Chinese companies must offer better wages and training in foreign languages to move personnel up to the next level, insiders say
Chinese security services are being held back from expanding overseas by a lack of language skills and an inability to establish networks in local communities overseas, industry players and observers say.
Fred Wang, a senior manager from a Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering company investing in the Middle East and Africa, said these skills – rather than weapons selection – made the difference in dangerous parts of the world.
“In terms of what I have witnessed, the foreign competitors of Chinese security companies have good relations with local police, warlords, or even gangsters and terrorists. Otherwise it’s impossible for them to survive in those high-risk areas,” Wang said.
Tian Buchou, a former security manager for state firms working in Congo, Libya, Djibouti, South Sudan, said the gap was in the approach to the job.
“The problem is that many Chinese security guards just see their high-risk missions as a routine job. They refuse to learn and fail to have regular training. Some even become addicted to drugs and gamble while their foreign counterparts like Blackwater conduct tough training sessions and do specific drills once they arrived in a new mission zone,” Tian said.
Tian said Blackwater guards had a “people-first” strategy and were multilingual, allowing them to negotiate in various armed conflicts between their Chinese clients and local business partners, and government and non-government forces.
