| In 1902 the Qing dynasty initiated a reform program intended to strengthen the state so it could repel foreign threats and suppress internal unrest. Shortly thereafter the dynasty collapsed, but many of the institutions of the reform era--new schools, armies, and police--remained part of the political system of the Chinese Republic. This study examines the history of the establishment of Western-style police forces in China. Through a case study of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, I address two main topics: the capacity of the late-imperial state to carry out institutional reform, and the nature of the police system which the Qing dynasty bequeathed to succeeding regimes.; My study of Chengdu's late-Qing police is based on reports sent by provincial authorities to the central government in Beijing and contemporary accounts culled from local newspapers. These materials indicate that police reform in Chengdu was surprisingly thorough. Twelve hundred constables were trained and posted along the streets of the city of 350,000 residents. Previously, policing functions had been carried out by the staffs of local officials. Because these old-style "police" were not given regular salaries, they supported themselves by exacting fees from the community. Police reformers hoped that, by creating Western-style forces, they could solve the problem of corruption associated with the old system. Available evidence suggests that the new force enjoyed considerable prestige before 1911.; The Sichuan police bureau drew up an ambitious program for municipal improvements in Chengdu and came to dominate city administration, with responsibility for drafting regulations on such matters as prostitution, public sanitation, and censorship of publications and opera performances. The police bureau as an institution survived the revolution, and its activities served as precedents for later city administrations.; The study provides direct evidence of the reality of governmental reform in an era of dynastic decline and chronicles the expansion of the capacity of the state, a phenomenon which scholars are beginning to identify as a significant development throughout twentieth-century Chinese history. |
