ABSTRACT
During early Nationalist rule, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau became a test case for the new regime's ability to rule effectively while modernizing the municipal administration and seeking to regain sovereign rights over the foreign concessions. Paradoxically, however, the period of puppet administration after Japanese military forces seized the International Settlement on December 8, 1941, saw a tightening of Chinese police control over the urban population while the Communist Party was simultaneously discovering fresh opportunities to expand its underground activities within the city. By early 1941 it was next to impossible to get a room reservation or advance booking for a weekend movie, and the night clubs were packed in the foreign concessions where the wealthy engaged in feverish consumption. International Settlement police and Chinese puppet police relations were ever more strained owing to the expansive growth of the Chinese police outside of Shanghai proper.
