China’s stability maintenance model enters Africa

                                                      Présence de la Chine en Afrique. france24.com

Paul Nantulya, a researcher at the American Center for Strategic Studies in Africa, wrote an article in June 2023 to discuss the issue of exporting China's stability maintenance model to Africa. In this study, he titled "The Chinese Police Model Enters Africa" The report points out: What is little known is that China conducts far more public security and law enforcement operations internationally than military operations conducted by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. About 40 African countries have reached agreements with Chinese public security agencies. China has also negotiated extradition treaties with 13 African countries since 2018, although China did not have any extradition treaties at the time. China has built police schools and police stations in many places in Africa and provided police equipment. Between 2003 and 2017, African countries received US$3.56 billion in public security loans from China, including surveillance systems, national security networks and riot control equipment and other security projects. Given that much of the equipment is included in arms sales, this number is almost certainly an underestimate.

African governments can access training from China’s Ministry of Public Security through the Ministry of Justice’s International Law Enforcement Training Program, which brings together 21 Chinese police academies. This number is roughly equivalent to the number of military academies China has opened to African students, which shows the scale of police training provided by China.

All schools participating in the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s International Law Enforcement Training Program are associated with specific African countries. At least 20 African countries, including Algeria, Lesotho, and Mauritius, maintain relationships with special police academies that provide anti-terrorism training. Rwanda and the African Union Counterterrorism Program maintain an ongoing relationship with the Shandong Police Academy. Zhejiang Police College has established China’s international police cooperation mechanism.

The Fujian Police College launched a training program for the Johannesburg City Police Department in South Africa in 2019 and plans to replicate it in other cities. In 2016, a police stability unit was sent to the Chinese People's Armed Forces Academy for training, which was questioned by the public. This stability maintenance "kill squad" was then illegally deployed at South Africa's main security agencies, ostensibly to carry out counter-terrorism operations but in fact to assassinate political opponents. Although the stability team was later disbanded by Ramaphosa's government, the incident highlighted the dangers of unscrupulous officials working with their Chinese counterparts to establish illegal power.

The Fujian Police College also trains the Presidential Guard of the Central African Republic. The Presidential Guard is composed almost entirely of members of President Touadera's family and has been involved in a series of atrocities, including shooting and wounding 10 United Nations peacekeepers in 2021.

China’s hands-off approach to dealing with law enforcement agencies is worrisome because Chinese-trained police, presidential guards, and intelligence services, often known for paranoia, abuse of power, and a lack of motivation for reform, far from being able to solve problems, simply The problem itself. For example, in 2021, Kenya launched a training program that sends 400 police, paramilitary and law enforcement officers to the Chinese Police Academy for training every year, despite well-documented abuses and impunity within the Kenyan police. The police, intelligence services and paramilitary forces are among the most feared and corrupt sectors in Africa, and as China's commitment to public security and law enforcement in Kenya grows, the debate over this training program will intensify.

Part of the training has been moved from China to Africa to reach more trainees and increase adoption of the standards and curriculum taught in Chinese schools. From 2015 to 2018, a joint project between the Algerian Ministry of Interior and the Chinese Academy of Administration (CAG) in Beijing provided training to more than 400 Algerian police, law enforcement officers and civil servants. The China National Administration Institute, which is affiliated with the Central Party School, has also conducted similar training for South Africa, and South African authorities have also signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

The technical subjects of the Chinese police system are taught within the larger context of China's political system. For example, the CCP’s definition of terrorism is partly derived from “maintaining stability.” This includes curbing anti-government protests and what the Communist Party calls the “three evil forces”: terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism. The stability maintenance model has largely inspired China’s international counter-terrorism cooperation. The similarity in police structures between China and Africa has promoted the export and spread of Chinese stability-maintenance security terminology and norms. As in China, police in Africa are centralized under executive authority and overseen by the minister of interior, police or public security. Most African police forces are also part of the national security architecture, and their basic organization, promotion and ranking systems, and working methods are highly militarized; many African police jurisdictions are organized into "commands", and it is common for police officers to be deployed into the military and vice versa. . In practice, African police or military forces often demonstrate loyalty to political parties and regimes. In China, this principle is enshrined in the party constitution, as the police, public security, People's Liberation Army and other Chinese armed forces are all tools of the CCP. China’s stability maintenance model is particularly easy to accept among some African leaders who are worried about the survival of their regimes. They admire the Chinese Communist Party’s methods of control and its ubiquitous police surveillance.

China’s pattern of engagement in African affairs over the past decade has been largely elite-driven, meaning police and law enforcement work is secretive and rarely discussed in the media or in parliament. African human rights groups say training and equipping security forces involved in human rights abuses can exacerbate negative sentiments against China, so China should proceed with caution. These forces are often used to suppress young people at the forefront of political reform. Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with 60% of the population under the age of 25. African citizens demand democracy, 80% of them reject one-party dictatorship, 75% oppose authoritarian regimes, and 70% want to live in a democratic society. These demands are increasing sharply among the 18-45 age group, and China is attracting these groups through a range of soft power tools.

Author: Sang Yu