China has evacuated more than 3000 of its nationals from Vietnam after a wave of anti-China unrest following Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in contested waters.
The announcement, reported by state media on Saturday, came after Vietnamese civil society groups called for fresh demonstrations against China following riots earlier in the week that left two Chinese workers dead and more than 100 injured.
But Vietnamese authorities, which have occasionally allowed protests to vent anger at the country's giant neighbour, warned they would "resolutely" prevent any further outbursts.
More than 3000 Chinese nationals had been evacuated from Vietnam as of Saturday afternoon, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
"They returned to China with the assistance of (the) Chinese Embassy to Vietnam," it said, citing China's Foreign Ministry.
The Chinese government is also arranging for a chartered plane and vessel to evacuate the staff of China 19th Metallurgical Corporation, a contractor of one of the plants badly hit by the recent violence, Xinhua added.
Beijing has advised its nationals against travelling to Vietnam, which has over the past week seen its worst anti-China unrest in decades.
Beijing's positioning of an oil rig in waters also claimed by Vietnam in the South China Sea has ignited long-simmering enmity between the two communist neighbours, which have fought territorial skirmishes in past decades.
Worker demonstrations spread to 22 of Vietnam's 63 provinces in the last week, according to the Vietnamese government, with enraged mobs torching foreign-owned factories.
While condemning China's maritime actions, the government has warned against further protests and pledged foreign investments would be protected.
The oil-rig confrontation is the latest to spark alarm among China's Southeast Asian neighbours, which complain of increasing maritime intimidation by Beijing.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, which is believed to hold significant offshore energy reserves.
