Hong Kong — When China evacuated some 30,000 of its citizens from Libya early last year, official media fell into patriotic rapture. Television screens and newspaper front pages filled with pictures of flag-waving returnees. Xinhua, the state-run news agency, issued a commemorative DVD. The People’s Liberation Army Daily vowed that “no Chinese will ever be left behind.”
A year later, patriotic pride has turned to anger amid growing frustration over the fate of 29 Chinese nationals abducted by rebels in Sudan on Saturday. The Chinese, employees of a huge state-controlled engineering and construction company, Sinohydro, are being held by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a ragtag militant outfit.
The drama in Sudan’s remote, oil-rich South Kordofan region — the latest in a string of attacks on Chinese working overseas — poses a delicate problem for the ruling Communist Party: how to manage the growing nationalism that it has done so much to promote. Party propaganda, pride at China’s recent achievements and a deep sense of grievance over China’s mistreatment at the hands of foreigners in the past have combined to stir demands for robust action.
