Published : 2025-02-22
On February 22, 2011, due to the uncontrolled situation in Libya, China launched the largest evacuation operation in its history.
After the outbreak of the civil war in Libya in January 2011, a large number of rioters took advantage of the opportunity to attack the construction sites of Chinese companies. Many Chinese enterprises stationed in Libya were forced to stop production.
According to statistics, there were about 30,000 Chinese people in Libya at that time, mainly distributed in the east, west, south, and the capital regions. Most of them were engineering labourers working in the railway, communications and oilfield industries.
Additionally, there were some Chinese restaurant operators and international students.
What's special about this evacuation operation was that it was the first time China used military forces to participate in an evacuation.
Throughout the operation, China utilised 91 charter flights from Chinese civil aviation, 35 charter flights from foreign airlines, and 12 military aircraft; it also rented 11 foreign cruise ships, 5 state-owned commercial ships, and 1 warship.
Over a period of 12 days, 35,860 Chinese personnel stationed in Libya were evacuated. Additionally, China assisted 12 countries in evacuating a total of 2,100 foreign nationals.
