BEIJING: China said Saturday it had completed the evacuation of all its nationals from strife-torn Libya following the largest such overseas operation ever undertaken by Beijing.
Two charter flights Saturday had taken 778 people from the North African country, where an uprising against the regime of Moamer Qadhafi is raging, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"The government's working group on Libya has successfully completed the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya," the statement on the ministry website said.
Beijing will continue to send military and charter planes to repatriate Chinese from other countries in the region, the ministry said, adding it hoped to have them all home within a few days.
On Wednesday, Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao said almost 36,000 Chinese had been evacuated from Libya and nearly 21,000 had already returned to China. China had 847,000 workers scattered around the world at the end of 2010 69,000 more than in 2009 with about 30 percent employed in the construction industry, according to official figures.
Most of the Chinese nationals in Libya were working in the railways, oil and telecom sectors, according to state media.
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