Premier Li Keqiang said the Chinese government will stand firmly behind the Chinese passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, whether they live in China or overseas, and will work to protect their interests.

"I inquired about the latest development of the issue before I came to this discussion. I heard that China's coast guard has reached the suspected crash area, but they haven't found any wreckage yet," he said.

"I'm very much concerned with the issue. The government must protect people's safety, no matter if they live in China or overseas," he added.

The premier called on all levels of governments to protect the interests of overseas Chinese and their businesses at a panel discussion of the National People's Congress on Sunday.

At the time, Malaysia Airline flight MH370 had been missing for nearly 40 hours. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:41am Beijing time on Saturday and was expected to land in Beijing at 6:30am, after a 3,700-km trip.

Contact with the flight was lost along with its radar signal at 1:20am on Saturday when it was flying over southern Vietnam.