China evacuates citizens from Afghanistan as US withdraws troops

China evacuated 210 nationals from Afghanistan as US troops stepped up their withdrawal from the war-torn nation, the airline that carried out the emergency chartered flight said. A Xiamen Airlines flight departed the capital Kabul for the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, on July 2 carrying Chinese citizens who had been stranded in Afghanistan, it said in a Thursday social media post. The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that recent returnees included coronavirus patients and called on all nationals to leave Afghanistan, without revealing further specifics of the evacuation flight. "In order to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Afghanistan, the Chinese government has reminded citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country as soon as possible and provided necessary assistance," its consular affairs department said in a Wednesday social media post. President Biden has vowed that US troops will leave Afghanistan by August 31, after two decades of bloody conflict in the region. With the Taliban having routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, fears are growing over the government's waning control of a handful of provincial capitals. "The US disregards its responsibilities and duties and withdraws troops from Afghanistan hastily, dumping the mess and war on the Afghan people and countries in the region," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a routine briefing Friday.