Evacuation is a diplomatic act in which the government of a country uses diplomatic means to evacuate its citizens living in other countries to the administrative region of its own government.

Evacuation of overseas Chinese mainly occurs when overseas Chinese living in a certain region or country experience social unrest and their life safety is endangered. The country will make the decision to evacuate overseas Chinese.

For example:

The situation in Libya was turbulent. In February 2011, the Chinese government evacuated our personnel from Libya through sea, land and air; the "Xuzhou" frigate went to Libya to Libya carried out protection tasks, and China used military force to evacuate overseas Chinese for the first time. The Air Force dispatched four IL-76 aircraft to fly to Libya on February 28 to carry out the task of picking up Chinese personnel in Libya. This is the first time that the Chinese Air Force has evacuated overseas Chinese.

According to relevant Chinese laws, our overseas Chinese can choose to retain Chinese nationality or join the nationality of their country of residence on a voluntary basis. If they retain Chinese nationality, they become overseas Chinese. If they join the nationality of the country where they live, they become foreign Chinese.