

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based rights organization, has published a 76-page report entitled ‘Beat Him, Take Everything Away,’ a summary and analysis of abuses carried out by China’s overly-brutal under-regulated urban enforcement officials, the chengguan. Here are the highlights.

Since its founding in 1997, China’s Chengguan Urban Management Law Enforcement (城管执法), a para-police agency tasked with enforcing non-criminal urban administrative

regulations, has earned a reputation for excessive force and impunity. The chengguan

have become synonymous among some Chinese citizens with arbitrary and thuggish

behavior including assaults on suspected administrative law violators (some of which lead

to serious injury or death), illegal detention, and abuses accompanying forceful

confiscation of property. [Pg 1]

Originally [urban social control] issues were handled by the danwei (单位), the work unit, to which Chinese employees were once closely bound. The danwei … prevented people from engaging in [commercial] enterprises on the side. The decline of China’s state-owned enterprises in the 1990s precipitated the breakdown of the danwei system. At the same time, the country grew increasingly urbanized and millions of migrant workers poured into the cities. The traditional [urban social control] system could no longer manage [so] the chengguan were established to handle the problems of the urban environment. [Pg 12]

A 2007 review of academic research on chengguan duties and powers noted that in some

jurisdictions chengguan have “14 functions and more than 300 kinds of power, none of

which, however, is endowed by law … [instead, chengguan functions and powers are

adapted] from those of industry and commerce administrations and public security

bureaus.” [Pg 14]

A Nanjing chengguan officer in May 2010 cited “lack of proper training” for frequent incidents of violence involving chengguan officers.59 “We don’t have enough training to effectively enforce law with manners. We are too often told about the dos and don’ts, but seldom how to work properly.”

The training that chengguan do receive has fueled concerns about chengguan commitment to the rights and safety of Chinese citizens. In April 2009, contents of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of City Administration’s Law Enforcement Training Manual were leaked onto the internet. Sections of the book, described in the preface as China’s “first professional guide to practical city administration enforcement” reportedly suggested the application of violence against citizens in the course of enforcement actions. Among them were instructions for surreptitious violence against perceived rule-breakers: “In dealing with the subject, take care to leave no blood on the face, no wounds on the body, and [ensure that] no people [are] in the vicinity.” [Pg 20]

Professor Cai Dingjian at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing has

asserted that all chengguan use of force is unlawful: “No one is authorized to use violence in China except soldiers and police. By resorting to violence, chengguan have actually violated the law.” [Pg 31]

Popular perceptions that chengguan rarely get punished for abuses deter victims from pursuing legal action against them. Ten of the 25 victims of chengguan abuses interviewed by Human Rights Watch opted to not pursue legal action or civil compensation claims against their chengguan abusers. Their reasons for inaction ranged from perceptions that complaining to or about chengguan was “no use … [because the authorities] cover-up for each other [Pg 43]