The Chinese Community and the Search for Security

Although it may on the surface appear as a quiet community that receives public attention only on Spring Festivals, South Africa’s Chinese community is actually a highly networked community that has developed elaborate networks and support structures to deal with the challenges of crime and security in South Africa and to maintain its unique and vibrant identity in a dangerous environment. At the forefront of this is a community organisation called the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre that currently has 13 branches around the country. This organisation is able to provide support and protection for Chinese individuals and businesses in every town and city in South Africa, and works in close cooperation with South Africa’s police and security services as well as the Chinese Embassy and consulates. In the face of crime and security challenges, individual Chinese residents in South Africa are also taking recourse to gun clubs and associations and firearms training, and there is also already a saturated market of Chinese security companies in South Africa. But in the search for security the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre is a unique and proactive organisation developed by the South African Chinese community to deal with the problems of safety and security. This chapter examines the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre, making use of mostly South African Chinese media sources (notably African Times and several online portals) to consider its history, operations, personnel and activities to keep Chinese people safe and secure. The chapter also reviews the activities and responses of individual Chinese residents in South Africa to deal with the challenges of safety and security. Safety and security in the context of the South African Chinese community and especially the role of the South African Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre is largely an untold story in English, and has received very little coverage in research. This chapter intends to address this issue by making use of South African Chinese-language media sources.