Chongqing Police: Before and After Wang Lijun's Downfall (2)

Wang Lijun sounded like such an arbitrary person. One question the Chinese reporter asked was really good. – Xujun

(Continued from the previous post)

Southern Weekend:TheWomen’sTraffic & Patrol Special ServiceDetachment that was set up under Wang Lijun, will it be disbanded?

Chongqing Police Official: TheWomen’sTraffic & Patrol Special ServiceDetachment, the idea for the future is to maintain a normal institutional structure, there will be men and women, some women will be diverted toother departments. Let some women comrades join the Traffic & Patrol for nonviolent law enforcement, that’s all right, butto set aspecialwomen’sdetachment, we do not quite agree. Especially, thedesign of a specialuniform for them was a serious breach of regulation, something that had never happened in thehistoryofChina’s public security. SinceMay 1^stofthisyear, theWomen‘s Traffic & Patrol Detachment haschanged the uniform.

SW: Any results afteryoumade ​​the aboveadjustments?

Chongqing Police Official: Of course. The police platforms emptied manpower fromthestations,andthebasic work in public security was veryweak, that was why the “3 • 19gun-robbery” case was not solved for a long time. When solving the Zhou Kehuacase, we did notmake big noise. In lessthanfour daysZhou Kehuawas [found and] shot; police from stationsplayedadirectrole in this, and the massesprovided important clues, which provestheimportanceofpublic securitygrass-roots work.

Chongqing Police Official:Objectively speaking, in recent years theChongqing police’s operational capacity has declined somewhat, but it’s hard to say how much. There are severalreasons: First,the 2010 “institutional reform” made a mess for cadres. Institutionalrestructuring was originally required by the central government and the city, and the requirement was legitimate. However, Wang Lijunrequired all 308 division-level cadres and2544 subdivision-level cadres be dismissed. All had to start over and try regain their positions through competition. Because he did nottrustthelocalcadres, Wang Lijunalso required200 division-level cadres to be transferred in from outside, but we hadonly a total of over three hundred posts at that level. The completeoverturn was topavetheway for outside cadres. At the time, the comrade who was heading the Political Department said that, according to regulations, administration personnel are appointed but not hired, thus they can’t be simply dismissed from employment.   Wang Lijunthought about it and said,“Then lets call it ‘dismiss from tasks’.“. That was how this new term was coined by Wang Lijun. In this way,all human resources weredisrupted, alargenumberof highly skilled cadres effectively became rookies, and needed time to get familiarwiththeir new jobs. Secondly, 11,800new police were recruited and placed in their postsdirectly,which caused the poor quality of case-solving in recent years. Now we have decided to start career training for the new police.

SW:Iheardthatyourecently restored posts for some police officials at division and subdivision levels who had failed to regain employment through competition.   Does this mean you let some unqualifiedofficialsreturn to their posts?

Chongqing Police Official:According to the regulations, in institutional reform, the filling of posts should first consider existing qualified cadres, and then use any vacant posts for employment through competition. But he overturned everything.

When giving examinations, hemade ​​it clear one test that must be included was whether police had studied Bo Xilai’sand his speeches. After some struggle, we managed to also include some professional questions. Overall, the quality of cadres who passed the exams was not too bad.
In the end, 159 division level and 968 subdivision level cadreswere not used. Most of those were either not allowed to participate in the competition because Wang Lijun put trumped-upcharges on them, or they passed the competition but Wang did not like them and did not want to use them. Recently,thisgroup ofcadres went through re-examination, and 76 division level cadres and 299 subdivision level cadres were reappointed. For those who have reached the retirement age, their treatment is retained but they no longer work on key posts. For the few with very low public acceptance and poor performance, we did not reappoint. 

1123 police demanded vindication

SW:Recently, we keep hearing thattheChongqing policelaunched alarge scale internal vindication. Howmanypolicehave beenvindicated?

Chongqing Police Official:InMay, weset up aspecialreviewteamheaded by a DeputyChief, to specificallyaccept and reviewcomplaintsofpolice who hadbeen punished. So far we received a total of1123policecomplaints. Becausesome ofthe cases involve multiple individuals, the number of police that requirereview is 2202. So far1796 have been reviewed; 78% of the original decisions wereoverturned, 13% retained, and 9%modified. A number of departmental, division and subdivision police have resumed their duties and received retroactivewages.  So far 133 resumed their leadership positions, including 48 at the division level, and 85 at the subdivision level. Among another9 cadres at deputy departmental level who had been dismissed, 3 have resumed their positions, and another sixare underreview.

SW: Whyhave so manypoliceofficersbeen punished? In what situations have the original decisions been overturned, retained, or modified respectively? With so much revocation,it’s tempting tothink some problematic police are returning to their posts.

Cases that have been overturned were mostly this kind ofsmallmistakes, not enough forParty disciplineoradministrative sanctions. Atthattime, Wang Lijun used “admonishing talk” for actual punishment toaffectpolice’snormalpromotion. Forexample, after one year of service, if the person got an “admonishing talk,” he would not get a formal position. After investigation, we revoked the sanctiononthosecomrades.

On the other hand,13%ofthepolicewhose sanctions aremaintaineddid have problems.For example, somepolicedrove apolice carto beat up civilians. The director of a police station didn’t go to the [crime] site after receiving reports, instead he demanded the off-duty deputy director go; the delay caused the suspect to flee and run over a person. These people, underWang Lijun or not, must be punished by law. In some cases of over-punishment, charges were reduced after our investigation.
On policevindication, theformersecretaryofthePolitics and Law Committee,Liu Guangleiand the currentsecretary, LiuPu, all gave specificinstructionsand guidance. They requested us to do a good job on ideological work. The Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Organizational Department, and the Politics and Law Committee all gave us a lot of support. Currently, Chongqing’s police force hasgraduallystabilized.

SW:Recently,there has beennews thattheChongqing policehad often used torture to extract confessions, is it true?

Chongqing Police Official:Recently some people were talking aboutTieshanping.(Editorial note: According to media reports, a militia trainingbaselocated on top of Chongqing’s Tieshanping Forest Parkhad been used asthe“outsourced interrogation base” for the “smash black” campaign). Whether thereexisted tortureis under investigation by the People’s Procuratorate. Iwon’t comment on specific cases, but let me make two statements:  first, thepolice departments must serve theirduties to fight against crime and protect the people, anycasesviolating the criminal lawandendangering people’slives and property, the police must handle in accordance with law. Second, any cases handled by Chongqingpolice, no matter when, no matter what kind, as long as there isacomplaint, we willstrictly and carefully review according to law, fairly and justlydeal according to law.

SW:I feel younow blameWang Lijun for lots of the problems; Why didn’t the ChongqingPolice Bureau’s Party Committee play itsdueroleofsupervision and discipline?

Chongqing Police Official:I’ll giveyoua few more examples. Because a policeman from Wushan Countypetitioned, Wang Lijunpunished the entire leadership of the county’s police bureau. The news was spread on the internet, then a bunch of comrades in the Propaganda Division were punished.  At a Party Committee meeting, a committee member suggested that “We shouldn’t overthrowa large number [of cadres].” Wangpounded the table, “XXX, screw you!Shut up your stinky mouth!“

When Woman’s Traffic & Patrol Police wasestablished, the uniform they used was not the one regulated by theMinistryofPublicSecurity, but was designed by the order of Wang Lijun. One of theParty Committee Memberssuggested that the Ministry of Public Securityhas clear regulation on uniforms, and this [design] resulted in a serious breach of the regulation. Wang Lijunwas very angry: “XXX, do you meanonlyyou understand theMinistry’s regulations but not me? Only you follow thedecisionoftheMinistrybut not me?” Thecommittee memberhad to say: “I didn’tmean that, I was just doing my duty as adeputy.” Wang Lijun said, “It’s okay to make suggestions,butalways think twicebefore you do.“

Wang Lijun publiclyclaimed at a Party committee meeting: “Let me tell you, I can remove, even arrest, the entire leadership of the Party Committee within a day.” At apoliceGeneral Assembly, Wang Lijun also said publicly: “All of you (in the audience), including those leadersonthe stage, I can get within a day.”  That sort of thing, first you are unable to change, secondyou’d do yourself in.

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