China’s expansion of its network of private security companies in Africa is unfolding in a legal gray area, analysts say.
These companies, known as PSCs, are widening their reach without a strong regulatory framework, which poses risks such as lack of transparency, weak national controls and undue influence on governments, according to Habib al-Badawi, a professor at Lebanese University.
“Domestic laws in China lack jurisdiction over PSCs operating abroad, and the enforceability of international laws remains a formidable challenge,” al-Badawi wrote in the Journal of Afro-Asian Studies. “The absence of a robust regulatory framework raises concerns about the need for greater accountability in the operations of Chinese PSCs on the African continent.”
Despite their description as private, all Chinese PSCs are state controlled and populated by former members of the People’s Liberation Army and People’s Armed Police — an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s principle that “the party controls the gun.”
The PSCs are in Africa to protect tens of thousands of Chinese working on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative projects, which produce more than $50 billion in revenue each year for state-owned Chinese companies, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
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