Chinese private security companies in the Middle East

Abstract

China has grown increasingly anxious about the situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Porous borders, fluid transnational criminality, and growing terrorist networks in the MENA region represent a severe threat to the development of its Belt and Road Initiative. However, China is maintaining a “balanced vagueness” in dealing with the evolving crisis. While Beijing is progressively shifting its reactive stance from the decades-old foreign policy principle of non-interference, it is still not prone to becoming proactively involved in the Middle East security quagmire. Contracting private security companies for guarding duties is partially filling the security gaps without the need for “Chinese boots on the ground.” Well before the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) security market’s operational requirements, Chinese oil and gas state-owned enterprises (SOEs) opted for private security sector support in protecting Chinese engineers against kidnapping for ransom and the Chinese built infrastructure against attacks from terrorist or criminal organizations. The increasing presence of the Chinese private security companies along the Belt and Road Initiative in the MENA region is showcasing Beijing’s desire to nurture a professional private security sector that is able to operate in complex environments.