Comparative Models of Policing

(China)

 The Ministry Of Public Security (MPS)

 The Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China is the principal
police and security authority of the People’s Republic of China and the
government.

 The ministry was established in 1949 after the Chinese Communist Party’s victory
in the Chinese Civil War as the successor to the Central Social Affairs Department
and was known as Ministry of Public Security of the Central People’s Government
until 1954.[4] Grand General Luo Ruiqing of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
served as its first minister. As the ministry’s organization was based on Soviet and
Eastern Bloc models, it was responsible for all aspects of national security;
ranging from regular police work to intelligence, counterintelligence and the
suppression of anti-CCP political and social sentiments.[4][5] Military intelligence
affairs remained with the General Staff Department, while the CCP’s International
Liaison Department was active in fomenting revolutionary tendencies worldwide
by funneling weapons, money and resources into various pro-CCP movements.

 The ministry employs a system of public security bureaus throughout the

provinces, cities, municipalities and townships of China. The special
administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau maintain nominally separate
police forces. The ministry is headed by the minister of public security. Wang
Xiaohong has been the minister in charge since June 2022.

 Functions of MPS
 The Public Security Ministry provides unified leadership and guidance to all
public security work and directs professional and armed police forces. Ministry
departments are responsible for investigating criminal cases, internal security,
and public order administration. Established in 1986, the Research Institute of
Public Security is charged with studying new problems caused by recent reforms.
Local public security organizations are part of local government but function
under national direction. China has about 600,000 professional police officers,
and efforts have been made to enhance the political and cultural quality of police
forces through education. General functions of public security organs are to
perform public order administration, prevent crimes against the socialist system,
prevent criminal activities that endanger public order, protect public and
 personal property, maintain public order, and ensure the smooth progress of
socialist modernization.

 Levels of Policing by the MPS

 The MPS is organized into functional departments. Subordinate to the MPS are
the provincial- and municipal-level PSB’s (Public Security Bureau) and sub-
bureaus at the county and urban district levels. At the grassroots level, finally,
there are police stations which serve as the direct point of contact between
police and ordinary citizens. While public security considerations have weighed
heavily at all levels of administration since the founding of the PRC, the police are
perceived by some outside observers to wield progressively greater influence at
lower levels of government. Provincial public security bureaus are subject to dual
supervision by both local provincial governments and the central government.
The ministry is also closely associated with the development of surveillance
technologies used by police in China through the Third Research Institute focused
on the development of AI based “smart surveillance,” and censorship
technologies.

 The MPS Policing and Public Relations

 China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has recently doubled down on efforts to
improve its image. Through investment into entertainment programming aimed
at opening up the world of frontline policing to the public, the Ministry is
fulfilling a call to prioritize public opinion as part of its reform agenda, perhaps in
the hope that showcasing a more sympathetic view of the organization will
lessen police conflict with society.

 Interestingly enough, concern for public relations has deep roots in the history of
Chinese policing. As agents of the mass line under Mao Zedong, police were
officially charged with mobilizing the masses and told to keep in close contact
with the people while conducting their work. These instructions continued into
the reform era, with police training institutes emphasizing the role of the police
as servants of the people who must listen to and accept the input of the masses.
The 1995 Police Law even went so far as to insert provisions for citizen
supervision over the police by allowing residents to file official complaints against
police officers.

 More recently, public relations departments (formerly known as propaganda

departments) have engaged in outreach efforts at all levels of the bureaucracy.
For years, many local stations have maintained social media accounts on Sina
Weibo that blast out holiday greetings or reminders that residents should drive
 carefully in foggy conditions. Visitors to China may have also noticed the cartoon
police characters adorning security notices, checkpoints, and street signs
throughout the country. MPS even hosts a Grassroots Police Culture Group that
produces over-the-top television entertainment specials – complete with
dancing, skits, and bubble machines – that tout the achievements of local police
and honour officers for their service to the country. Taken together, these efforts
present a friendlier, more helpful version of the state, although the cartoons later
inspired the creation of “internet police” jingjing and chacha who were designed
to pop up on users’ computer screens with the express purpose of intimidation.

 People’s Armed Police

 The People’s Armed Police (PAP) is the Gendarmerie paramilitary police force
originally under the joint supervision of the MPS and Central Military
Commission (CMC). However, after a series of high-profile corruption scandals
involving their misuse by Bo Xilai, then party secretary of Chongqing, in the Wang
Lijun incident, it was decided under the 2015 military reforms to place all
People’s Armed Police personnel under the direct and exclusive control of the
CMC. After a trial period in selected jurisdictions, the PAP was officially
established at the national level in 1983. In line with the general policy of
reducing the size of the armed forces and transferring responsibilities to the
civilian sector, the newly established force was formed from internal security
units reassigned from the PLA to the Ministry of Public Security and from border
defense (customs) and fire-fighting units. In 1985 the PAP consisted of
approximately 600,000 volunteers and conscripts. With a headquarters at the
national level and division-level provincial units, regimental-level detachments,
and battalion-level brigades, it retained its military organization. Current strength
of PAP is estimated at 1.5 million.

 What Does Chinese People’s Armed Police Do?

 PAP units are responsible for guarding party and state organizations and foreign
embassies and consulates, as well as for responding to emergencies and
maintaining law and order. Border defense units performed standard customs
duties, such as inspecting vehicles and ships entering and leaving the country,
and maintained surveillance against smugglers and drug traffickers. PAP
firefighting units were responsible for fire-prevention education as well as for
fighting fires. PAP units at every level worked in close cooperation with the
armed forces and other public security organizations.