Police system reform in China after the Sino-Japanese War

Abstract

The modern police system was first introduced in China at the beginning of the 20th century through the late Qing Reform. The Qing government sought to reform China’s traditional public safety system by modeling it after civil law standards in the world and especially after Japan’s police system—a tendency later also inherited by the Republic of China. However, there also existed a tendency of modeling after common law. This second tendency, which was manifested more in the Nationalist government period and was mainly orientated towards copying the police system of the US, was a topic not yet sufficiently dealt with in previous research. This paper examines the topic by referencing the so-called the system of “police management zones” (警管区制) implemented after the Sino-Japanese War. As postwar China was planning a radical shift towards constitutional government, this new system caused great public dispute, questioning the significance of concepts such as constitutional rule and freedom.