1.1 Purpose of Budgeted Post
This plan is aimed at establishing and improving emergency system for incidents of foreign experts, protecting their lives，property safety and immediate interests, and safeguarding national security and public interests.
1.2 Basis of Budgeted Post
This plan is based on the Overall Contingency Plan of National Public Emergencies and relevant laws and administrative regulations.
1.3 Identification of Foreign Experts
Foreign experts in this plan refer to those who work in China in the field of economic technology and management, educational, scientific, cultural and healthy system, foreign investment enterprises and come to China by overseas experts’ recruitment contracts and key construction projects.
1.4 Scope of Application
This plan applies to management departments’ response, preparation and emergency disposal of work towards incidents of foreign experts. This plan also applies to and is referred by HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), MCSAR (Macao Special Administrative Region) and Taiwan in similar cases.
1.5 Major Prevention Scope of Contingency Plan
Emergency plan of foreign experts in China refers to all cases that are related to a foreign expert working in China, occurs at a sudden, and causes or may cause heavy casualties, property damages and serious social harm and endangers public safety. It mainly includes:
(1) Personal accident casualties: events refer to personal injury or death of foreign experts caused by the natural disasters and safety accidents as well as suicide.
(2) Medical-health affairs: events contain the outbreak of major diseases or infectious diseases, group unexplained diseases, food issues, occupational hazards and other serious problems that threaten the health and safety of foreign experts working in China.
(3) Economic security events: events refer to the disclosure of major commercial technology secrets, and intellectual property disputes, etc.
(4) Group events of foreign experts caused by conflicts of interest.
(5) Other emergencies endangering public safety.
1.6 Working Principles
(1) Adhere to the principle of people-oriented, that is, to ensure the safety of the life and property of foreign experts working in China to the greatest extent;
(2) The principle of dependency administration, that is, local competent authorities shall mainly address the matter;
(3) The principle of step-by-step report, that is, reports shall be made according to hierarchy of three levels: the foreign affairs department of the employing unit (superior competent department), provincial and ministerial competent authorities of foreign experts and foreign affairs department (including sub-provincial cities), and the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs;
(4) The principle of foreign affairs specialized management and the principle of collaborative treatment, that is, the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and other relevant departments shall cooperate and guide, and the competent department responsible for the work of foreign experts shall cooperate and treat together with foreign affairs division, ministry of public security, safety sector, education department, health department and other competent authorities of the unit and industry at a local level.
2. Organizational Management
The State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs shall set up a leading group for the emergency of foreign experts. The leader of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs shall be the group leader; the members of leading group shall be composed of the competent departments of foreign experts and relevant departments of State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs. Responsibilities of the leading group for emergency response to foreign experts of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs: implement the guidelines and policies of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on emergency work; conscientiously implement the requirements of the State Council on emergency work; establish and improve early warning mechanism for emergency of foreign experts working in China; to formulate and revise the contingency plans for emergency work of foreign experts working in China; guide local competent departments of foreign experts to perform emergency work and emergency management for foreign experts well; and complete the relevant emergency work assigned by the State Council or superior leadership organs; when emergency occurs, the leading group of State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs for emergency work of foreign experts shall be responsible for collectively commanding and coordinating emergency treatment on foreign experts all over the country. If necessary, it shall establish a foreign experts' emergency contingency inter-ministerial joint meeting to strengthen the command and coordination together with relevant departments of the State Council.
Competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall develop foreign experts contingency plans for emergencies in the administrative region based on this plan and the related requirements in each contingency plan. When emergency occurred, competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall set up local leading groups for emergency handling of foreign experts. The main leaders of competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be the group leader and be responsible for leading and coordinating contingency emergency for foreign experts in the administrative region.
3. Emergency response
3.1 Responsible personnel and procedures for emergency report
The responsible personnel of foreign affairs department of the foreign expert employing unit shall be the first reporter of the foreign experts’ emergency. The legal representative of the foreign expert employing unit shall be the first responsible person for the management of the foreign expert and the contingency handling of the emergency.
Any emergency of foreign experts shall be based on the principle of step-by-step report in this contingency plan, reporting the cases to the foreign affairs department of the employing unit (superior business competent department), provincial competent departments of foreign experts and foreign affairs departments (including sub-provincial cities), and the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs step by step.
Any unit or individual shall not conceal, delay, lie or instruct others to conceal, delay or lie in reporting the situation of a foreign expert in an emergency.
3.2 Emergency reporting methods and content
The reports of foreign experts' emergencies are divided into three categories: preliminary report, continued report and treatment result report. The initial report shall be reported within one hour after the discovery of the incident; the continued report shall be reported at any time after investigation of basic situation, and the treatment result report shall be reported immediately after completing the management of the incident.
The initial report can be directly reported by telephone, and its main contents include: the type of foreign experts' emergency, time of occurrence, location, casualties, the potential harm and development trends of the event, and other preliminary information.
The continued report can be reported on the Internet or in written form, and it may report exact data, the cause of the incident, process, progress and emergency measures taken, and other basic situation on the basis of the initial report.
The treatment result report shall be made in written. It reports measures to handle with the event, processes and results, unexpected or indirect hazards and social impact of the emergency, leftover problem after handling, relevant departments to participate in processing work, job contents and other details on the basis of the initial report and continued report.
3.3 Emergency treatment
When emergency occurred, in accordance with the requirements of classified guidance and rapid response, the competent department responsible for the work foreign experts of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs shall organize relevant personnel to conduct an overall assessment on emergencies, and propose whether to initiate contingency plan for foreign experts' emergency in the country, or across provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. In addition, it also is responsible for researching and developing specific program for emergencies, which should be reported to the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs for approval and then implementing.
In accordance with the national requirements of foreign experts' emergency treatment and actual influence by emergencies on foreign experts work in the administrative area, the competent department responsible for the work of foreign experts in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall determine whether to initiate contingency plan for foreign experts' emergency in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and report to the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs. The competent department responsible for the work of foreign experts in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for formulating and implementing the work plans for the emergency handling of foreign experts in their respective administrative regions.
Before the initiation of contingency plans for emergencies of foreign experts, based on the actual situation of emergencies, the competent departments at all levels responsible for the work of foreign experts shall prepare for contingency and take necessary emergency measures. After start-up of the contingency plan, in accordance with responsibility requirements stipulated in the plan, the department responsible for the work of a foreign expert in the place of an emergency shall obey the unified command of the emergency treatment leading group, immediately arrive at the scene of the incident and take relevant control measures.
In case of accidental injury or death of a foreign expert, the foreign affairs department shall promptly notify the embassy of the expert's country in China and ask for assistance, and handle the accident according to international practice. If necessary, the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security and other departments shall communicate and coordinate with each other.
In case of major political and religious events related to foreign experts, coordination shall be made immediately with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pubic Security Sector, Safety Department, Ministry of Education, Religion and other relevant departments according to relevant procedures and requirements, and control measures shall be taken as soon as possible. In addition, investigation must be launched into the events timely to grasp the first-hand situation, and then promptly reported the progress and results.
The major emergencies of foreign experts involved in economic security of China, shall be properly handled according to China's relevant laws and regulations as well as related commitment of China's accession to WTO.
3.4 Information Notice
In accordance with the relevant provisions of the State's contingency plans on foreign-related emergencies, the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs shall take charge of releasing foreign experts' emergency response information.
When sudden incidents occurred, the competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts in the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government shall report to the competent departments responsible for work of foreign experts of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs about management and progress of the foreign expert's affairs within their respective administrative regions every day, and report the important situation any time.
The competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs should take responsibility for informing foreign experts working in China and foreign experts’ organizations that send foreign experts to China on emergencies and foreign experts who come to China. If necessary, the relevant competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts in the relevant provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may be authorized to inform foreign experts and foreign expert organizations that send foreign experts to China on emergencies and foreign experts within the administrative regions. The information notice shall be timely, accurate and comprehensive.
4. Safeguard Measures
4.1 Implement the responsibility and perfect the system. The principal leaders of unit who hire foreign experts to work in China, must pay attention to politics, safety, health and intellectual property rights of foreign experts during their employment and take relevant responsibility. The competent departments responsible for the work of foreign experts at the provincial level shall further establish and improve the management system related to the work of foreign experts, clearly stipulate the precautionary provisions on emergencies and strictly implement them.
4.2 Strengthen emergency awareness, and improve prevention capabilities. The competent departments at all levels responsible for work of foreign experts shall strengthen publicity and education on safety and emergency management, promptly notify all kinds of typical cases, and carry out business skills training for relevant personnel dealing with emergencies. It is demanded to promote national emergency management-related policies, laws and common sense of emergency response to foreign experts and other relevant personnel, and improve the safety and prevention awareness of foreign experts.
4.3 Ensure smooth channels and rapid response. The competent departments responsible for work of foreign experts shall strengthen the contact with the relevant departments, and establish and perfect an early warning and cooperative management mechanism to prevent and handle with emergencies of foreign expert. The competent departments responsible for work of foreign experts and relevant departments shall publish office telephone, fax and emergency contact information to ensure that the employing units of foreign experts and administrative departments at all levels can have smooth contact channels and rapid response.
5. Incentives and Accountability
Units and individuals shall be rewarded in accordance with the relevant provisions for well completing the emergency response tasks of emergency treatment of foreign experts, making achievement in preventing the occurrence of emergencies of foreign experts or in the emergency response, proposing significant propose for emergency preparedness and response, and conducting great implementation effects.
Units or individuals shall be punished in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the State for failing to formulate contingency plans for emergencies of foreign experts or failing to report and inform the real situation of emergencies of foreign experts in the emergency work of emergency events, refusing to carry out emergency contingency plans and contingency work, or disobeying orders and command. Relevant responsible personnel shall be given administrative sanctions by the unit or the organ or the higher organ based on the circumstances and the consequences thereof, it shall be prosecuted for the criminal liability in accordance with the law if constituting a crime.
6. Plan Management and Updating
The State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs will timely revise and improve the plan in accordance with formulation and modification of the relevant national laws and regulations on emergency management and the changes in the actual situation, as well as the implementation of the contingency plan.
This plan shall be implemented since the date of printing and distribution.
The State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs
August 25, 2006