought from Russia. The Er-76 has to go a step further. Or, during the 70th anniversary of the National Day military parade, our Air Force specially sent a formation of Yun-20 to fly over Tiananmen Square, not only for the big guys, but also for foreigners to see, How awesome is our own transport plane.
has gone too far, let's talk about the repatriation of overseas Chinese.
After four Il-76s were in place, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs mobilized urgently and contacted countries along the way to go through the transit procedures for military aircraft.
That's it, in the early morning of February 28, 2011, the division commander of a division of the PLA Air Force personally led the team and led 4 Il-76 transport planes to take off from Urumqi, all the way through Pakistan , Oman , Saudi Arabia , Sudan and Egypt flew directly to Sabha in Libya.
You must know that this is the first time that the PLA military aircraft has gone overseas to pick up and transport stranded compatriots, and the single voyage of this expedition is nearly 10,000 kilometers, which is also a challenge for our pilots.
Fortunately, the whole trip was uneventful. When the Chinese compatriots stranded in Sabha saw the familiar "August 1" military emblem , the Chinese people at the airport were all excited.
These four planes went back and forth many times, and finally brought all the 5,650 stranded compatriots back to the motherland.
The feat of evacuating more than 30,000 overseas Chinese in 11 days
In addition to sea and aviation, with the efforts of the Chinese government, a number of land passages have been opened around Libya to help compatriots evacuate safely. How are these land passages opened up?
In order to ensure the safe evacuation of the compatriots, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urgently coordinated, opened up four directions of east, west, north and south, and marked 4 evacuation channels. The most important one is the northern coastal area, from which you can leave by boat or plane.
The remaining three directions are road access, you can go east to Egypt, south to Sudan, or west to Tunisia .
And the most convenient road transportation at the time was to head west to Tunisia.
Facing China's request to support the evacuation of overseas Chinese, Tunisia also cooperated and supported it. In order to show their sincerity, they even donated an island!
You heard it right, it is an island. Of course, it is a bit exaggerated to say that it is donated. To be precise, it is loaned to us.
At that time, there was an island called Djerba in the coastal area of Tunisia, with an area of more than 500 square kilometers, and a sea wall connected to the mainland.
After getting a request from China, the Tunisian government set aside a piece of land on the island and lent it to us as a transit point for the evacuation of overseas Chinese.
After that, the Chinese ambassador to Tunisia rushed to Djerba with a working group to work on the spot and go through the entry and exit procedures for all compatriots.
As for the Chinese compatriots who have been evacuated to Tunisia by land and other means, they are also concentrated on the island of Djerba, where they can receive safe and proper placement and medical assistance.
In just a few days, about 10,000 compatriots passed through Djerba as a transit station to return to their home country or go to a third country. Even the officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were amazed by the efficiency.
At 11:00 pm on March 5, 2011, the last flight to evacuate Chinese nationals from Libya landed in Shanghai. By this time, the largest evacuation operation in the history of China's diplomacy has ended successfully.
In just 11 days, all 35,860 compatriots in Libya were evacuated safely. Looking back on the entire world history, this can be regarded as a feat.
When many people lost their passports at that time, those who can sing the national anthem can be released smoothly. The national anthem is the passport of life, and behind it, a country is using its powerful strength to support it. The world declares: Today's China is fully capable of protecting its rights and interests overseas, and is even more capable of protecting every compatriot overseas.
Editor: Xie Jiaman
Source: Internet
The pictures in this article come from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author.
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