CHINA EVACUATE ITS NATIONAL FROM VIETNAM

China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam, state media reported today after a wave of anti-China unrest following Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in contested waters.

The announcement came after Vietnamese civil society groups yesterday called for fresh demonstrations against China following riots earlier in the week which left two Chinese workers dead and more than 100 injured.

But Vietnamese authorities, which have occasionally allowed protests to vent anger at the country's giant neighbour, warned they would "resolutely" prevent any further outbursts.

More than 3,000 Chinese nationals had been evacuated from Vietnam as yesterday afternoon, China's official Xinhua news agency reported early today.

"They returned to China with the assistance of (the) Chinese Embassy to Vietnam," it said, citing China's Foreign Ministry.
The Chinese government is also arranging for a chartered plane and vessel to evacuate the staff of China 19th Metallurgical Corporation, a contractor of one of the plants badly hit by the recent violence.

• In a later update the agency reported: "Sixteen critically injured Chinese nationals were evacuated from Vietnam early this morning aboard a chartered medical flight arranged by (the) Chinese government." It did not elaborate which company they are working for.
• Beijing yesterday advised its nationals against travelling to Vietnam, which has over the past week seen its worst anti-China unrest in decades.
• China's positioning of an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea has ignited long-simmering enmity between the two communist neighbours, which have fought territorial skirmishes in past decades.

Worker demonstrations spread to 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces in the last week, according to the Vietnamese government, with enraged mobs torching foreign-owned factories.

Recently, there was an explosion of violence in South Vietnam targeting foreign companies, provoking injuries and death of Chinese citizens and damaging companies' properties, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Chinese on its website yesterday.

Source: CNN...More