To Address Social Unrest, Government Strengthens Police Role In Responding to Citizen Petitions

Government authorities have acted to strengthen police responsibility for responding to citizen petitions, according to Chinese news reports and the Public Security Bureau (PSB) Rules on Xinfang Work issued on August 18. The move is likely a response to the mounting number of petitions, many of which take the form of disruptive or violent protests.

The PSB Rules require police to take the lead in resolving grievances that citizens raise through xinfang channels (for more information, see the Access to Justice section of the 2004 CECC Annual Report). Police will head interagency "xinfang leadership groups" to coordinate handling of citizen petitions between different bureaus. A recent government media campaign highlighted the new police role in resolving citizen petitions. From May to September, county, prefectural, and provincial PSB authorities across China held campaigns intended to resolve pending citizen petitions, according to a People's Daily article.

Official efforts to raise the profile of the police suggest that the government has adopted a policy of responding to greater numbers of citizen petitions by tightening social controls rather than reforming the judicial or political systems. (For more information on this issue, see an earlier analysis). The PSB Rules explicitly adopt the goal of preventing citizen petitions "at the source," and the Rules also discipline local PSB authorities whenever collective citizen petitions occur. In the past four months, Chinese authorities have also deployed new anti-riot units in major cities and have published editorials in the state news media warning against social unrest, as noted in a New York Times article .