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In July 2014, one year after his arrival in Libya, Ambassador Li Zhiguo 李志国 oversaw the closing of the Chinese embassy in Tripoli. As Chinese diplomats left the country, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued a warning to Chinese nationals against travelling to or remaining in the North African country.1 Henceforth, the MFA has repeatedly declared that Chinese citizens should not travel to Libya. Yet, on 27 December 2017, the MFA published an unusual message on the website of its department of consular affairs, naming and shaming a certain Mr Qiang and a certain Mr Wei (qiang mou wei mou 强某、魏某) for “pushing their own luck” (bao you jiaoxing xinli 抱有侥幸心理) and not only investing in a steel mill in Libya but also bringing dozens of workers from the Chinese provinces of Hubei, Sichuan and Hunan with them.2
This somewhat strange message symbolizes the increasingly difficult relationship that exists between Chinese foreign policy and Chinese companies abroad, especially in unstable and risky countries. As Chinese companies explore the world looking for contracts and investment opportunities, their country's foreign policy is increasingly vulnerable to shocks caused by instability and violence in third countries.
Especially since the evacuation of some 36,000 Chinese nationals from Libya during the Arab Spring, this key issue is increasingly shaping Chinese foreign policy as it goes global and begins to include a military component to defend what John Semple Galbraith called the “turbulent frontiers,” i.e. the country's interests threatened in faraway regions of the globe.3 Indeed, the need to defend interests overseas, including persons and assets abroad, has become a “strategic task” of the Chinese military4 and one of the “fundamental goals of China's national defence in the new era.”5 The military base that opened in Djibouti in 2015 is the most visible development originating from this new consensus.
Against this background, it is critical to find an answer to the question of whether and how the Chinese companies dispatching the country's citizens to work abroad respond to security risks and uncertainties. Indeed, the less cautious they are, the more likely it is that their assets and, most importantly, employees will be victims of instability overseas, thereby pushing Chinese policymakers to accelerate the...