Chinese Policing

Citation

Li, J.C.M. (2009), "Chinese Policing", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 566-567. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639510910981671

Chinese Policing is one of the rare collections in the field of police study that examines the contemporary situation of law enforcement in China. It contains 49 sections in eight chapters. In the first chapter, the author points out the inadequacy of Western criminal justice perspectives in capturing the situation of policing in contemporary China. There is risk in treating Chinese policing as a monolithic whole; and that is why he adopts a comprehensive treatment of various aspects of Chinese policing in this book. Chapter 2 introduces the readers to how the idea of police originated and developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Chapter 3 deals with the origin of Communist policing, which is linked to the Canton–Hong Kong strike of 1925‐1926. Chapter 4 clearly details the development of Communist policing from 1930 to 1949 with particular attention to changes brought by Deng's economic reform after 1984. Chapter 5 compares police education in China and the USA. As perceived by the author, the former is subject to political control but the later is not. In chapter 6, the author attributes the unhealthy development of policing in China to a lack of rule of law and constitutionalism in the PRC. Chapter 7 describes police reform in post‐Maoist China in the context of social issues: corruption and abuse of power among the police. The final chapter introduces a Chinese theory of policing conceptualized by the author: “Police power as social resource theory” (PPSRT), in which the author suggests empowering people to meet their own needs, supplying them with the necessary resources on demand and as required, and putting people in control of their problems, so as to achieve people‐oriented policing. Different from community policing that relies on the police to fight society's crime in collaboration with community, this Chinese theory of policing emphasizes people in community have to solve their own problems, and police is just a social resource to be used by them on necessary basis.

An express aim of this book is to advance readers' knowledge of Chinese policing from an “inside‐out and bottom‐up” view (p. 28). A noteworthy aspect of this book is the detailed and systematic cultural, international, and historical comparisons, which are based on documentary reviews, local case studies, and historical analysis. In making these comparisons, the author strikes an incredible balance between being detached and attached, looking at things from the inside and outside, and criticizing from local and foreign perspectives. On the one hand, he clearly demonstrates his in‐depth understanding of the origin and history of Chinese culture and political circumstances and their connection to Chinese policing. On the other hand, the analytical framework he presents in the text convinces the readers he has extensive and intense understanding of criminal justice philosophy and systems prevailing in the West. The collection enables readers to quickly gain an integrated understanding of the philosophy, history, and theory of Chinese policing.

This book provides readers with not only a backward‐looking view but a forward‐looking one as well. While reviewing the past, the author details an innovative policing theory specifically for PRC‐PPRST in the last chapter. This theory offers an assumption about policing: “The police are less willing, able, and cost‐effective than the people in dealing with their own problems” (p. 213). This is a totally different view from other classical policing theories. Readers may not agree with the author's innovative proposition at first glance. In spite of this, the author supplies arguments for this theory in a logical and sensible way. This book can certainly give readers a new perspective on policing – particularly the role of and relationship among the police and community over crime control, no matter if they are convinced of the author's proposition or not.

The book has been helpful to me in a number of ways. As a reader, I could grasp the key issues confronting Chinese policing from a bottom‐up and inside‐out perspective. As a teacher of criminal justice courses, it has provided me one more perspective with which to look at the role of and relationship among the police and community over crime control. As a Chinese citizen, I have a better understanding of the social circumstances and development of policing from historic to present‐day China. And, as a researcher of policing studies, it has provided me with a good example for conducting policing studies in the PRC: staying alert to the flaws of existing statistical data, the blockages to research activity, and the discrepancy in estimating crime among China and Western countries like the USA. According to the author, the biggest blockage comes from the fact that “Chinese police officers at the operational level do not think that police theory, research, and findings are useful in their day‐to‐day work” (p. 15).

Every book has its limitations, and this text is no exception. The book might be more appealing if it further related the changes in the social work unit (danwei) system and household registration (hukou) system to the development of crime control work by the police in contemporary Chinese society. The changes that have happened in these two respects have brought a new facet to crime control practice in the PRC (Whyte and Parish, 1984). All in all, I have no reservation to say that this text can bring a new and indigenous perspective of studying policing in China to scholars and students.