Police liaison officers under different countries’ embassies in China visit Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau in 2018. (Photo: Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau)
As the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation kicked off in Beijing, local police officers are devoting themselves to making sure participants are safe and the event goes smoothly.
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau has gained rich experience in providing security at large-scale activities, and inernational cooperation between police bodies has contributed greatly to this.
The Beijing police bureau has signed declarations of cooperation with police departments from 10 capitals of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states and observing members. It also established bilateral friendly and cooperative relations with six countries involved in the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), such as Vietnam, Russia and Pakistan.
"Our bureau has been gaining advanced working experience from police departments abroad and strengthening actual combat-oriented exchanges with foreign police, including combating transnational crime, drug trafficking, security threats from international terrorism as well as information sharing," Zhao Wei, deputy director of the Department of International Police Cooperation at the bureau, told the Global Times.
In 2018, altogether 40 transnational law enforcement cooperation cases were jointly handled by Beijing and foreign police. More than 540 overseas requests for law enforcement assistance were processed by the Beijing bureau.
Song Hong, an official specializing in international police cooperation at the bureau, has participated in organizing three large police exchange conferences in Beijing. "The first one focused on communications with police from SCO member states. The second was based on the structure of the ASEAN," she told the Global Times.
She is particularly proud of the Symposium on Major International Sport Events Security held by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau last year. Nine countries and organizations including Britain, France, Germany as well as the International Olympic Committee and Interpol presented their experience on safeguarding major sports events as a reference for Beijing Winter Olympics 2022.
"This symposium is the first event with participants of police officers from host cities of large events after the September 11 terrorist attacks. We are taking the initiative to expand the 'friends circle' of Beijing police," Song said, noting 10 foreign police departments have signed friendly exchange agreements with Beijing police, such as Islamabad Police, Moscow City Police and Berlin Police Department.
Patrolling foreign streets
Wang Shaofeng, an exit-and-entry police officer with excellent English speaking skills at the Fengtai District Public Security Bureau in Beijing, participated in the China-Italy joint patrol in Rome in June 2017.
Wang recalled the moment when he showed up in his dark blue Chinese police uniform for the first time at the Italian capital's landmark Piazza di Spagna during the peak tourist season. He immediately caught the attention of Chinese tourists, who asked him questions such as, "Are you a real Chinese cop?" and "What's your mission here in Italy?"
"You could easily tell that they feel genuinely pleased to see a familiar uniform on foreign soil. It's an extra sense of security," Wang told the Global Times.
Wang's daily routine in Rome included patrolling the city's tourism spots where Chinese tourists are most likely to need help from them. Each shift lasted six hours, which was tiring, but also very fulfilling.
Responding to a comment which criticized the joint patrol as being a "show," Wang said, "It was never a job all about giving high fives, or posing for group selfies. We took the initiative to spot Chinese nationals in need by opening up a special hotline service with the embassy website in addition to a 24/7 police walkie-talkie at hand."
On one occasion, Wang received an emergency call from a group of Chinese students traveling in Italy right after he completed his six-hour patrol.
"They were students studying in the UK, and were traveling all the way from Germany to Italy by a rented car. Unfortunately, after they visited the Colosseum in Rome, their vehicle's windows were smashed and their shopping bags with goods worth more than 100,000 yuan ($15,000) were all gone," Wang recalled.
"They had insurance for the shopping items and the rented vehicle, but needed a local police document to claim the compensation. However, they were unable to do that because the Italian police were too busy handling another case. And this is where we Chinese police came in," Wang said.
Wang explained the students' urgency and reported the case development directly to their Italian counterparts. In the end, with the help of Wang and Italian officers, the Chinese students were able to claim their loss.
The joint patrol lasted more than 20 days in Rome, but the local Chinese community in cities where the joint patrol took place, including Milan, Florence and Naples, continue to enjoy better than ever communication with the local officers, thanks to a new mechanism established by Wang and his fellow Chinese officers during their short stay in the country.
In Rome, gatherings are being held every two weeks where members of the Chinese community and the local officers can sit together to talk about problems in their daily lives, according to Wang.
Working as a bridge
"The China-Italy joint patrol shows a high-level of mutual trust between the two countries' law enforcement departments. At the same time, it also shows our concern over Chinese people's safety in Italy as well as Italian police's concern over their people's safety in China," Zhao said.
He noted that the significance of joint patrols lies in exchanging different ideas on law enforcement in different countries, using Chinese square dancing culture as an example. "Foreign police officers will stop people who play loud music on the square, which is a common activity in Chinese society, because they regard it as noise. If the situation is not handled properly, maybe due to a language barrier, Chinese people may break the local law due to a failure of communication."
He believed Chinese police could work as a "bridge" to connect local police officers and the Chinese nationals living or traveling abroad through the joint patrol.
With more Chinese living, working and studying abroad over the past years, the Chinese government has paid more attention to the safety of overseas Chinese.
Zhao said the Beijing police are exploring more types of transnational police cooperation in the future to better safeguard overseas Chinese interests.
In addition, training programs between Beijing police officers and their foreign counterparts have achieved successful results.
Under the organization of the International Police Affairs Cooperation Office and the Beijing Public Security Bureau, the Beijing Police College has launched 36 training programs for police officers from 20 countries and regions including SCO member states as well those involved in the BRI.
A total of 760 foreign officers from Saudi Arabia and ASEAN countries such as Laos, Myanmar, and Malaysia have taken part in the police training programs in Beijing.
The training program emphasizes "real combat" and "inclusion" where the foreign officers will train, work and have meals with their fellow Chinese trainees, so that the foreign officers can get a real sense and better understanding of Chinese law enforcement in the streets of Beijing, Zhao said.
The training program covers nine subjects, including emergency response, explosive clearing and counter-terrorism.
International wanted list
The capital's public security bureau plays a significant role as the Beijing liaison office of the Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB) of China. Local police are alerted if any internationally wanted person on the Lyons-based Interpol Red Notice list is found in Beijing.
A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action, according to Interpol. It is an international wanted persons notice, but not an arrest warrant.
Red Notices are used to alert police in Interpol's member countries about internationally wanted fugitives. As a result, police in other countries can then be on the watch for them and use the Red Notice to support extradition proceedings, even if the two countries have not signed a treaty of extradition, Zhao noted.
This notice helps bring fugitives to justice, even many years after the original crime was committed. It can also enhance international law enforcement cooperation with the help of the Interpol platform, according to Zhao.
On March 11, 2014, a Chinese criminal suspect surnamed Li who committed the crime of intentional injury was extradited from Sofia, Bulgaria - 11 years after he absconded from Beijing in 2003.
It only took four days to find Li after China's Ministry of Public Security requested a Red Notice for him released by Interpol.
The extradition was the first since China and Bulgaria signed their treaty of extradition in 1996. It is also the first case for a country within the European Union following extradition procedures to hand over a fugitive to China - a breakthrough in China-EU judicial cooperation.
China announced its top 100 fugitives listed on an Interpol Red Notice in April 2015, most of whom committed crimes related to corruption. As of January this year, 56 of them had come back to China with 11 being arrested overseas and two repatriated, the Beijing News reported in the same month.
However, those China-wanted persons on the Interpol's Red Notice list are not only corrupt officials, but also those who broke China's criminal law and were subject to punishment by imprisonment for more than one year, Li Xianfeng, a police officer at the Department of International Police Cooperation of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, told the Global Times.
"Member countries of Interpol can also share information on its huge database, which includes information about fugitives, stolen documents and assisting investigation notices," Li said.