Explainer | Who are China’s ‘Chaoyang public’, exposing celebrities for drug use, patronising prostitutes and other crimes?
- The ‘Chaoyang public’ were involved in the police detention of renowned pianist Li Yundi on suspicion of patronising a sex worker
- Public informants play an increasingly vital role in aiding China’s law enforcement arms
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It is common knowledge that there are four famous international spy agencies, the US’ CIA, UK’s MI6, the former Soviet Union’s KGB and Israel’s Mossad.
In China, there’s another rising star — the “Chaoyang public”, which the Chinese jokingly refer to as “the fifth largest intelligence agency in the world”.
In the notice, the police wrote that they received “a tip-off from the public that some people were resorting to prostitution in a Chaoyang residential compound” and had investigated, leading to Li’s detention.
Before Li’s case, many celebrities had fallen from grace in the same way. According to a Weibo post last week by the China Culture Administration Association, starting from 2014, at least 10 celebrities were investigated by police for drug use or prostitution after “public tip-offs”.
Chaoyang is the largest district in Beijing, with a famous commercial area, numerous foreign embassies, as well as Salitun, the centre of the city’s bustling nightlife. It has high-end apartments, shopping malls and has always been a favourite spot for celebrities and business people.
How they help law enforcement
Even years before “Chaoyang public” became a popular term, a 1974 article in the Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily talked at length about how the Chinese public cooperated with police to capture spies from the former Soviet Union.
“The spies thought their secret dealings in a dark corner were not known to anyone. How foolish they were. Their criminal activities fell on sharp eyes from the Chinese public,” the article said.
The public being referred to could be considered the predecessor of today’s “Chaoyang public”.
The mysterious term first started getting mentioned in official reports in the 2010s. In 2013, Beijing police said in a statement that thanks to tips from the public, they caught Charles Xue Biqun, also known by his alias Xue Manzi, a billionaire venture capitalist and one of the most active investors in the Chinese internet, for using a sex worker.
Who exactly are they?
“The police will protect the privacy of informants, so please don’t ask who they are,” Beijing police said on Weibo. “But police work relies on public support and cooperation. No matter if it’s tips, or check-up on transportation, fire safety and security risks, everybody can be a member of ‘Chaoyang public’.”
In 2015, the Beijing Youth Daily visited one such community in Chaoyang district, which has more than 200 informants.
“They are all enthusiastic residents wearing red sleeves, or shop owners. When they are buying food or out walking, whenever they spot something suspicious, they would report it immediately to community police,” the article said.
There’s even a 24-hour patrol team consisting of 70 people that are alert to everything in the community.
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All patrol members have the phone number of a local policeman, they will report to him whenever they see something suspicious. If the policeman can handle the situation on the spot, he will deal with the matter, otherwise he will report to his supervisors, the article said.
Issues these volunteers have resolved in the past include spotting a mentally ill elderly man and helping him to get treatment, and investigating a case of vandalism in the neighbourhood.
Official encouragement from Mao to the digital age
There has long been a tradition of “qunfang qunzhi”, or “prevention and governance by the public masses” in China. The phrase was coined by Chairman Mao and other officials in 1949, according to the People’s Daily.
In Beijing, the tradition has been encouraged in official propaganda for years, using volunteers not only in residential communities but also in cyberspace.
Starting in 2014, Beijing cyberspace police recruited volunteers to assist in finding internet scams, pornography, online gambling, drug use and stop the spreading of rumours, and by 2015 more than 3,000 people had joined.
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In 2017, the Beijing police launched a mobile phone application called “Chaoyang Public”, which allows residents to upload pictures and descriptions with one click and allows the police to send alerts and notify people of other cases being investigated.
According to a 2018 article by the Beijing Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Communist Party of China, there are roughly 190,000 volunteers in Chaoyang district that serve to protect public security, which is roughly 5 per cent of the district population. Together, they provide more than 20,000 tips to the police every month.
The arrangement has come under criticism as well, as some questioned whether it would result in snitching or malicious reports. Yi Yidian, professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law, told the Beijing Youth Daily that issues would need to be solved, including listing standards on what the public can report on.
“It’s easy for individuals’ personal space to be compressed,” he said. “Therefore there needs to be a balance between keeping public security and safeguarding personal space.”
