Centralized Law Enforcement in Contemporary China: The Campaign to "Sweep Away Black Societies and Eradicate Evil Forces"

Yin, Bo; Mou, Yu

Abstract

In 2018, China's general secretary, Xi Jinping, announced a three-year war on “black societies and evil forces” and promised to take down various forms of organized crime and evil forces within society. This article examines the operational features of this particular crackdown and how they diverged from previous “strike hard” campaigns. This campaign adopted novel strategies including embedding instructions on law enforcement within criminal justice institutions, promulgating special rules on the crimes of evil forces in order to “strike” campaign targets early, and deploying intrusive investigation tactics that focused on the person and not the crime. Using democratic centralism as a liberal lens, this campaign showcases the struggle between the imperative of legality and the politics of a major campaign in China.

Citation

Yin, B., & Mou, Y. (2023). Centralized Law Enforcement in Contemporary China: The Campaign to "Sweep Away Black Societies and Eradicate Evil Forces". The China Quarterly, 366-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741022001795

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 6, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Dec 13, 2022
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 14, 2022
• Journal: The China Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0305-7410
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2648
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 254
• Pages: 366-380
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741022001795
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/centralized-law-enforcement-in-contemporary-china-the-campaign-to-sweep-away-black-societies-and-eradicate-evil-forces/600987614E4DAD2F81D54B877A84E663
• Additional Information: Data Access Statement : centralized enforcement, campaign justice, sweeping away black societies and eradicating evil forces campaign, evil forces, organized crime, criminal law, criminal justice, China