China’s foreign police training: A global footprint

Global outreach by China’s internal security agencies is expanding. As China’s Global Security Initiative externalizes a concept of security focused on domestic stability and regime protection, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has increased its efforts to train and build capacity among foreign law enforcement and internal security forces around the world, including across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Foreign police training is one of the most concrete and measurable outcomes associated with the Global Security Initiative, as President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders have publicly committed to training thousands of foreign security officers in multiple high-profile appearances.

This paper examines China’s foreign police, security, and paramilitary training from 2000 to 2025. It draws on an original new dataset of nearly 900 trainings provided to at least 138 countries and places these trainings in the wider context of Chinese soft power, foreign policy objectives and projects such as the Global Security Initiative, broader patterns of Chinese security engagement, and Beijing’s narratives about China’s role as a global security provider.

The dataset highlights the scale, growth, breadth of regional and topical coverage, and functional intensity of China’s foreign police training efforts. A majority of the world’s countries have received police and domestic security training from China, giving Beijing a role in the internal security organs and policing practices of countries around the world. China’s provision of foreign police training increased before the COVID-19 pandemic, then paused, and has now begun to expand again, though publicly documented trainee numbers fall well short of China’s public commitments. Countries bordering China receive more police trainings, and a wide range of institutions inside the PRC are involved in providing such trainings, including some with clear regional specializations. Although China’s foreign police training efforts are most concentrated on its regional periphery, they increasingly extend to encompass most of the world, accumulating regional variations in emphasis that reflect the ways that regional security challenges mix with Chinese interests abroad.

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