TBC News

Rising cross-border fraud, human trafficking networks, and high-tech criminal syndicates operating across Africa are driving deeper security and law enforcement cooperation between African governments and Beijing.

China hosted East African security ministers and police chiefs in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, on September 10 for high-level talks focused on terrorism, kidnapping, online fraud, and other cross-border threats.

During the meeting, Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong pledged that Beijing would strengthen law enforcement cooperation with East Africa to jointly combat terrorism, kidnapping, unlawful detention, and telecom and online fraud.

Concurrently on September 10, Beijing launched the International Alliance Combating Telecoms and Cyber Fraud. Featuring 46 founding countries, including Kenya, the alliance is designed to facilitate regular law enforcement cooperation, professional training, joint drills, and coordinated operations against cross-border telecom fraud.

The strategic shift allows Beijing to protect Chinese citizens, companies, and investments across Africa while enabling African governments to access specialized police training, advanced technology, and intelligence-sharing networks. Analysts note that expanded police cooperation gives China a mechanism to build its security footprint without relying on formal military alliances or establishing a permanent troop presence.

“Cyberfraud, an endemic problem in Africa, provides China with an especially useful entry point, as it is a genuine transnational security problem but one that also directly affects Chinese citizens and investments across Africa,” said Alessandro Arduino, an associate fellow in international security at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

Arduino noted that Beijing is operating through multilateral frameworks like Interpol alongside China-initiated mechanisms for intelligence sharing and coordinated operations, while steadily expanding African police training.

The diplomatic push comes amid a series of major law enforcement crackdowns on cybercrime operations targeting or involving Chinese nationals across Africa:

• eSwatini: China issued an advisory on August 25 instructing its citizens and organizations to “evacuate or relocate to relatively safer areas such as South Africa as soon as possible” due to telecom fraud and gambling crimes. The advisory followed March police raids on illegal online gambling centers in Mbabane, where 40 Chinese nationals were arrested and remained in detention as of late August.
• Zambia: Authorities in Lusaka detained 79 people in August, including 11 Chinese nationals, during a raid on a suspected cybercrime operation.
• Kenya: Four Chinese nationals appeared in a Nairobi court on September 1 over an alleged SIM-swapping and money laundering scheme.

The security threat extends beyond African borders to Southeast Asia, where scam compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos have lured jobseekers from Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia with false employment offers.

In May, Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi informed lawmakers that 751 Kenyans were rescued from Myanmar scam compounds between 2022 and 2026. An additional 406 were rescued from Cambodia during the first four months of this year, and 29 were repatriated from Laos.

“Over time, three Kenyans have reportedly lost their lives in the scam compounds due to illness, while one expectant lady passed on after the scammers attempted to forcefully terminate the pregnancy,” Mudavadi said.

Beijing’s growing focus on security builds upon numerous bilateral and regional public security agreements, including a 2024 pact signed in Beijing with 14 member nations of the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation.

Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, observed that Beijing increasingly views telecom fraud, cybercrime, kidnapping, and human trafficking as external threats requiring international responses. While the newly launched 46-nation alliance includes 34 observer states, the United Nations, and Interpol—suggesting it will initially complement existing international bodies—it could gradually evolve into a China-led security platform.

“Because the alliance was initiated, hosted and largely shaped by China, it gives Beijing greater agenda-setting influence over transnational policing, training, technology transfer and law enforcement cooperation,” Odgaard said.

Researchers stress that the demand for closer security ties is mutual.

“This should not simply be understood as China exporting a security model to Africa. There is also demand from African governments for additional partners and additional law-enforcement capacity,” said Georg Lammich, a senior researcher in international relations and African politics at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. “Police cooperation gives China a way to deepen security relationships without relying on formal alliances or a large permanent military presence.”