China has expressed willingness to train law enforcement officers of foreign countries! Wang Xiaohong, the Minister of Public Security of China, recently said that the proposed initiative was aimed at running the world in a more fair, reasonable and efficient manner.

Speaking at the Annual Global Security Forum on September 9, 2024 in the eastern Chinese city of Lianyungang, the minister stressed: “We will (also) send Police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities.” He made the announcement in the presence of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organisations, such as Interpol. However, Wang did not clarify which countries’ security officials would be trained. It may be noted that the Forum was a part of China’s ongoing efforts to position itself as a global security leader.

Interestingly, political analysts have expressed serious doubt over the actual intention of China that makes the Xi Jinping Administration in Beijing so generous to improve the global security system. In 2022, President Xi launched the Global Security Initiative (GSI), projecting his country as a facilitator to “improve global security governance… and promote durable peace”. He claimed that the GSI would boost global security and ensure peace. This time, Wang announced that the Asian Giant would train security officials of foreign countries through the GSI project!

As expected, the announcement has triggered a controversy. A section of analysts has opined that Beijing wants to make this move in an attempt to establish the global leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Others believe that China is eager to end the US’ hegemony as far as the global security system is concerned. Special Chinese officials recently visited some African countries to train security officials. However, several Human Rights organisations have expressed concern about it, stressing that the Chinese instructors trained African Police personnel to maintain an authoritarian system (like China).

Some experts are of the opinion that China is interested in sending trainers only to those countries with which Beijing has commercial interests. In fact, China is trying to explore investment opportunities to launch its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in those countries. Hence, it has nothing to do with improving global security. It may be noted that BRI is China’s dream project to connect Europe, Asia and Africa by waterways, roadways, railways, pipeline and air.

Beijing previously claimed that the GSI played an important role in striking a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and also in formulating a peace proposal for Ukraine. According to President Xi, the GSI has been working on bilateral security and Police agreements with Developing Nations in Africa and the Indo-Pacific Region for the past couple of years. China announced in 2023 that it would create 5,000 training opportunities for security officials in Developing Nations over the next five years to deal with global security issues under the GSI. In September (2024), Wang confirmed that his country already trained 2,700 foreign security officers in 2023.

Watch: China planning to train 3,000 foreign police officials | What is the motive behind this?

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation took place in Beijing on September 4-6. At the end of the event, Beijing announced that it would train another 1,000 Police officers in Africa, apart from ensuring the safety of workers in the Dark Continent under this joint project. On the sidelines of the Summit, Wang met top officials of five African nations to discuss the issue. He assured those officials that China would help their countries to “strengthen law enforcement and security systems“.

José Ramos-Horta, the President of East Timor, visited Beijing in July 2024. The visiting President and his Chinese counterpart Xi signed an agreement to increase exchanges between the military and Police forces at different levels, apart from strengthening bilateral cooperation in areas, such as personnel training and modern technology. Beijing had signed an agreement with the Solomon Islands on law enforcement and security matters in 2022. The agreement caused concern among many countries, including the US and Indo-Pacific nations.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das