Can China’s strict policing model ‘silence the guns’ in Africa?

As China’s relationship with African countries deepens, the country’s influence is spreading into more areas. In this series Jevans Nyabiage looks at an initiative to help control weapons and reduce conflict in a region where Beijing has vast economic interests.China is marketing its strict policing and arms control expertise as a blueprint to stabilise Africa’s conflict-torn Great Lakes region, leveraging its reputation as one of the world’s safest countries.Earlier this month, China and the United Nations hosted security officials from the region, including representatives from Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), and Rwanda, at the People’s Public Security University in Beijing for a training programme on the control of small arms and light weapons (SALW).