In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged officials to adopt a “global vision in China’s national security work.” This exhortation by the Chinese leader has produced an expansion of international outreach by Chinese police. It was followed in 2019 by a call for the political-legal system, China’s internal security apparatus, to develop “a new system of international public security cooperation” and “promote the establishment of an international law enforcement cooperation and coordination system under the unified leadership of the Ministry of Public Security Party Committee.” These discussions also encouraged “foreign police training with Chinese characteristics” and included “enhancing the international influence” of China’s police work and “telling the story of a ‘Safe China.'”
Although these initial directives went largely unnoticed by Western media, China’s activities since have drawn increasing attention to this trend. Xi’s announcement of the Global Security Initiative at the Boao Forum in April 2022 is likely to amplify and provide further impetus to this work.
