ABSTRACT
Since the ird Plenum of the 11th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 1978, the Party has adopted Deng Xiaoping’s “liberating the mind” and “seeking truth from facts” principles as keys to successful reform in China. In 2006, at the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee, the Party has shied the focus of reform from uninhibited growth of Jiang’s era1 to one of a more balanced development under the leadership of the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao administration. Since then, Chinese reform has pursued the twin goals of advancing humanity (putting people rst)2 and achieving a harmonious society (seeking balanced growth),3 with scientic development as the process to do so.4 Slowly but surely, President Hu Jintao’s new ideology-people, harmony, and science-is replacing the ideology of Marx, Mao, and Deng-class, revolution, and doctrine. Chinese police reform has nally come of age. With regard to police reform goals and strategies, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) commissioned a study of police work problems, particularly at the grassroots level, with a view toward their eradication in an evidence-based, scientic way:
In order to inform public security organs at various levels, we need to conduct investigations and research: (1) on major public security issues in order to provide a scientic foundation for policy determination by leaders; (2) on “focal problems” and “dicult issues” to provide for detailed, concrete, feasible solutions and discover innovative breakthroughs; (3) on emerging problems and developing trends in order to avoid arbitrariness and spontaneousness.5
