From July 26th to August 25th, a series of activities of consular protection publicity month were carried out by the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government through the online and offline channels. The purpose of the activities is to equip our citizens with consular protection knowledge, guide them to reinforce the awareness of safety in times of COVID-19, and avoid traveling at home or abroad for unnecessary or non-urgent purposes.

The event rolled out a new "3+3+N" model, i.e. 3 on-site activities, 3 special highlights and multiple channels, which covered over 8000 participants from schools, enterprises, organizations and other institutions both at home and abroad.

3 On-Site Events

On July 26th, the Consular Protection Publicity Month was officially launched at Zhongguancun No.1 Park along with a consular protection monthly lecture. The Zhongguancun No.1 Park is at the center of Beijing Pilot Free Trade Zone Sci-Tech Innovation Area where export-oriented enterprises cluster. The Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government and Haidian District worked together to both promote consular protection and encourage enterprises to "go global" so as to help them develop safely overseas.

On July 30th, at the invitation of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government gave an open online consular protection lecture for workers abroad, laying a solid foundation for building a solid overseas safety line of defense.

On August 12th, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government and the Western Returned Scholars Association co-hosted an online overseas exchange meeting to help students who are studying or will study overseas raise their safety and self-protection awareness as well as master practical protection skills in case of emergency while studying abroad.

Three Highlights

Service Menu to meet individual needs

In order to make consular protection publicity more targeted and effective, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government first collected overseas safety questions as well as the consular protection knowledge that participants are most interested in, and then designed activities according to the individual needs of different groups of people. Many vivid cases were introduced to make the spread of consular protection knowledge more effective and interesting.

Conduct online activities to expand audience reach

Our consular protection service covers every citizen no matter where he/she is. In response to the needs of Beijing citizens overseas, the Beijing Foreign Affairs Offices adjusted the time of events to accommodate the needs of both domestic and overseas citizens to participate together. Through online platforms such as Tik Tok, Lark and Xigua Video, consular protection knowledge was accessible to the public in various forms, including online open courses and exchange meetings, which embodies the principle of serving people.

Connect with overseas citizens and update news in real-time

In order to give citizens a comprehensive insight to true pictures of current situations of different regions abroad, forward first-hand, latest news and information as well as real-life experience, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government has set up a communication platform for citizens at home and abroad to share various information such as things to keep in mind when studying abroad under COVID-19, the safety situation of the destination countries and so on. Questions that many people are concerned about will also be answered here. The platform will facilitate the exchanges between overseas students and scholars associations, Beijing associations and those who will study abroad.

Publicize through various channels

The activities were carried out both online and offline to break the limits of time and space. The consular protection monthly lecture was broadcast live to make sure that the general public had access to consular protection knowledge. 10 participants who actively participated in the activity and volunteered to spread consular protection knowledge were invited to serve as "promoter of consular protection." They were encouraged to take concrete actions to spread knowledge about consular protection to people around them so as to expand the influence of consular protection publicity. The events reinforced the publicity in different settings. Facilitated by the Entry and Exit Administration of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, Zhongguancun No.1 Park, Beijing Branch of China CITIC Bank and other institutions, we carried out targeted and long-term publicity, and provided services for the convenience of people in the form of setting up publicity stands, distributing materials, playing videos, etc.

Feedback from our participants

Guan Lanlan, General Manager of Zhongguancun No.1

The consular protection publicity activities have provided practical and useful knowledge for enterprises and their employees, which greatly boosted staff morale and were great help to foreign-related enterprises.

Gou Ming, Staff of Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation who will go abroad soon

As I will work abroad very soon, this training event is just like a timely rain where I learned in advance things to keep in mind when going abroad under current circumstances and how to deal with emergencies.

Duan Lian, President of Association of Chinese Students and Researchers of Humanities and Social Sciences in Spain

The content of the online overseas exchange meeting was to the point. What has been talked about were real things that had once happened to Chinese people abroad, and that is also exactly what students and scholars associations are working on to ensure our safety while studying overseas. In the future, we will establish closer ties with the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government to contribute ideas and make efforts to ensure the safety and good health of our students and scholars abroad.

Liu Yiran, VIP Banking Manager of China CITIC Bank Beijing Branch, Promoter of Consular Protection

As the consular protection publicity area is set up in our bank lobby, many clients will read the materials while they are waiting, and I often see them taking pictures as well. The consular protection knowledge has served the bank very well by improving our risk and fraud awareness as well as the safety awareness of the general public.

Going forward, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing Municipal Government will continue doing practical things for the people, further expand the influence of consular protection publicity, and customize individual service menus to meet the safety needs of different groups of people overseas. The Office will strive to provide the general public with consular protection promotion service in a more rapid, straightforward, and flexible way.