Fight terror risks in overseas projects with shared intelligence, Chinese ex-security official says

China’s five-year plan recognises risks to overseas interests like belt and road projects but offers no security blueprint
Former public security vice-minister Chen Zhimin says countries need to establish a concept of “mutual security” based on shared intelligence

Belt and Road Initiative

Kinling Loin Beijing

Published: 7:30pm, 21 Oct 2021

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Countries should step up intelligence sharing to protect overseas investments, according to a former senior Chinese public security official, as Beijing faces greater risks to its belt and road projects.

“In the face of challenges, countries need to establish a concept of mutual security,” Chen Zhimin, China’s vice-minister for public security until 2017, told a panel organised by the Beijing-backed Boao Forum in Changsha, Hunan province, on Monday.

“[Nations should] agree to share intelligence, rules, education and experiences – including hi-tech and big data components – on security matters, in order to achieve a new model of global development,” said Chen, also a former vice-minister of internet regulators the Cyberspace Administration of China. He is currently a member of the country’s top advisory body.

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Nine Chinese nationals among 13 killed in Pakistan bus blast

China’s latest five-year plan identified “protecting the rights and interests of Chinese overseas investments” as a key goal to ensure national “economic security”, acknowledging that there were increasing risks and uncertainties regarding the safety of China’s wide range of overseas projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.

But it gave no details on how to achieve such a goal.

Lu Wei, an expert at Zhongan Security Services, a government-backed company that was among the first to provide security training and protection for Chinese investment overseas, said it was clear that the belt and road scheme had been facing bigger security threats due to rising global terrorism threats and growing negative impressions about China.

“There needs to be speedy legislation on protecting overseas investment, so there can be legal grounds for taking action,” the security expert told Beijing Youth Daily.

“Secondly, there needs to be a government-level warning mechanism that issues alerts, guidance and emergency response protocols for any huge security risk, in order to minimise the loss of life and financial costs related to overseas Chinese investments.”

“Thirdly, there needs to be a functioning international cooperation mechanism with the investment recipient country, as their public security abilities are always critical to the safety of Chinese-funded projects.”

Chinese companies should also improve their own risk assessment mechanism and provide more training for staff, Lu added.

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Chinese companies invested over US$153.7 billion abroad in 2020, according to the latest government report on outward foreign direct investment.

The document, released in September, said 28,000 Chinese investors had put money into more than 45,000 companies in 189 countries worldwide. And more than 11,000 companies had been established under the belt and road scheme, which around 140 countries had signed up for.

Chinese interests abroad have been targeted by militants or other bad actors in recent years.

A bus blast in northwestern Pakistan in July killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals involved in a Chinese-contracted hydropower project at Dasu. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called it “the biggest terrorist attack that Chinese overseas personnel have encountered in recent times”.

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The same month, three Chinese nationals were among five people kidnapped in southwest Mali by gunmen who attacked a construction site near the town of Kwala.

Pakistani investigators blamed suicide bombers for the Dasu attack, which was followed a month later by another suicide bombing targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals in Pakistan, this time in the southwestern port of Gwadar. Two children playing nearby were killed and three people wounded – including a Chinese national.

The attack in August added to concerns in Beijing over a worsening security situation in the region following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ‘Intelligence sharing the key to safer investing’