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TIANJIN (AFP) – At the Genghis Security Academy, which bills itself as the only school dedicated to China’s bodyguards, students learn that threats to the country’s nouveau riche in the tech age are more likely to emerge of a hacker than of a gunman.
Every day, students in matching black suits work hard from sunrise to midnight at school in the eastern city of Tianjin, where digital defenses have the same link to the traditional skill set of combat escort, weapons training. and high speed driving.
About 1,000 graduate each year, hoping to land guard jobs for China’s burgeoning ranks of the rich and famous, positions that can be worth up to US $ 70,000 (Singapore $ 95,000), several times more than an annual office salary. .
But the school says it can’t keep up with demand, as China’s rapid growth generates millionaires – 4.4 million according to a 2019 Credit Suisse report, more than in the United States.
Course fees are up to US $ 3,000 per student; And while they had to cancel the training between February and June due to the coronavirus pandemic, it hasn’t slowed demand.
Only the best make the cut, said founder Chen Yongqing, insisting that its discipline standards are stricter than those of the military.
“I am irascible and very demanding,” the army veteran from China’s northern Inner Mongolia region told AFP. “Only by being strict can we cultivate every good sword. If you don’t forge it well, it will break.”
About half of the students are former military personnel, Chen said.
They train in rows in a large, ramshackle sports hall, blue plastic pistols in front of them staring, before practicing pushing their clients safely in a black Audi with broken glass.
Other sessions take place in a classroom or gym, where they box in matching red jerseys.
Mobile phones are confiscated everywhere, while meals are taken in silence in a large dining room dominated by photographs of acclaimed graduates, who have protected everyone from China’s second-richest man, Jack Ma, to French presidents. visitors.
“We have been defining the standard for Chinese bodyguards,” instructor Ji Pengfei told AFP.
In one class, students in pairs work in a scenario that protects a “client” from an intruder.
“Danger!” shouted Mr. Ji, prompting the guard to quickly throw his “boss” behind them and draw a gun in the same motion.
Those who don’t do it in two seconds are assigned 50 push-ups.
Guns at Tianjin School are fake: China bans possession of firearms. For actual firearms training, students are taken to Laos in Southeast Asia.
But in a highly policed country with a low street crime rate, the modern caretaker needs an up-to-date skill set, against state oversight or professional hackers.
“Chinese bosses don’t need you to fight,” Chen told his students of a client base that includes the country’s largest real estate and tech firms.
Repelling attacks on mobile phones, network security, spy detection and data deletion are necessary tools in the bodyguard arsenal.
“What would you do if the boss wanted to destroy a video file immediately?” Mr. Chen requested a class.
Even so, old-school threats still exist in China: earlier this year, billionaire He Xiangjian, founder of Midea and one of the richest men in the country, was kidnapped from his home.
According to Chinese media, He escaped by jumping into a river and was able to call the police, who said they arrested five suspects at the scene.
Student Zhu Peipei, a 33-year-old army veteran from northern Shanxi Province, hopes that becoming a bodyguard can make up for his lack of professional skills or academic qualifications.
“And of course it’s great,” he added.
But the Genghis Academy students also provide monotonous services, such as accompanying the children of the rich and famous to school, for a fee of 180,000 yuan (S $ 36,000) a year.
That in itself is much more than the base salary in private companies of around 53,000 yuan.
Students must also navigate the quirks of their wealthy clients, said the coach, Mr. Ji.
Some only trust bodyguards whose Chinese zodiac sign matches theirs, he explained, while one, from a Fortune 500 company, wanted to hire only people from his hometown.
Another demanded that a potential bodyguard tell him which books he liked to read; They hired him after saying he liked military novels.
The best can earn up to 500,000 yuan a year within China, but some set their sights on a position abroad, possibly working with foreign clients.
“I want to work in the Philippines or Myanmar,” said one student, requesting anonymity. “Then I can carry a weapon … It will be more challenging and I can earn more.”
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