Cameron Waltz

Delighted that a paper with @CameronWaltz_ & @IBKardon is now forthcoming at @chinaquarterly. It argues that the best way to understand China's Global Security Initiative is as the externalization of Leninist campaign-style policymaking into foreign policy:

Glad to share a few thoughts with @nytimes @dhpierson on To Lam's visit to Beijing and what's distinctive about China-Vietnam security cooperation: nytimes.com/2026/04/16/wor…

Delighted to share a new project & dataset now forthcoming from @chinaquarterly, on China's internal security spending. Short thread:

China is holding a staggering number of trainings for police in countries around the world. Why?    @SheenaGreitens and @CameronWaltz_ break down what’s going on – and what’s in it for China.

From surveillance tech to police trainings, countries are buying what China is selling, and Beijing is “resetting standards around what security means,” says @SheenaGreitens. More in @TheEconomist: economist.com/international/…

Concrete manifestation of China as a global security provider. Raises questions about the practices that are taught during such training sessions.

To learn more about Beijing's thinking behind this assistance, the complexity of the apparatus that carries it out, what China teaches foreign police, and this activity's implications for China's quest for global security leadership, read our new report: carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/…

And the MPS had no qualms about training the personal protective forces of authoritarian regimes, such as the Central African Republics elite presidential guard battalion and Cuba's Black Berets.

If you're reading this from the Global South, your national police officers might be among the more than 20,000* who received from China. In a new @CarnegieEndow report, @SheenaGreitens, @IBKardon, and I asked why. *Our lowest-end estimate. Real #'s probably far exceed this.

Today we're releasing a new @CarnegieEndow report on China's foreign police training. Drawing on an original new dataset, @CameronWaltz_ @IBKardon & I find that police training, provided to at least 138 countries, is a major pillar of Beijing's effort to reshape global security:

Thanks to @FT for the chance to write about last week's forum in Lianyungang, where China is positioning itself as a global security leader by marketing itself as the safest country in the world (& the US as...not that): ft.com/content/5c42a9…

To learn more about why GPSCFL has become one of China's most prominent annual security events and how it factors in to China's campaign of internal security diplomacy, read @SheenaGreitens, @IBKardon, and my piece for @CarnegieEndow: carnegieendowment.org/research/2025/…

Not yet announced are likely to be a series of annual multilateral ministerial dialogues on law enforcement with the Pacific Islands, Central Asia, and East Africa that typically coincide with Lianyungang, alongside at least a couple dozen sideline bilateral meetings.

Announced today: the 2025 Global Public Security Cooperation Forum (aka Lianyungang) will be held September 17-19. GPSCFL is China's largest annual international security event and a major hotspot for China's internal security diplomacy. society.people.com.cn/n1/2025/0910/c…