Advance Reviews

“This book by K.C. Wong is a case study, a unique as well as ambitious one … Even though this book is a case study, the book facilitates comparison of China with other countries through the implicit lens of contemporary Western criminology.…Wong’s study is thorough with respect to the cultural and historical development of Chinese policing. It covers the current state of knowledge about the Chinese police, its role, origins, history, cultural roots, and contemporary attempts at reform. …Altogether, Chinese Policing: History and Reform is a major contribution to the field of comparative criminology as well as a unique analysis of the connections between Chinese culture and contemporary policing”.

Distinguished Professor David Bayley, School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York - Albany

“The fifth installment in Lang’s series, Chinese Policing is a formidable piece of cutting-edge scholarship that pushes the boundaries of police science as well as the disciplines of comparative criminology and criminal justice...This book is not a mere translation of Chinese government documents. Rather, Wong analyzes Western myopia when it comes to policing in the PRC. He emphasizes both overlooked and nontraditional factors involved the decisions made by police officers and agencies in the PRC in the process of fulfilling their obligations. I’m sure that scholars, instructors, practitioners, and students in policing and law enforcement will be intrigued by Wong’s book.”

Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D.,
University of Baltimore, USA

"This book provides an important contribution to our understanding of historical and contemporary Chinese policing. Of particular interest is the author̓ s theory of ̔Police Power as A Social Resource̓ which, drawing upon Chinese theory and practice, challenges us to think beyond the conventional ̔Anglo-American̓ (police-led) models of community policing which have dominated so much contemporary debate".

Prof Les Johnston,
University of Portsmouth, UK

This detailed study of the history and evolution of policing in China lays the basis for comparative research, sheds light on the challenges and prospects of maintaining law and order in such a huge and rapidly developing country as China, and provides policy-makers important insights for a much needed, more effective, reform agenda.

Randall Peerenboom,
Professor of Law,
La Trobe University, Australia
Associate Fellow, Oxford University Centre for Socio-Legal Studies

Kam C. Wong has managed to do what seems difficult, if not impossible. His book integrates the comparative knowledge of policing with a detailed and immensely erudite analysis of the police in China, in the past and now. Drawing on his language skills and extensive and intimate knowledge of Chinese history, culture, philosophy, ideology and recent economic, political and legal changes, he presents a masterful synthesis of the forces that have shaped the policing systems of China over time. His main argument is that existing descriptions of the Chinese police severely underestimate the complexity and variety of policing that is done in China, especially the role of informal, but state guided, social control exercised by family and community. His books seeks to correct these oversimplifications of the nature of China’s police which, he argues, reflect misleading external assumptions about the nature of social control in China. The Chinese characteristics of policing combine bottom up and top down policing systems that can only be understood and correctly interpreted through the lens of Chinese culture and ideology.

Otwin Marenin
Washington State University, USA

"A unique window on the cultural and political foundations of contemporary Chinese Policing. Professor Wong has made an important contribution to comparative criminology"

Distinguished Professor Peter Grabosky
Australian National University