People's Armed Police

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The People's Armed Police Force (Abbreviation: PAP; Simplified Chinese: 人民武装警察部队; pinyin: Renmin wuzhuang jingcha budui) is a paramilitary police force primarily responsible for law enforcement within the People's Republic of China.

In contrast to public security officers, PAP guards wear olive green instead of the dark gray or blue uniforms of the People's Police. An individual policeman in the PAP was called an 'armed policeman' (武警) until January 1, 2005. Now, the position has been renamed 'internal guard' (內卫); New arm patches reflect this change.

1 History
2 Mission
3 Organization
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The history of the People's Armed Police is as long as the People's Republic, and its origin can be traced back to the People's Liberation Army, which was responsible for both defending the nation from foreign invasions and internal security. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it was soon apparent that the different troops were required for the vastly different missions, and the domestic security functions had to be removed from the People's Liberation Army. As a result, the portion of People's Liberation Army responsible for internal security and other domestic police missions branched out to form the Public Security Army, under the administration of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China. Although under the Minstry of Public Security, the Public Security Army troops were not exactly public security police officers because in addition to regular police work, they were also tasked with secondary military tasks which was not part of the responsibility of regular police officers of the public security ministry. After numerous name changes and reorganization, the PAP was created in April 1983 by an amalgamation of the PLA's border control, internal security units (domestic 'internal guard' or 內卫), and fire department, as well as from Ministry of Public Security units.

[edit] Mission

The PAP's primary mission is internal security. Such units guard government buildings at all levels (including party and state organisations, foreign embassies and consulates), provide personal protection to senior government officials, provide security functions to public corporations and major public events. Some units perform guard duty in civilian prisons and provide executioners for the state. The PAP also maintains tactical counter-terrorism (CT) units in the Immediate Action Unit (IAU), Snow Wolf Commando Unit (SWCU) and various Special Police Units (SPU).

PAP border security forces (Simplified Chinese: 边防部队; pinyin: bianfang budui) guard China's land and sea borders, as well as its ports and airports. Other units guard China's forests (Simplified Chinese: 森林部队; pinyin: senling budui), gold mines (Simplified Chinese: 黄金部队; pinyin: huangjin budui) and hydropower facilities (Simplified Chinese: 水电部队; pinyin: shuidian budui), as well as provide traffic-policing (Simplified Chinese: 交通部队; pinyin: jiaotong budui), fire-fighting and road construction services.

The secondary mission of the PAP is external defence, and in times of war PAP internal security units can act as light infantry supporting the PLA in local defence missions.

[edit] Organization

The PAP has a dual command structure including the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the State Council through the Ministry of Public Security. By law however, the PAP is not part of the PLA.

The PAP is estimated to have a total strength of 1.5 million, with over half its strength (800,000) employed in its internal security units (Simplified Chinese: 内卫部队; pinyin: neiwei budui). Such units are organised in division-sized elements (Simplified Chinese: 总队; pinyin: zongdui, or 'contingents') and are located in each province, autonomous region and centrally-controlled city. Some provinces have more than one internal security zongdui due to the transferal of 14 PLA Divisions (numbering 500,000 personnel) to the PAP during the late 1990s. Additionally, the PAP maintains a national headquarters in Beijing.

Although their uniforms (olive green) and insignia are different to those of the PLA, PAP guards wear military-style uniforms and insignia that often leads to them being mistaken for soldiers. Furthermore, due to its history with the PLA and paramilitary organisation, the PAP has a similar rank structure to the PLA and also obeys its general regulations. PAP guards are also recruited at the same time and through the same procedures as PLA soldiers. However, the PAP has its own education and training system separate from the PLA.