Situation Tense in Iraq, Chinese Companies Ready to Withdraw

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 06, 2002

Situation Tense in Iraq, Chinese Companies Ready to Withdraw

UN arms-inspection, US-British fighters' bombardment, these irritated expressions recently often come up focusing on the crucial Iraqi issue. According to statistics, up to now there are still more than 100 Chinese working there regularly. What about their life here?

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Chinese companies ready to quit

Zhang Ruichen, deputy chief representative of China Machinery Import and Export Company to Baghdad, has been working here for more than two years. Though the situation in Iraq at present is steady and stable with people living in peace the foreigners here are readily prepared to leave at any moment once the situation tends to be serious. Take Mr. Zhang's company for example, there has ever been over 30 personnel doing the job in the company but only 6 are working here now.

Most of the Chinese companies at present in Iraq are working in the "oil in exchange for food" program and now they are working quite normally here. Nevertheless, businesses in some of the companies are affected in somewhat way by the situation here in Iraq. Zhang Ruichen told the reporter, their company is for the time being working on the construction project for 4 sets of 300,000 kilowatts generators but the work is retarded because they are unable to get the second order signed by the UN. And so the working period may be prolonged than that as set for the original and this will also affect the work of those domestic factories turning out accessory parts.

It's not the case that all people are ready to leave Iraq. For the moment Iraq is taking an active attitude in working with the UN's weaponry check and inspection here. And still some other news said that Baghdad has worked out a systematic plan for reconstruction. All these have made those companies and countries eyeing at the Iraqi market heave a sigh of relief. Mr. Liu Mu with the China Civil-engineering Company to Iraq told the reporter, he has learnt that Russia, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Syria and some other countries are actively preparing to set up representative agencies in Iraq now.

Chinese embassy is working normally in Iraq

Though under the intensified situation, the Chinese embassy is still working in regular order here. Secretary Wang of the economic and business division of the embassy told the reporter, what moved him most is the working atmosphere under the special situation, everybody helps and takes care of one another in work and in life and whoever has difficulties will get a helping hand. All working personnel here unite as one, showing an enormous friendliness among them. As the reporter learned, the Chinese people working here in Iraq include some 50-60 company-workers, 30-40 people working in Chinese embassy and some reporters and people doing some other work.

What is worth of special mentioning is that the goods made in China enjoy a great favor in the Iraqi market. Everywhere you go you can see clothes, electric apparatuses and foodstuffs that are made in China. Therefore, a lot of Iraqi businessmen are very happy coming and going to do business between Iraq and China and as briefed the commercial visas issued by the Chinese embassy in Iraq come to more than a thousand a year.

Staging a car-chasing battle in front of the Canal Hotel

The weaponry check and inspection just started has become a main battlefield of pressmen working at the news front here. As learned, every morning along the highway in front of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad there sees a big battle of car chases.

As nobody knows which is the target for weaponry check and inspection on the day and so reporters have to go wait every morning in front of the Canal Hotel. Once the UN cars start to set out for inspection they will be followed closely by over 50 reporter cars. The UN inspection cars will go round and round along the highway in front of the Canal Hotel at a very high speed in order to shake off the reporter cars.

However, the reporter cars are all handled by hired local drivers and they know the places very well by heart and so it's not an easy job to shake the tail off. So long as there is inspection that day there is certainly a car-chasing battle to be on and there ever happened a traffic accident due to it.

For newsmen who take information as their own lives what makes them feel a big headache is the inconvenience of communications. Because the accessory parts of mobile phones are taken as materials for turning out nuclear weapons and due to the sanction there is no mobile phone in Iraq and every piece of news has to be passed along from people to people.

What is worth of mentioning is that many foreign news agencies hire great many local hands to take part in the reporting and few reporters are from their own countries. So there will be no limits set by Iraqi side to do the reporting and have enough hands to handle the job.

By People's Daily Online

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