A Chinese ship engineer detailed how the Chinese diplomatic missions worked tirelessly and timely to secure his team's evacuation after the United States and Israel launched air strikes against Iran.
Ye Yungui, general manager of Fuzhou Keweisi Shipping Services Co., Ltd., was repairing a vessel off the Iranian coast near Bandar Abbas, home to Iran's most important container port in the Strait of Hormuz, when the attacks started on Feb. 28.
"I heard explosions in the distance, and I felt the air around me was shaking. I thought, 'Oh no, the war is here,'" Ye recalled.
The ship was anchored about 10 km from the port, but the strikes came dangerously close.
"We were about 10 km from the port, but we could still feel the shockwaves and see the flashes from the blasts. The strikes just kept hitting the shore, one after another," he said.
Ye and his crew remained stranded on the vessel for five days before a local contact arranged a small boat to take them ashore under the cover of darkness.
"We boarded the boat under the cover of darkness. Before we'd even made it halfway, strikes on the port began again. We were so scared. The shockwaves were rocking our little boat. It took about 40 minutes before we reached a fishing port nearby," Ye said.
From Bandar Abbas, the group embarked on a grueling 16-hour overland journey of over 1,500 km across eastern Iran, reaching Mashhad near the Turkmen border. There, the Chinese embassies in Iran and Turkmenistan coordinated efforts to facilitate their crossing.
"Entering Turkmenistan took us around four hours. There were over 40 Chinese and the procedures were complicated. The fact that we all made it through was remarkable. The Chinese embassy in Turkmenistan did an enormous amount of work to make that happen," Ye said.
Once across, embassy staff escorted them to the airport under Turkmenistan police protection. From Ashgabat, the group flew back to China.
"The moment I landed back in China, my whole body just relaxed. I thought to myself, this year, forget about business targets. Getting everyone home safe, that's already the biggest profit we made," Ye said.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched large-scale strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Iran has responded with multiple waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. assets across the region, hitting many countries in the Gulf. The U.S.-Israeli attacks, now in their 12th day, have killed more than 1,300 people across Iran, according to the Iranian authorities.
Chinese ship engineer recounts narrow escape from Iran amid US-Israeli strikes
