Local cadres to face the music over serious 'mass incidents'
Police chiefs to be sacked if their behaviour stirs up protests
The Ministry of Public Security has sought to curb corruption at the grass roots with new directives demanding local cadres step down if their dereliction leads to 'mass incidents'.
The ministry yesterday warned the heads of local police stations that they could lose their jobs if mass incidents - a euphemism used by officials for protests, riots and mass petitions - resulted in 'serious consequences'.
'Most of our achievements are made by grass-roots police teams, but they are also targets of most of the criticism,' Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang was quoted on the ministry's website as telling a recent anti-corruption meeting.
The statement did not explain what would constitute dereliction.
The directives, which involve disciplinary punishment, also demand local police chiefs resign if they commit irregularities such as extracting confessions from suspects by force, misusing firearms, abusing their right to impose fines and abusing power, resulting in a person's death.
These are the areas that draw most public complaints.
The ministry said the directives were aimed at building an incorruptible police force.
But academics said they showed tension between police and the public had caught the attention of those at the top.
China has been battling protests as a result of rampant corruption and a blind pursuit of economic growth.
Government figures suggest the police dealt with 17,900 such incidents in the first nine months of last year, down 22 per cent on the same period in 2005. The figure hit 74,000 in 2004.
In one of the most high-profile cases in recent years, police officers shot dead at least three residents in Guangdong's Dongzhou village in December 2005 during a protest against the seizure of land. Local residents claimed the death toll was more than 20.
Despite international attention and criticism, the officers involved received relatively light punishment in contrast to the tough sentences handed out to villagers held responsible for the incident.
The police chief who ordered the shooting was sacked and three other senior law-enforcement officials were reprimanded. But 12 villagers were ordered to serve up to seven years in jail.
More recently, more than 2,000 people in Guangan , Sichuan , clashed with police after a boy died when a hospital allegedly refused treatment because his family could not afford the medical fees.
Mao Shoulong , a public administration professor at Renmin University, said the public had lost trust in the police force as complaints about it had increased.
'It has come to the government's attention that some people have resorted to organised crime gangs to solve their problems because they think the police have failed to fight for justice,' Professor Mao said.
