The PAP Border Defence Troops (wujing bianfang budui) is one of the eight branches of the People’s Armed Police (PAP), responsible for the security of China’s land and sea borders. The Border Defence Troops are manned by active duty personnel of the PAP, but under the leadership of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). Within the MPS/police system, this force is also often referred to as “Public Security Border Defence Troops” (gongan bianfang budui). The total strength of the Border Defence Troops is approximately 100,000 people.
Border Defence Troops in exercise (Chinese Internet)
The Border Defence Troops is responsible for law enforcement in land border and coastal regions, preventing illegal border crossing, implementing border traffic control, preventing smuggling of goods and drugs, and preventing human trafficking. In recent years, the Border Defence Troops has also been given additional responsibilities of counter-terrorism, suppressing secession movement, and coast guards.The Border Defence Troops share the responsibility of border security with the PLA border defence units.
The largest operational unit of the Border Defence Troops is a Border Defence General Corps. Each of China’s thirty provincial-level entities (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) has a Border Defence General Corps assigned to it. Most provincial Border Defence General Corps are “division level”, headed by a PAP senior colonel, but in some provinces the Border Defence General Corps are “deputy-army level”, headed by a PAP major general. A provincial Border Defence General Corps is concurrently the Border Defence Bureau (bianfangju) of the local Provincial Public Security Agency (sheng gonganting) to reflect its dual identity of both a military (PAP) and police (Public Security) organisation.
Border defence troops guarding the seaport (Chinese Internet)
The Border Defence Troops have a four-level “general corps-detachment-group-squadron” organisational structure. A Border Defence General Corps is normally composed of several Border Defence Detachments. Basic operational units of the Border Defence Troops include Border Defence Squadrons (bianfang zhongdui), Border Police Stations (bianfang paichusuo), Border Inspection Stations (bianfang jianchazhan), and Coast Guard Flotillas (haijing zhidui).
The Border Defence Troops was formed in June 1982, when the internal defence and border defence units in the PLA, and the armed police, fire-fighting police, and border police forces managed by the MPS were merged to form the People’s Armed Police Force. The Border Defence Troops personnel wore olive green uniforms of the PAP. Its service personnel are composed of commissioned officers, conscripts in two-year service and non-commissioned officers (NCO).
In 1998, the MPS introduced professional policing into its border police force in response to the increasingly complex border control in China. This resulted in Exit and Entry Border Inspection General Stations (jinchujing bianfang jiancha zongzhan) being set up in nine major cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, Haikou, and Shantou. Staffed by professional police officers in the black/blue police uniforms, these inspection general stations took over the border control duty at the airports, seaports, and land border stations in these nine cities from the Border Defence Troops.
Since 2001, the management and command of Border Defence Troops units across the country has been centralised. The command authorities of the Border Defence General Corps in the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities were transferred from the local Provincial Public Security Agencies to the Border Administration Bureau under the MPS. This was widely viewed as a step for the MPS to enhance its control over the Border Defence Troops.
Another significant change came in 2003, when the PLA took over the defence of the China-DPRK border and the Yunnan section of the China-Myanmar border from the Board Defence Forces. Chinese state media explained that the purpose of the move was “enabling the state to integrate land border defence and administration”.
Currently the Border Defence Troops shares the responsibility of land border security and defence with the PLA border defence units. The former performs border control duty at airports, seaports, border stations, and inspection checkpoints, while the latter provides early warning of border violations and constitutes the first line of defence in the event of a border incursion.
