China Turns to Private Security Companies

The Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) published on 17 August 2018 an analysis titled "The Internationalization of China's Private Security Companies: Guardians of the Belt and Road" by Meia Mouwens, IISS, and Helena Legarda, MERICS.

This study looks at the growing use by China of private security companies (PSCs) to protect its interests overseas, including in Africa where they have been used in Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. This is a relatively new concept for China. The PSCs are not regulated and linked indirectly to the Communist Party of China through their recruitment almost exclusively of PLA veterans.