On the evening of July 8, the streets of the South Sudanese capital of Juba were raked with gunfire as an uneasy truce between warring political factions broke down. Inside the offices of DeWe Security, a Chinese private security firm, phones started ringing. 

Panicked Chinese oil workers employed by the China National Petroleum Corp, the main client of DeWe (pronounced “DeWei”) in South Sudan, were calling an emergency number to say they were in harm’s way and awaiting instructions. 

For Kong Wei, head of DeWe’s Juba office and a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army who retired five years ago, it was the start of a 50 hour-marathon without sleep as he and his colleagues executed an evacuation plan. “Bullets and shells flew over our compound all day and night,” says Mr Kong.