Policing in the People's Republic of China. The Road to Reform in the 1990s

Abstract

Under Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, China has been transformed from a backward state‐planned economy into a modern market‐driven one. The economic reform has changed China socially, politically, and culturally (Burton 1990). The ‘gongan’ or public security has been a part of that transformation process. During the last 13 years (1978–2001), the public security apparatus has changed its role and functions, core values, leadership, organization structure and process, management philosophy and operational procedures and practices. This article reviews recent public security reform measures and change process, focusing on developments in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was the ‘radical reform’ period, leading up to the Police Law of 1995. Subsequent developments, not discussed here, are more evolutionary in character. This paper is part of a larger research enterprise entitled ‘Police Reform in the People's Republic of China Project’ sponsored by the Chinese Law Programme, Chinese University of Hong Kong. One major aim of the project is to build up an accessible English literature on PRC policing for China‐bound criminal justice students and/or comparative police scholars.

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