Crouching guard, hidden danger for China security firms
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An instructor gesturing as students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Wednesday. Some 45 people took part in the 21 days' intensive training camp teaching Israel martial arts, mind-reading, scouting, driving, anti-terrorism skills and business etiquette. Trainees are former soldiers, college graduates and retired athletes who intend to become bodyguards or simply strengthen their physical fitness. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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Students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Jan 16, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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An instructor gestures as students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Jan 16, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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An instructor from the Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co, smashes a bottle over a female recruit's head during a training session for China's first female bodyguards in Beijing on Jan 13, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An instructor gesturing as students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Wednesday. Some 45 people took part in the 21 days' intensive training camp teaching Israel martial arts, mind-reading, scouting, driving, anti-terrorism skills and business etiquette. Trainees are former soldiers, college graduates and retired athletes who intend to become bodyguards or simply strengthen their physical fitness. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Jan 16, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An instructor gestures as students hold rubber guns during a bodyguard training session at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co in Beijing on Jan 16, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An instructor from the Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd Co, smashes a bottle over a female recruit's head during a training session for China's first female bodyguards in Beijing on Jan 13, 2012. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
BEIJING (AFP) - In sub-zero winter cold, trainees at an army base outside Beijing wake before dawn to practise martial arts and evasive driving, while a Portuguese ex-special forces soldier barks commands.
"We are not polite any more... we are only efficient," declares Mr Marco Borges - his words rapidly translated into Chinese - before slapping several of his charges in the face, to giggles from the other students.
But despite their dark uniforms and heavy black boots these are not the latest recruits to some new unit of China's People's Liberation Army.
Instead the roughly 40-strong group - mostly with previous military experience - are on a commercial training course to become elite bodyguards protecting Chinese firms as they seek ever more resources and contracts in some of the world's most unstable regions.
