Shanxi police force must be cleaned up if China is to honour pledge of accountability
Zhou Zunyou says scandals involving officers in Taiyuan have caused public outrage
On January 2, the police chief of Taiyuan , the capital of Shanxi province, openly apologised to the public and to the relatives of Zhou Xiuyun, a female migrant worker who died after a pay dispute turned violent. Three police officials had been detained for abuse of power and allegedly beating the woman to death.
The incident took place on December 13, when a crowd of migrant workers tried to enter a construction site to ask for their salaries but were blocked by security guards. Local police were called to the scene.
Tragically, the police intervention ended in the death of Zhou, while her husband was seriously injured. Other migrant workers were also beaten by police.
The brutality prompted a wave of public anger, when images of a police officer treading on Zhou's hair while she lay motionless on the ground went viral.
Zhou's death was not an isolated example of how far the Taiyuan police still have to go before they live up to the expectations of the fourth plenum to construct a transparent, accountable, and therefore credible government.
To understand this, one needs to look at the Taiyuan government's response to the malfeasance. In the days immediately following the tragedy, the police station involved claimed its officers were innocent.