BEIJING, April 25 (UPI) -- The deadly attack by gunmen in Ethiopia on a Chinese oil facility has raised concerns in China about its overseas expansion.
The attack Tuesday killed nine Chinese and 65 Ethiopian workers. Seven more Chinese were kidnapped.
"The safety of Chinese has become an increasing concern as more and more mainland enterprises adopt a go-overseas strategy and recruit people to work for them abroad," the China Daily said Wednesday.
Recalling other attacks in recent months on Chinese working overseas including in friendly countries like Pakistan, the article quoted Liu Naiya at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying, "These frequent tragedies also remind us that China has to take real steps to overcome the challenges arising out of its expanding foreign trade cooperation."
The report said about 7,000 Chinese firms currently have overseas investments.
Separately, Sinopec, the state-owned parent company of the Chinese facility in Ethiopia, said it will not be deterred by the incident, the report said.
"This is not a game for us. We will try to improve security in the future, but there is no way we will withdraw from our projects there," a spokesman was quoted as saying.
