China’s creepiest export surge

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. “I MET THE most lovable people on the streets of Serbia: Chinese police officers," gushes a Chinese tourist in an article released by one of his country’s police universities about joint patrols with Serbian police in Belgrade. “I felt so happy, safe and proud," he says.

The propagandist article perfectly matched China’s vision for global security: one in which it helps “maintain world peace and security" while upholding “non-interference in internal affairs" in contrast to Western ways of “unilateralism" and “bloc confrontation". At least that is how China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, described the Global Security Initiative (GSI) when he launched it in 2022. Since then China has rapidly expanded its security activity abroad by offering foreign governments police training and surveillance technology with a focus on internal stability.

China is helping governments not only combat crime, but also control their citizens and stay in power—and that is proving stunningly popular. The GSI, like Mr Xi’s three other global initiatives (on development, governance, and cultural diversity), is firstly an attempt to build new networks of international influence centred on China. To that end it has revamped a small regional policing forum into China’s biggest international security event: the Global Public Security Co-operation Forum.

Delegates from more than 120 countries go to discuss security co-operation and admire China’s police technology, such as robotic dogs. Last year the organisers launched the “Global Public Security Index", which ranks countries by seemingly arbitrary scores on measures including gun crime, traffic deaths and terrorism. The top performer was China.