There’s another set of Americans who also are stationed far away guarding the nation’s interests, sometimes in dangerous situations. Understandably, the armed forces get more attention, but Foreign Service officers, other civilian government employees and their families also sacrifice for their country. The State Department alone has almost 9,500 employees abroad. That doesn’t include Agency for International Development, intelligence and other civilian employees stationed abroad.

This will be Chris Sibilla’s 13th Christmas overseas. Now he’s in China, a place where Christmas isn’t much of a religious holiday. That’s not to say the Chinese don’t celebrate, at least in a capitalistic way. Christmas decorations lured customers when I visited China earlier this month on a trip organized by the National Association of Black Journalists.

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Sibilla was a Foreign Service officer (FSO) from 1986 until he retired nearly three decades later. His last posting was on detail to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. He was chosen as ADST president after retiring from State in 2015, having served as executive director. About the time he was leaving the Foreign Service, his wife, Lycia, joined, so they remain a Foreign Service family. Their other postings include Copenhagen, Costa Rica, Havana, Moscow and Vienna.

Now they live in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, about two blocks from the U.S. Embassy. From their 17th floor apartment in a 25-story building, they have a nice view, when it’s not thwarted by Beijing’s thick pollution. It can leave their balcony too sooty to use. Their Northern California loyalties are evident by the big Golden State Warriors sticker on the refrigerator and the Stanford University blanket on the couch.

Except for Copenhagen before their two sons were born, this is the first posting without their now-grown children.

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I spoke with Chris Sibilla, who turns 59 the day after Christmas, about life abroad as a Foreign Service family in a country many don’t understand. The embassy nixed my request to speak with Lycia. This is an edited transcript of my conversations with Chris.

Federal Insider: How will you spend Christmas this year?

Sibilla: We will be going to Christmas Eve mass at the Swedish embassy, celebrated by our regular Catholic priest, and then to a traditional Christmas buffet called a julebord hosted by a Swedish Catholic couple at their home in the Swedish compound. Most of our friends will be traveling out of the country, so we won’t be able to see them until January.

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How much language training did you have before going to China?

Even though this time I was only a spouse, I was able to get the eight months of training that Lycia had. [Chinese is one of the] “super hard languages.” That’s the actual term they use at the State Department. I sort of gave up on the reading after a couple of months because it was so difficult.

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Do you have any issues on day-to-day things such as shopping?

They do have supermarkets like in the United States, but they are few and far between, so most of the time, we go to a little market downstairs in the apartment building and the one down the street. You can get just about everything delivered to your door, especially food. You can even have (hot) coffee delivered to your door. You can actually have McDonald’s delivered to your door. You see the guys on the little scooters going around with yellow jackets and the golden arches on their back.

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How are your relationships with the locals?

It’s difficult, because China is one of those places in the world where if we sort of bump into somebody who’s Chinese, we have to make a contact report to our diplomatic security because they are concerned about espionage.

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How do you practice your religion in a country with very few Catholics or other Christians?

The government hasn’t wanted to encourage the Catholic Church at all. When we go to church on Sunday, we go to the Canadian embassy. We have mass at the auditorium at the embassy. And a lot of people are there. You have people from Africa, France, Germany and other places.

Do relations between the United States and China affect your daily life? If there’s an increase in tension, does it get more difficult for you in any way?

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We haven’t really had any problem on a day-to-day basis. Once in a while, there are demonstrations in front of the embassy, but that luckily hasn’t been a real problem.

What is the best thing about living in China, and what is the worst thing?

Well, the best thing is that it really is a fascinating country. It’s really amazing to see how far the economy has come in 20 or 30 years. The history is really very impressive. The worst thing — the pollution is probably No. 1. Just two or three days ago, it was code red. And it’s unfortunately going to be code red again in a day or two. You know that really is tough, especially if you have asthma like I do. It’s not exactly inviting to get outside and walk.

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What do you do for entertainment?

A variety of things. Luckily, we do have cable TV, which is nice. There’s a really nice movie theater in a very nice shopping center a half a mile from where we are. We were interested in seeing “Crazy Rich Asians,” but that was delayed because some people on the Chinese censor board thought that it may have been too critical of Chinese people. Then it didn’t do very well, and it closed very quickly. We can often get NBA games (on TV), like about four times a week, so we can watch the Golden State Warriors the next morning. It’s a live feed, so that’s kind of fun.

One other thing I wanted to mention is sort of a cultural thing. We talked with a few of our black colleagues about people coming up to them and wanting to touch their hair. We’ve seen blond children, where people would just start taking pictures of them without even asking the parents. One time, a Chinese woman grabbed a child in the restaurant and took him off into another room without saying anything, just to show this little blond child off to her friends.

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The other thing I want to add, it’s that we do feel very distant being here sometimes, because of the difference of time. When I was talking with my mom in California, it was a 15-hour or 16-hour difference. I think this is a problem any time you’re living overseas. Any time you have a family crisis or even when you’re celebrating something joyous, you feel more distant from them, and that can be also pretty difficult.