A prominent scholar is one of the first voices to sound the alarm over China’s growing and unregulated military presence in Africa.
“Domestic laws in China lack jurisdiction over mercenaries operating abroad, and the enforceability of international laws remains a formidable challenge,” according to Habib al-Badawi, a professor at Lebanese University. “The absence of a robust regulatory framework raises concerns about the need for greater accountability in the operations of Chinese mercenaries on the African continent.”
Despite their description as private, all Chinese mercenaries are state-controlled and populated by former members of the People’s Liberation Army and People’s Armed Police, he added.
Technically, these mercenaries are in Africa to protect tens of thousands of Chinese working on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative projects, which produce more than $50 billion in revenue each year for state-owned Chinese companies, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Between 2007 and 2020, China invested $23 billion in infrastructure projects in Africa.
Indeed, Chinese workers in Africa sometimes face violence. In July 2024, militia fighters killed nine Chinese nationals at a Chinese-linked mining site in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province.
However, despite weapons restrictions, Chinese security companies have been involved in shootings and other violent incidents in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These events “underscore the potential risks and ethical dilemmas associated with the operations of Chinese PSCs, sparking debates about their adherence to internationally accepted standards,” al-Badawi wrote
Chinese mercenaries have been directly involved in military operations in Sudan, where a civil war has raged since April 2023, and South Sudan, where the specter of civil war looms.
Similarities Between Mercenaries and Contractors
As outlined below, the differences between Chinese mercenaries and American private military contractors are practically night and day. However, to an extent, both kinds of organizations operate in a legal grey area.
Contractors and mercenaries don’t count in official overseas troop deployment figures. In fact, sponsoring governments often deliberately hide these numbers. To the governments that hire them, mercenaries and contractors are more like assets than people. For strategic reasons, the DoD doesn’t release the number of cruise missiles in Iraq or the number of contractors who operate them.
Both organizations are also like office temps. They get all the bad jobs, such as propping up (or taking down) governments in faraway places, that regular servicemembers don’t want.
Makeup is the final major similarity. Back in the old days of the French Foreign Legion, contractors and mercenaries were poorly trained and largely unmotivated fighters. Today, mercenaries and contractors are highly trained fighters who are motivated to fight for a cause, at least to an extent.
Operational Differences
American private military contractors are subject to U.S. civil and criminal laws. The Nisour Square saga in Iraq is a good example.
In 2007, private military contractors were escorting a supply convoy through the streets of Baghdad. In response to a perceived threat, the contractors opened fire in what they believed was self-defense. When the smoke cleared, seventeen people were dead, twenty others were injured, and the threat was nowhere to be found. Many people quickly blamed the contractors (who were definitely trigger-happy) for the “massacre.” Blackwater’s license was suspended and its name disgraced.
Now here’s the important part, at least for the purposes of this blog. U.S. attorneys quickly filed criminal charges against almost every Blackwater contractor who was there at the time. Eventually, in 2014, one contractor was convicted of murder and three others were convicted of lesser charges. President Donald Trump pardoned them in 2020.
In contrast, if Chinese or other mercenaries were involved in such an incident, most likely nothing would happen. Mercenaries operate completely outside the law. They are not subject to military or civilian oversight. They only answer to the government agencies that sponsor them.
This legal oversight is the main reason the U.S. has not signed international agreements controlling mercenaries. Since contractors are already under court supervision, the additional oversight is unnecessary.
On a related note, U.S. law sharply limits contractor activities. Contractors may defend themselves if attacked, as they did (or probably did) at Nisour Square. Usually, contractors escort supply convoys, verify IDs at checkpoints, and serve in other similar capacities. Under no circumstances can contractors participate in any offensive operations.
In contrast, mercenaries are free to do whatever they want. Mercenary armies are usually puppet armies that do the bidding of a sponsoring government agency.
Loyalty is different as well. Contractors are loyal to the United States. During the Afghanistan War, contractors wouldn’t switch sides if the Taliban offered more money. But for mercenaries, it’s all about the money.
Hessians in the Revolutionary War are a good example. These Germans did not speak English and could not find the American colonies on a map. But the British hired them to do a job, and that is what they did. As a result, when times got tough, poorly motivated Hessians were not very good fighters.
Contractors do not give up so easily. Blackwater rebranded after Nisour Square, but it did not go away. The contractors were committed to a cause, not to a profit.
Injury Compensation Differences
This area might be the biggest difference between mercenaries and contractors. When mercenaries are injured during deployment, they are on their own, financially speaking. The sponsoring government agency is under no legal obligation to give them anything.
Contractors, on the other hand, are usually eligible for Defense Base Act benefits. Among other things, these benefits include:
- Lost Wage Replacement: Trauma injury victims (falls, gunshot wounds, etc.) and occupational disease victims (hearing loss, toxic exposure disease, etc.) usually receive two-thirds of their average weekly wage for the duration of their temporary or permanent disabilities. To determine future lost wages in a permanent disability case, a Defense Base Act lawyer usually partners with an accountant or other such professional. More on that below.
- Medical Bill Payment: The Defense Base Act also pays all reasonably necessary medical bills, from transportation to a medical facility to the last day of physical therapy. These two phases are much more costly for contractors. Usually, they need emergency transportation to large medical facilities, which, in many cases, are on different continents. Because their injuries are so severe, physical therapy is much longer, more difficult, and more expensive than usual.
These benefits are no-fault benefits. They are available even if the victim was entirely at fault for a trauma injury or occupational disease.
We should say these benefits are theoretically available. Insurance companies dispute these claims, and only a Defense Base Act lawyer can overcome these disputes.
Lost wage replacement is based on the victim’s average weekly wage (AWW). To determine this figure, most insurance companies take the last 10 paystubs and divide by 10. But this method is inadequate.
The add-and-divide method does not properly account for income changes in a disability case. For example, if Bill’s injury forces him to miss a performance bonus milestone, his wage replacement benefits must reflect that loss. The add-and-divide method also often doesn’t account for per diem and other non-cash or irregular compensation.
The DBA covers all reasonably necessary medical bills. To many insurance adjusters, “reasonably necessary” means “cheapest possible.” The aforementioned transportation expenses are a good example.
Many DBA insurance companies refuse to pay for emergency medevac flights on the grounds that they weren’t reasonably necessary. A Defense Base Act lawyer points out the true nature of the situation, so this large bill gets paid.
For more information about DBA eligibility, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.