- Introduction
- I. Risks and Rights
- II. Outside the Arena
- III. Security, Surveillance, and Safety
- IV. Protecting Your Chinese Contacts
- V. The Great Firewall
- VI. Practical Information
- Map of China with 2008 Olympic Sites
- Download PDF / English
- Download PDF / French
- Download PDF / German
- Download PDF / Japanese
- Download PDF / Spanish
The PSB, the PAP, and the PLA
Surveillance is a fact of life in China. Among other things, it is used to prevent or inhibit unauthorized contacts between Chinese citizens and foreigners, and to keep track of foreign journalists. Journalists will be required to register with the PSB on arrival in China, in addition to going through the Olympics accreditation process. Plainclothes police officers with mobile phones overtly and covertly tail foreigners. They routinely patrol hotel lobbies, bars, and restaurants where foreigners and Chinese gather. Videotaping of participants and onlookers at public events is routine, and it is reasonable to assume that there will be covert and overt videotaping during the Olympics.
Three groups of officers are responsible for security: the Public Security Bureau (PSB), or police, which includes a special anti-riot detail; the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP); and the People's Liberation Army (PLA). You can distinguish the services by their uniforms: green-brown with stiff, high peaked hats for the PSB; green with red stripes down the sides of the trousers and insignia-bearing hats for the PAP. Unless there is a major upheaval, you are unlikely to encounter PLA personnel. The main colors of PLA uniforms are respectively pine green for the Army, dark blue for the Navy and blue-gray for the Air Force. Open-necked shirts are worn in the summer. PLA hats feature a red star and the Chinese characters 八一 (ba yi, or 8 1), in reference to the PLA’s founding date, August 1, 1927.
As a journalist, you are most likely to come into direct contact with plainclothes Public Security Bureau officers. Uniformed PSB officers usually arrive only if there is a need for backup. It may not be immediately apparent who plainclothes officers are. They might not show you any identification; nor will a uniformed officer identify them for you. If an officer requests that you move on and you do not, the officer could use force to compel you. Should the officer ask you to go with him, and you decide to comply, be sure that a non-Chinese friend or colleague accompanies you. That person should first observe what is happening, and then go for help. Uniformed and plainclothes PSB officers carry guns.
The People's Armed Police are technically under the Ministry of Public Security but may come under the dual leadership of the PSB and the PLA in times of crisis. The PAP is a significant presence in Beijing at all times but is likely to act only if there is a major emergency and then only under specific orders. The blue-track-suited Olympic “Flame Attendants” who accompanied the Olympic Torch on its world tour were reported by the Wall Street Journal to be specially trained members of the People's Armed Police. At times of heightened security but no emergency, the presence of PAP officers is more obvious than usual. They may, for example, be stationed 10 meters apart on a major thoroughfare or around Tiananmen Square. PAP officers also carry guns.
