[This article is reproduced!]

"Contractor" is English: "Contractor" and "Mercenary" is English: "Mercenary".

In fact, not everyone in China calls them "contractors", some people call them "mercenaries". However, "mercenaries" are different from "contractors".

The reason why Contractor is called Contractor is because their identities are "businessmen who contract security protection/military projects", so they use the title of "contractor" with a commercial flavor.

But modern mercenaries are also very commercial, and many of the things they do are dead in the light.

So, is Contractor considered a commercial name for Mercenary?

If not, then what is the difference between the work they do and Mercenary? Let’s first look at a few news about China Railway 14th Bureau in Afghanistan:

On June 10, 2004, terrorists launched an attack on the construction site of the 14th Railway Bureau in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, killing 11 people and injuring 4 people;

On September 4, 2004, the guards stationed at the China Railway 14th Bureau stone crusher found two suspicious elements moving towards the stone crusher. The guards issued a warning, and the two suspicious elements fired. The two sides exchanged fire for 7 minutes, and the suspicious elements fled to a nearby village;

On April 1, 2006, a group of militants sneaked into the construction site of the China Railway 14th Bureau’s construction site at the Jalabad Highway Repair Project while taking advantage of the night. They were found by guards. The two sides exchanged fire and the militants were repelled;

On December 2, 2006, China Railway 14th Bureau was attacked by unidentified militants at night at a construction site in Badgis Province in northern Afghanistan. Under the timely counterattack of security personnel, they stood in Afghan police for rescue, and no Chinese personnel were injured or killed.

In fact, after the "June-10" incident in 2004, China Railway 14th Bureau has decided to hire armed guards like other foreign companies working in high-risk areas.

For example, in a news report on February 3, 2005, it was mentioned that the Afghan Project Department of China Railway 14th Bureau hired the USPI security company in charge of security work. This USPI company is similar to the "escort agency" in martial arts novels, and the armed guards they hired, that is, the Contractors who contracted the construction site and workers' safety of China Railway 14th Bureau, were equivalent to "escort officers".

In a USPI contractor in Afghanistan, I still can't find USPI photos on Chinese construction sites

Moreover, according to the definition of mercenaries in the Geneva Convention, a combatant must meet all six of the following conditions before he can be considered a mercenary:

Special recruitment locally or foreign countries to fight in armed conflict;

In fact, directly participate in hostilities;

The desire to gain personal gain is mainly motivated to participate in hostilities and, in fact, one party of the conflict promises to give material rewards far more than those promised or paid to combatants of similar rank and duties within the armed forces of that side;

Neither a national of one party to the conflict nor a resident of a territory controlled by the conflict;

Not a person from the armed forces on the side of the conflict;

People sent by countries that are not parties to the conflict to perform official duties as personnel of their armed forces.

Although the United States did not sign the Geneva Convention against mercenaries, according to the above definition, the Contractors provided by USPI for China Railway 14th Bureau will not be regarded as mercenaries because they were not employed to Afghanistan to participate in armed conflicts.

But another reason why many people regard these security contractors as mercenaries is that there are two types of companies that provide these security contractors, one is PSC and the other is PMC.

PSC is a private security company, which provides armed and unarmed security-related services. Xu*SC's business not only takes place in war-torn areas, but also contracts a lot of security work even in places where there is no war. For example, the security protection work for the launch of the US space shuttle was contracted by PSC. Some major international events such as the Greek Olympics will also hire PSC to provide security consultants, training for security personnel or directly participate in security affairs. At the Beijing Olympics, many of the foreign security personnel of the politicians or teams of Western countries were PSC employees. Some PSCs can even contract security work for the military, such as "Inside Delta" written by Eric L. Haney, one of the early members of the Delta Force.

In Force, it is mentioned that the security guards of the Delta Force at Fort Bragg base were contracted to private companies.

PMC is a common abbreviation of two words, one is Private Military Companies and the other is Private Military Contractors.

Contractor). The former refers to enterprises, and the latter refers to both enterprises and individual employees in these enterprises. The services provided by PMC companies include national defense, military training, and security. Therefore, PMC companies not only have security services that can be used as a counter, but also have military operations that are not exposed. Some employees in PMC companies may serve the United Nations Food Rescue Office, the Red Cross or other similar international rescue in a region that has just calmed down the war.

Aid organizations provide security; but other employees may secretly act as military instructors, strategic consultants, tactical guidance, battlefield command and even directly participate in the battle in another war-torn area. Since the US PMC company will indeed use the US government to send out US military and diplomatic influence to the world in places where the Pentagon is inconvenient or unwilling to appear, some US PMC companies are indeed secret forces of the US government to a certain extent.

However, since Xu**MC will provide security services, and Xu**SC is actually a subsidiary of some large PMCs, it is not easy to distinguish between PMC and PSC, so it is normal for security contractors to be regarded as secret troops or mercenaries. In addition, misunderstandings of some Iraqi news also contribute to the understanding of "contractor = mercenary". For example, when Blackwater is facing revocation of business in Iraq, the US military declared that this would force them to increase troops. Some people would understand this sentence as: "Without Blackwater mercenaries charging on the front line, the US military stationed in Iraq will have to go into battle by themselves." But in fact, the real meaning of this sentence means: "When the temporary workers without Blackwater are used as security guards for the Iraqi temporary government departments, I will have to divide my own troops to serve as gatekeepers for those rich and senior officials."

So for Contractors who provide security services in war-torn areas, should the correct name be "contractor" or "mercenary"? As mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are two uses in China now, which is completely personal preference (and the same is true abroad. For example, the author of "The Secret of Black Water" calls the contractors of Black Water Company Mercenary in his book).

It is absolutely wrong to translate it as a contractor in a literal way, but it cannot be said that it is an absolute mistake to call a mercenary. It may not be too rigorous when it is attached to individual objects. However, this "unrigorous" is just my own opinion. The authors or readers of fantasy novels may object, because there is no "escort agency" in fantasy novels. Bodyguards and war are the two major businesses of the mercenary group. Since many Contractors are employed by PMC, whether the company sends them to fight or be bodyguards, they are all from the same company, so why can't they be called mercenaries?

Paul Bremer, the U.S. Governor of the Colonial United States in Iraq, is another familiar contractor/mercenary/temporary workers who are inseparable from him.

Most contractors/mercenaries/temporary workers in Iraq wear casual wear and carry weapons

But don't think that anyone wearing casual clothes and carrying weapons is a contractor/mercenary/temporary worker. For example, this photo is said to be "foreign mercenaries in Afghanistan" on many domestic websites, but it is actually a green beret during the "Operation Lasting Freedom". In addition, strictly speaking, this guy is not wearing casual clothes, he is wearing Sansha on his lower body, and the coat on his upper body is a military-produced FLEECE JACKET, which makes him look relatively low-key.

But in some domestic legends, it is not completely correct to say that these "contractors" specifically solve the problems that are not necessarily simple for the US government. It is not necessarily simple to be a security guard for government officials, fleets, construction teams, and construction teams. Moreover, even the United Nations, international criminal police and even some international charitable organizations will also issue some security contracts to these companies. Protecting Chinese working in Afghanistan is not a light-free action by the US government. So in order to distinguish these armed guards from real mercenaries, I personally tend to use the title of "safety contractor". Of course, this is just my own opinion.

In addition, domestic news media actually have two other Chinese names for Contractor - "security" or "guard". Contractors who report providing security services to Chinese foreign companies in Afghanistan often see these two words, but such names are easily confused with the guards sent by the Afghan government forces. For example, the report on the security measures of China Railway 14th Bureau in Afghanistan has the following description: "...There are 40 guards from the USPI security company in the northern project and 169 guards from the eastern project..." The guards on the eastern project in this news were sent by the Afghan Provisional Government Forces, while the guards of the northern project were the USPI contractors. Perhaps the domestic media called them according to the following principles - when these Contractors serve customers other than the Chinese, they are mercenaries; when they serve the Chinese, they are security guards and guards.

In short, there are differences between safety contractors and real mercenaries in terms of work content and rewards. However, since there is no strict difference between PMC and PSC, many companies operate multiple businesses, similar businesses and even overlap. In order to distinguish different types of tasks, there are special terms in this industry: When there is a contract in the war zone to find someone to do, the hired people will usually ask whether it is "Shoot job" or "Protect".

job”? If it is the former, it may be to go to war, while the latter is to protect a target (person, object, or location). Although it seems to be no difference to the outside world, the difference in the industry is very big, especially in terms of salary. The highest salary of a safety contractor is about 120,000 pounds per year (but there are also "migrant workers" whose wages are several times lower, most of whom are sold from South America, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and other places, as mentioned in "Blackwater Public News", but the salary of mercenaries is about 3 times or higher than that of a safety contractor because Shoot

Jobs are often direct combat, capturing and interrogating prisoners, battlefield reconnaissance and other operations, and the work is more dangerous; while security contractors are mostly responsible for protecting transport convoys, workers, oil pipelines or escorting important personnel, etc. They are waiting for attacks rather than taking the initiative. In the past few years, the situation in Afghanistan was relatively calm compared to Iraq, so the salary of security contractors in Afghanistan is generally lower than that in Iraq. However, since the end of last year, the Taliban has become active again, and perhaps the price of security contracting projects in Afghanistan has been raised.

Of course, even if the danger is lower than that of mercenaries, the risk of work of security contractors is still very high. For example, through a website dedicated to counting casualties in Iraq, iCasualties.org, a website dedicated to counting casualties in Iraq, has been reported to have been attacked and killed in Iraq since the US invasion of Iraq and until September 13, 2009.

Since security contractors are just security guards, they will not take the initiative, but wait by the protected objects to be attacked. But now in the Iraqi environment, it is difficult for you to distinguish which people are hidden weapons and which are unarmed civilians. Therefore, many security contractors have adopted precautions: when the objects with potential danger approach, they will shoot. Anyway, you will die better than me, so the situation of security contractors killing innocent people indiscriminately occurs. This is exactly why many Iraqi people do not like contractors. This is not to say that contractors have no imperial laws, but now Iraq has no imperial laws at all. Moreover, Paul Bremer, the first "governor-general" of the United States in Iraq, also issued a decree that stipulates that foreign contractors in Iraq do not have to bear legal responsibility, so security contractors in Iraq are stronger than US soldiers.

In fact, when China Railway 14th Bureau was looking for armed escorts for the Afghan project, it was said that there were security companies in China who wanted to take on this project, but China Railway 14th Bureau finally decided to hire Americans. China Railway's consideration was: If the American contractor killed the local bandits, it would be easier to negotiate judicially with the Afghan authorities, while China's security companies were at risk of being arrested by the Afghan authorities. It can be seen that American contractors can walk sideways in Afghanistan like Iraq, and such actions will inevitably make locals hate them.
Chapter completed!