Kam C. Wong - Böcker

The HKP (Hong Kong Police), ‘Asia’s Finest’, is a battle-tested professional organization with strong leadership, competent staff, and deep culture. It is also a continuously learning and reforming agency in pursuit of organisational excellence. Policing in Hong Kong: History and Reform is the first and only book on the development of the Hong Kong Police from an inside out and bottom up perspective. Written by a scholar and veteran of the HKP, it is an amalgamation of indigenous theory and supporting data.Part One begins by describing the development of police studies in Hong Kong as an emerging field since the 1990s. It supplies an analytical and empirical construct of colonial policing as well as a theoretical assessment. It discusses the nature, topologies, conduct, impact, and assessment of police reform. The book demonstrates how colonial policing in Hong Kong and elsewhere takes on the community’s local color and hue in practice. Colonial policing in Hong Kong is "policing with Chinese characteristics."Part Two tracks the history of the HKP’s formation in the 1840s and examines how colonial policing in Hong Kong has changed over time. It describes the HKP’s four distinctive reform periods: the formation period (1845), the reorganisation period (1872), the modernisation period (1950s), and finally, the decolonisation period (1990s). It argues that HKP reform in the1950s was the pivotal point in transforming the HKP from a colonial force into a civil one by way of localisation, legalisation, modernisation, communalisation, and organisation. Overall, the book questions previously accepted colonial history, and in doing so, contributes to our understanding of challenges and opportunities facing HKP after the reversion of political authority from England to China.

This comprehensive book examines the state of research on policing in Hong Kong. It surveys the history and development of the field of police studies in Hong Kong, and examines the various methods, problems and prospects in the field.

With nearly 20 percent of the world’s population located in China, what happens there is significant to all nations. Sweeping changes have altered the cultural landscape of China, and as opportunities for wealth have grown in recent years, so have opportunities for crime. Police Reform in China provides a rare and insightful glimpse of policing in the midst of such change.The book begins with a historical account of police reform in the region since 2000. Next, it discusses the difficulties encountered in trying to understand Chinese policing, such as outdated perceptions, misinformation, cultural ignorance, ideological hegemony, and problems with paternalistic attitudes. The book recommends studying China from a local perspective informed by local research and data, suggesting that understanding China requires a cultural shift to the Chinese way of life in "thinking" and, more importantly, "feeling."The author then summarizes selected policy papers from Gongan Yanjiu, a leading international policy journal. He first documents how the thinking and aspirations of various generations of Chinese leaders from Mao to Deng, and now Jiang and Hu, came to affect Chinese policing in theory and practice. He then addresses the emergence of a police legitimacy crisis as evidenced by the deterioration of public image and rebellions against police authority. Demonstrating how old ideologies are increasingly in conflict with the values and lifestyles of a new mentality, the book discusses steps that can be taken to improve professionalism. The final chapters investigate such problems as abuses of discretion and the improper use of firearms and highlight the importance of understanding the Chinese people, culture, values, and interests in order to truly effectuate successful police reform.

This book is one of the first to document the challenges and opportunities facing the Hong Kong police force following the reversion of political authority from the UK to China in 1997. Thematically organized and oriented towards those issues of greatest concern to the public, such as police accountability, assaults on police, police deployment, surveillance powers, and policing across borders, it provides a detailed discussion of these and other contemporary issues. The opening chapter sets the work within historical context while the final chapter provides a comparison of policing in Hong Kong with public security in the PRC. The book will be of value to students and researchers working in the area of comparative policing, and comparative criminal justice, as well as police professionals, and policy-makers.

The legal issues evoked by cross-border crime in Hong Kong and China are sparse and what does exist is mostly in Chinese. This book provides the first systematic, comprehensive, and in-depth analysis of how Chinese, British, Hong Kong, and international law were applied in the "Big Spender" case. Kam C. Wong outlines the respective positions of various parties to the dispute. Part of the case's fascination involves competing interests, and that political clout counted for more than legal theory."Big Spender" may be little known outside Hong Kong and China, but he made history there. It was the first time a Hong Kong legal resident had been prosecuted, tried, and ultimately executed in China for acts largely perpetrated in Hong Kong. The case tested the limits of the one-country, two-systems approach under which Hong Kong and China coexist. It also forced politicians, government officials, and the public in both Hong Kong and China to come to terms with the legal and policy issues related to cross-border crime.Wong sees the "Big Spender" case as making clear the dire need for both sides to find workable solutions to concurrent jurisdiction, police cooperation, and judicial assistance. Until there is an acceptable arrangement governing the rendition of offenders between Hong Kong and mainland China, the one- country, two-systems formula cannot be stabilized. This is a "case study" in large-scale terms.

This book is one of the first to document the challenges and opportunities facing the Hong Kong police force following the reversion of political authority from the UK to China in 1997. Thematically organized and oriented towards those issues of greatest concern to the public, such as police accountability, assaults on police, police deployment, surveillance powers, and policing across borders, it provides a detailed discussion of these and other contemporary issues. The opening chapter sets the work within historical context while the final chapter provides a comparison of policing in Hong Kong with public security in the PRC. The book will be of value to students and researchers working in the area of comparative policing, and comparative criminal justice, as well as police professionals, and policy-makers.

The legal issues evoked by cross-border crime in Hong Kong and China are sparse and what does exist is mostly in Chinese. This book provides the first systematic, comprehensive, and in-depth analysis of how Chinese, British, Hong Kong, and international law were applied in the "Big Spender" case. Kam C. Wong outlines the respective positions of various parties to the dispute. Part of the case's fascination involves competing interests, and that political clout counted for more than legal theory."Big Spender" may be little known outside Hong Kong and China, but he made history there. It was the first time a Hong Kong legal resident had been prosecuted, tried, and ultimately executed in China for acts largely perpetrated in Hong Kong. The case tested the limits of the one-country, two-systems approach under which Hong Kong and China coexist. It also forced politicians, government officials, and the public in both Hong Kong and China to come to terms with the legal and policy issues related to cross-border crime.Wong sees the "Big Spender" case as making clear the dire need for both sides to find workable solutions to concurrent jurisdiction, police cooperation, and judicial assistance. Until there is an acceptable arrangement governing the rendition of offenders between Hong Kong and mainland China, the one- country, two-systems formula cannot be stabilized. This is a "case study" in large-scale terms.

This book documents a systematic investigation into various aspects of policing in the People’s Republic of China, including its scholarship, idea, origin, history, education, culture, reform, and theory. It approaches the study of Chinese policing from an indigenous perspective, informed by local empirical data. In proposing an innovative theory of community policing entitled «Police Power as a Social Resource Theory», the book seeks to look at crime as a personal problem, and police as a social resource, from the perspective of the people and not the state.

This book documents a systematic investigation into various aspects of policing in the People’s Republic of China, including its scholarship, idea, origin, history, education, culture, reform, and theory. It approaches the study of Chinese policing from an indigenous perspective, informed by local empirical data. In proposing an innovative theory of community policing entitled «Police Power as a Social Resource Theory», the book seeks to look at crime as a personal problem, and police as a social resource, from the perspective of the people and not the state.

With nearly 20 percent of the world’s population located in China, what happens there is significant to all nations. Sweeping changes have altered the cultural landscape of China, and as opportunities for wealth have grown in recent years, so have opportunities for crime. Police Reform in China provides a rare and insightful glimpse of policing in the midst of such change.The book begins with a historical account of police reform in the region since 2000. Next, it discusses the difficulties encountered in trying to understand Chinese policing, such as outdated perceptions, misinformation, cultural ignorance, ideological hegemony, and problems with paternalistic attitudes. The book recommends studying China from a local perspective informed by local research and data, suggesting that understanding China requires a cultural shift to the Chinese way of life in "thinking" and, more importantly, "feeling."The author then summarizes selected policy papers from Gongan Yanjiu, a leading international policy journal. He first documents how the thinking and aspirations of various generations of Chinese leaders from Mao to Deng, and now Jiang and Hu, came to affect Chinese policing in theory and practice. He then addresses the emergence of a police legitimacy crisis as evidenced by the deterioration of public image and rebellions against police authority. Demonstrating how old ideologies are increasingly in conflict with the values and lifestyles of a new mentality, the book discusses steps that can be taken to improve professionalism. The final chapters investigate such problems as abuses of discretion and the improper use of firearms and highlight the importance of understanding the Chinese people, culture, values, and interests in order to truly effectuate successful police reform.

The HKP (Hong Kong Police), ‘Asia’s Finest’, is a battle-tested professional organization with strong leadership, competent staff, and deep culture. It is also a continuously learning and reforming agency in pursuit of organisational excellence. Policing in Hong Kong: History and Reform is the first and only book on the development of the Hong Kong Police from an inside out and bottom up perspective. Written by a scholar and veteran of the HKP, it is an amalgamation of indigenous theory and supporting data.Part One begins by describing the development of police studies in Hong Kong as an emerging field since the 1990s. It supplies an analytical and empirical construct of colonial policing as well as a theoretical assessment. It discusses the nature, topologies, conduct, impact, and assessment of police reform. The book demonstrates how colonial policing in Hong Kong and elsewhere takes on the community’s local color and hue in practice. Colonial policing in Hong Kong is "policing with Chinese characteristics."Part Two tracks the history of the HKP’s formation in the 1840s and examines how colonial policing in Hong Kong has changed over time. It describes the HKP’s four distinctive reform periods: the formation period (1845), the reorganisation period (1872), the modernisation period (1950s), and finally, the decolonisation period (1990s). It argues that HKP reform in the1950s was the pivotal point in transforming the HKP from a colonial force into a civil one by way of localisation, legalisation, modernisation, communalisation, and organisation. Overall, the book questions previously accepted colonial history, and in doing so, contributes to our understanding of challenges and opportunities facing HKP after the reversion of political authority from England to China.