China has managed to evacuate 571 of its citizens from war-torn Yemen in two frigates this week. It marked the first time that the country deployed warships to do the job, but is the second evacuation since China successfully repatriated 35,000 workers from Libya in 2011.

China's participation in international anti-piracy operations since 2008 guarantees the presence of Chinese warships in the Gulf of Aden. This way, the two evacuations have been accomplished in a timely manner. If the crisis happened somewhere else, things might have been complicated.

It doesn't mean the success of the evacuation was sheer good luck. China is building a primary global network to make sure its citizens get immediate protection in the event of an emergency. China's "mobility" across the world on such occasions has been greatly enhanced.

China's quick response in Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi raised a sharp contrast to the actions by many developed countries or nearby countries. India, for example, is still struggling to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Yemen.

The Indian government has been blamed by its own people for the ineffective operation. But it must be noted that the Indian government has done its best. It is less capable than China of mobilizing such forces on short notice. Many Chinese don't think a comparison with India is worthwhile, because in their minds, Europe and the US are more comparable. They are wrong. India and China have many things in common: Both countries share similar basic national conditions, and they were at the same level before economic takeoff. India is of great reference value to China's modernization.

China needs to look ahead to keep up with Europe and the US, but it also needs to look back at India to remind itself of what it has achieved so far. China must keep in mind that we are still far away from where Europe and the US are, and we cannot take our lead over India for granted.

A group evacuation like the one in Yemen is a test of a country's national strength, and through the two evacuations, we can see that China's capability of protecting its citizens in groups has greatly improved. However, we need to pay more attention to the protection of individuals in foreign countries. This requires China to exert more political clout and employ more security approaches overseas.

Protecting an individual on foreign soil is much harder than protecting a group of people in a foreign country. But it is an unavoidable mission for the nation, and it will never end.