Research On The Five-Year Plan For Police System Building By Li Shizhen

Li Shizhen became very influential in the military and political community by being the organizer and practitioner of police education and policing research in the late period of ruling by Nationalist Government in mainland.During the 13 years(1936-1948)of presiding over Central Military Officer Academy,Li Shizhen engaged in the work of national police administration from the perspective of police education and training and policing research with the trust and support of President Chiang Kai-shek.The Five-Year Plan for Police System Building designed by him was a significant plan for the police administration of Nationalist Government.In accordance with the plan,the serious situation with chaotic system and decentralized police power would be improved and a new police force,obedient and loyal to Chiang Kai-shek under the guidance of kindheartedness,would be set up within five years.The plan had a far-reaching impact on the development of post-war policing of Nationalist Government and has received wide attention at home and abroad.Consequently,Li Shizhen has been hailed as “the designer of post-war policing”,“the most famous policing expert” and “the father of modern police”.However,the published works about policing research failed to analyze the Five-Year Plan for Police System Building by Li Shizhen elaborately and comprehensively.Based on extensive collection of various primitive literatures,this paper conducts a more detailed examination on the issues of the origin,the nature and the social impacts of the plan.Li Shizhen experienced diverse life changes,from intellectual to soldier,from army to intelligence agency,to police agency,and to police officer academy,which were all potential background factors for his designing of the plan.Besides,there were some direct and indirect factors leading the born of the plan.First of all,as a student and a believer,Li Shizhen felt obliged to practice Chiang Kai-shek’s thinking.Second,the changed situation of the war impelled him to rethink the post-war plan for police.And National Council also provided him with the ideas of the plan.On the basis of several local research results,Li Shizhen called up dozens of instructors from Central Military Officer Academy to draw up the plan and submitted it to Chiang Kai-shek personally.The plan received strong support and personal guidance from Chiang Kai-shek,and also encouragement from top notches from the political and military community.Li Shizhen actively promoted the plan in a variety of occasions with various means,such as constructed bronze statue of Chiang Kai-sheks,sang relevant songs,shot films and so on so forth.To implement the plan after the war,Li Shizhen set up various of training classes in the Central Police Officer Academy,established branches of Central Police Officer Academy,sent a number of graduates and instructors to study in Europe and America.And after the war,he recommended more police officers to preside over the demobilization of police successfully.Despite his multi-pronged efforts,Li Shizhen failed to achieve the desired result.The plan underwent multiple variations in the process of audit and circulation in central departments.At first,the implementation cycle of the plan was extended to 10 years;then,Li Ying,from Central Design Bureau,proposed it as Five-Year Plan for Police System Building(Draft)due to its shortcomings;after that,the Ministry of Interior,with Central Design Bureau,changed it to Five-Year Plan for Police Administration.During this period,Li Shizhen adjusted it to the Plan for Building Modern Police,and submitted it to the Second Plenary of the Sixth Conference of Kuomintang as a proposal to deliberate.Finally,the plan passed the resolution symbolically.But the conference decided to transfer it to the Executive Yuan as a Tentative Version,so the Five-Year Plan for Police Administration became the blueprint for post-war police administration design,instead of the plan by Li Shizhen.Moreover,with the advantage of position,Ministry of the Interior,especially the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics(BIS)intervened the designing of police system,and got the privilege of commanding police community as well.Under the operation of BIS,Li Shizhen didn’t get the posts related to police system building as he wished,such as the Director of Police and the Deputy Minister of the Interior.At the same time,the military exploited the plan to solve the problem of soldier redundancy after the war.With the issuing and implementation of the “Implementing the Plan for Police System Building according to the Plan for Army Force Building”,Li Shizhen’ s Five-Year Plan for Police System Building came to an end in terms of implementation.As a result of the reversal of the war situation,the Kuomintang regime crumbled and no police system building plan was issued,including the Five-Year Plan for Police System Building.But it should be noted that Li Shizhen’s Five-Year Plan for Police System Building is meaningful to national police administration and policing studies and many ideas in the plan have been influential until now.It has brought a wave of research on post-war police administration and reform.The principles revealed in the plan have contributed to the scientific establishment of the police system.What’s more,the sub-projects of the plan have played a positive role for the police administration of Nationalist Government,such as the establishment of the General Police Department,the trail of Police Constable System and the improvement of police organization system.