In sub-zero winter cold, trainees at an army base outside Beijing wake before dawn to practise martial arts and evasive driving, while a Portuguese ex-special forces soldier barks commands.
“We are not polite any more... we are only efficient,” declares Marco Borges – his words rapidly translated into Chinese – before slapping several of his charges in the face, to giggles from the other students.
But despite their dark uniforms and heavy black boots these are not the latest recruits to some new unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Instead the roughly 40-strong group – mostly with previous military experience – are on a commercial training course to become elite bodyguards protecting Chinese firms as they seek ever more resources and contracts in some of the world’s most unstable regions.
The best will be recruited by the school’s sister company Genghis Security Advisor (GSA), which offers protection for China’s wealthiest citizens from attacks and kidnapping at home and abroad – a service analysts say could push the government in Beijing into unwanted foreign entanglements.
“Our main jobs will be abroad, because, as our teacher taught us, the situation there is much more unstable than in China,” said Li Qinsi, a 29-year-old trainee sitting on a dormitory bunk after an intense fighting class.