People's Armed Police Internal Troops

The Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (中国人民武装警察部队, PAP) is a paramilitary police force tasked with internal security roles within China. The PAP consists of the Internal Troops, as well as four specialised branches: Forestry Troops, Gold Mining Troops, Transportation Troops, and Hydropower Troops, which are non-combat paramilitary organisations tasked with economic development roles. In addition, the PAP also provides manpower for the three paramilitary police forces: Border Defence Troops, Firefighting Troops, and Guard Troops, which are subordinate to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). The total strength of the PAP is 660,000 men.

PAP History

The PAP was created in 1983 by merging the PLA Internal Guard Troops, Public Security Armed Police, Public Security Border Police, and other PLA units tasked with internal security roles. The PAP can trace its lineage back to the Public Security Forces created in the 1950s by the Chinese communist government for the internal security role and subsequently disbanded in the 1960s due to political struggles. Today, the PAP is placed under the joint unified leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and State Council, and is regarded as an integral part of the Chinese Armed Forces along with the PLA and reserve forces.

PAP Internal Troops soldiers guarding the Beijing Olympic stadium (Chinese Internet)

When it was first created, the PAP was regarded as “a constituent part of the public security (police) departments”, but the restructuring of PAP leadership and management in the 1990s led to the responsibility of overseeing PAP’s daily running taken away from the public security departments and centralised under the CMC, resulting in the PAP being further integrated into the military. The PAP has seen its size expanded significantly and its status elevated in China’s military command hierarchy since the mid-1990s, as China faces growing challenge of domestic unrest and ethnic minority secession movements.

Internal Troops

The main body of the PAP Force is the Internal Troops (内卫部队), which are composed of provincial general corps and mobile divisions. In China, each provincial-level entity (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) has created a PAP general corps (武警总队); each prefectural-level entity (cities and prefectures) has created a PAP detachment (武警支队); and each county-level entity (county, league, and town) has created a PAP group (武警大队) or PAP squadron (武警中队). There are also fourteen mobile divisions directly subordinate to the PAP Headquarters in Beijing.

The Internal Troops are responsible for guarding key targets, such as leading government and party departments, prison and detention centres, foreign embassies and consulates, large airports and seaports, bridges and tunnels on the truck routes of railway and roads, radio and TV stations, and key industrial facilities. Their duties also include escorting convicts and prisoners, reinforcing the public security departments in law enforcement, conducting armed patrol and inspections in metropolitan areas, and assisting in fighting fire and natural disasters. In time of war, the Internal Troops could also be deployed as light infantry for rear security and defence roles.

Each PAP provincial general corps has one or more mobile units, which are not assigned to guard a specific target, but to respond to emergency or crisis such as riots and conflicts. Since the 1980s, there have been several special police units (SPU) created at the headquarters- and local-level within the PAP to deal with terrorism and hostage crisis.

The PAP has also dispatched small teams to station in the Chinese embassies in Baghdad, Iraq and Kabul, Afghanistan to protect Chinese diplomats in these two countries.

Mobile Divisions

Mobile divisions were composed from the fourteen demobilised infantry divisions transferred from the PLA to the PAP in 1996. They are essentially light infantry troops organised in military order of battle (division-regiment-battalion-company). Mobile divisions lost their heavy artillery, armour and engineering elements in the process of transfer, but retained some of their infantry support weapons such as mortars, grenade launchers, and recoilless guns. Capable of being deployed anywhere within the country, mobile divisions do not report to any local PAP general corps, but are directly subordinated to the PAP headquarters in Beijing.

The PAP Internal Troops are equipped with standard military issue weapons such as assault rifles, light machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, and recoilless guns, as well as some riot control equipments such as protective gears, tear gas grenades, batons, and shields. Some PAP units are also equipped with armed personnel carriers, special command vehicles, or even helicopters.

Command and Control

PAP Internal Troops patrolling the street of Lhasa following the March 2008 riot (Chinese Internet)

The Internal Troops is under the a command and control system described as “unified leadership and management, with command divided by levels”. “Unified leadership and management” refers to the fact that the PAP is under the joint leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the State Council. In particular, the personnel affairs, political education, and training of the PAP has been centralised under the CMC since 1995. The budget of the PAP is funded by the State Council and local governments, not the country’s defence budget.

“Divided command” gives the local public security departments the authority to mobilise the PAP Internal Troops units within their jurisdictions. In order to streamline the PAP’s command and control, the Minister of Public Security is concurrently appointed as the First Political Commissar of the PAP. Local public security department chiefs are also appointed as the first commissars of the local PAP Internal Troops unit. For example, the public security agency chief of a province is concurrently the First Political Commissar of the PAP General Corps of that province; The public security bureau chief of a city or prefecture is concurrently the First Political Commissar of the PAP Detachment of that entity.

Mobile divisions receive orders directly from the PAP headquarters and do not have public security officials implanted as their first political commissars.

Last update: 20 March 2009