Diplomatic Protection

Hong Kong's Law Society advised the Manila bus tragedy victims and their families to seek mediation with the Philippine government over compensation, as it may take up to 10 years for a court to resolve their claims.

Diplomatic Protection

A Chinese vice foreign minister said that Chinese citizens have increasingly become targets of foreign criminals and terrorists. But he also pointed out that a growing number of cases resulted from Chinese nationals' "ignorance of foreign legal systems or cultures".

Diplomatic Protection

The government-run "technical internship" programme in Japan is supposed to provide educational opportunities to people from developing countries and involves about 200,000 foreign trainees, 70% of whom come from China. A lawyers' group said the programme is corrupted into a form of slave labour,

Diplomatic Protection

After Russia's abrupt closure of the Cherkizovsky Market, Moscow's biggest wholesale market, and the seizure of about 150 Chinese merchants and a large quantity of their goods, instead of making a protest or expressing strong "dissatisfaction" as they often did over more trivial matters, the Chinese Government sent a delegation to Russia to "maintain their friendship and mutual trust". Russia said the shutdown was aimed at smuggling and not against the Chinese merchants, who make up less than 40 percent of all the merchants there.

Diplomatic Protection

Six Chinese female "technical interns" who were abused in a Japanese laundry shop received apology and compensation from the Japanese employer. Meanwhile, how to safeguard the interest of nearly 4 million Chinese nationals who work abroad, many illegally, has emerged as a major policy issue.