Chengguan

What could make an innocent toddler so enraged as to take a steel pipe to police? The answer has been blowing up the Chinese Internet.

Chengguan carried away the iconic McDonald’s mascot outside a restaurant in a southern Chinese province because it had supposedly obstructed a footpath.

Chinese netizens outraged at the violence committed by the police.

Apparently the chengguan have struck a sufficiently impressive character that members of one ethnic Chinese gang on a Michigan university campus have decided to adopt their name and methods for their own use.

If you’re ever in China, you might want to keep an eye out for anyone with a uniform from the chengguan. Chengguan” roughly means “urban management.” They aren’t police, technically speaking. Their official job is regulating street vendors. But they’ve earned a reputation for brutality and have been known to beat people to death. Since they have been known to treat people like animals, you can just imagine how they treat actual animals.

On April 19, nearly 1,000 outraged Chinese besieged five urban enforcement officials in Wenzhou City of Zhejiang Province.

At a forced demolition in southern China’s Fujian Province a deputy mayor used police and thugs to beat villagers mercilessly. One villager lost an eye, another was crippled for life, others were beaten senseless.

The execution of the street vendor Xia Junfeng on Sept. 25, 2013 has sparked intense criticism in China of the Chengguan, and photos recording some of the Chengguan’s brutality have been circulating on the Internet. Here is a sample; discretion is advised, as these are disturbing images.

The summary execution of street vendor who killed two urban enforcers in self defense in 2009 was met with a public outcry in China.

A Uyghur fruit vendor was seriously wounded after being shot by a policeman in northwest China.

Not even the People’s Liberation Army is safe from the chengguan, China’s notoriously violent urban enforcement officials.

Chengguan, or city law enforcement officials, in China are now equipped with extra gear to protect themselves from citizens who are protesting against them.

Chinese urban police killed a street vendor on Wednesday, leading to a bloody confrontation between villagers and riot police.

Recent conflicts between China’s “chengguan” police and city residents prompted netizens to reflect on the country’s social ills.

The Chinese public is becoming increasingly intolerant of heavy-handed law enforcers in cities.

A street vendor in Kunming City in Yunnan Province was severely beaten on Sept. 3 by a group of “chengguan,” a type of municipal police, and is listed in critical condition at a local hospital.