A new field of study focusing on the security of overseas interests has recently been made an undergraduate major, with a university in Chongqing to become the first school in the country to recruit students this September.

As the increasing number of projects being implemented under the Belt and Road Initiative has spurred Chinese businesses and citizens to seek opportunities abroad, protecting China's overseas interests has become a pressing and challenging issue.

To meet the demand for talent in this area, Southwest University of Political Science and Law will enroll 30 to 50 students in the new program, which will mainly focus on overseas investment laws and regulations, investment strategy planning, overseas risk control, security protection, intelligence analysis and international communication, said Ma Fang, dean of the university's National Security College.

Students in the major will also need good foreign language skills, and in addition to English, every student will need to learn a second foreign language such as French, German, Spanish or Arabic, he added.

"As China continues to open up to the world, we need a large number of legal professionals to protect national interests overseas, especially in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative," Ma said.

"But it is a major involving many fields of knowledge and no one has done this before. We are the first school in the country, even the first in the world, to set up an undergraduate program on the security of overseas interests."

The security of overseas interests mainly covers energy resources, strategic maritime channels, and citizens and businesses operating overseas.

Southwest University of Political Science and Law established the country's first national security college and started a trial course on the security of overseas interests in 2018. Around 100 students have graduated from the course since then.

"It is a made-to-order approach to make sure our students meet the demands of related companies and government departments," Ma said.

"So our graduates are very popular among China's big international enterprises like Huawei and security companies."

After gaining teaching experience from the trial course over the past six years, the university was granted the new major by the Ministry of Education this year.

To better protect the lives and interests of Chinese citizens abroad, the Regulation on Consular Affairs was unveiled by the State Council on July 14 last year, following a growing number of evacuations and cases of consular protection in recent years.

The regulation clarified the responsibilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Council departments and Chinese diplomatic missions overseas in terms of offering consular protection.

According to the Foreign Ministry, China has organized nearly 20 evacuations and has handled more than 500,000 cases of consular protection involving millions of nationals over the past 10 years.