Chinese private security presence is growing in Southeast Asia, report finds
Chinese businesses with risky investments in Southeast Asia’s Mekong region are increasingly turning to legal, China-based private security companies for protection, according to a new report.
The Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) found that China-based companies account for 29 of the 49 foreign private security firms operating in Cambodia and Myanmar, the only two countries in the Mekong where official corporate registries provide enough information to confirm foreign ownership, C4ADS said. The next-highest was Malaysia, with just four.
Data from C4ADS shows these companies were incorporated steadily since 2013, with spikes in 2019 and 2020.
Joshua Berlinger
