Since the launch of the Belt and Road initiative in 2013, Chinese private military companies envisioned working with U.S. firms like Blackwater. They sought to replicate Blackwater’s role in Iraq, safeguarding China’s Belt and Road initiative against criminal and militant violence. In doing so, they also sought to benefit from the newfound legitimacy of private military companies as opposed to old-fashioned mercenaries.
But the private military and security business changes quickly. Heightened tensions with the United States have left Chinese state-owned enterprises less willing to collaborate with security contractors from the United States and Europe. For a time, the riseThe post Chinese Private Security Companies: Neither Blackwater Nor the Wagner Group appeared first on War on the Rocks.