City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau - History

History

The Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau was established in 2001/2002 for all major cities in mainland China to improve municipal governance as cities become more crowded and urban issues became more complex.

The bureaus' officials are responsible for cracking down on unlicensed street vendors. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, "Ever since the agency came into existence 10 years ago, there have been repeated criticism of them using excessive force. This para-police force, equipped with steel helmets and stab-proof vests, is often used by local officials as trouble shooters".

In general the Chengguan serve as an official agency employed by cities across China "to tackle low-level crime." However, the agency is widely disliked by the Chinese due to their alleged abuses of power.

Chengguan have been involved in several high-profile cases that highlighted public discontent towards a perceived abuse of power by Chengguan. One high profile case involved Cui Yingjie, who killed a Chengguan in 2006 after a confrontation in Beijing. Public support for Cui Yingjie before and during the trial may have affected the leniency shown to Cui, who received a commuted death sentence.

Following an incident in Tianmen City (天门市), Hubei province in January 2008 in which the manager of a construction company, Wei Wenhua, was beaten to death for filming the actions of the Chengguan in a local dispute over rubbish dumping, nationwide calls were made to abolish the unit. Thousands of messages were posted over the Internet and protests took place in Hubei province. According to sources, some Chengguan officials have connections to organized crime. Chinese netizens compared Wei with Zhou Zhenglong, the protagonist in a South China Tiger photo incident. They commented, "Zhou filmed a tiger, he was alive; Wei filmed City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau officers, he was dead. What does this suggest? City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau officers are fiercer than the tiger!"

Time magazine reports that beatings by chengguan officers have become such commonplace news that, "The word chengguan has even taken on an alternate meaning in Chinese. "Don't be too chengguan" is an appeal not to bully or terrorize. In other words, chengguan has literally become synonymous with violence."

A 2012 report by Human Rights Watch documents Chengguan abuses, "including assaults on suspected administrative law violators, some of which lead to serious injury or death, illegal detention, and unlawful forceful confiscation of property."

There were multiple cases in 2011 and 2012 throughout China where police officers were attacked by groups of chengguan agents when responding to incidents of chengguan's use of violence and abuse.

In 2012, the chengguan agency in Wuhan announced formation of an internal 'militia' or paramilitary-type division.