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They can be seen guarding Zhongnanhai (中南海), the residence of the Chinese leaders, checking passports at border posts, fighting fires, cruising in their cars or working on the site of the Three Gorges Dam Project. They are all members of the People's Armed Police (人民武裝警察部隊, PAP). Their Commander, Yang Guopi (楊國屏), was promoted recently to the rank of full general, and at the Fifteenth Party Congress, PAP delegates were elected by a separate electoral college. Moreover, it has been recently confirmed that a part of the 500,000 servicemen to be demobilized will join the ranks of the PAP.

The PAP's origins can be traced back to the guard unit responsible for the security of Party leaders, and which was organized by the Chinese Soviet government established in Jiangxi after 1927. After 1949, several units were successively established as part of the country's armed forces, and called "People's Public Security Unit," "Public Security Unit of the People's Liberation Army" (PLA), or "Public Security Army of the PLA." They were either placed under the control of the PLA or set up independently. However they were called, until 1983, these bodies were mainly responsible for internal security, especially the security of the country's leaders. After Mao Zedong's death in 1976, the PLA, which had over expanded during the Cultural Revolution, was restructured. Under the leadership of the Central Military Committee (CMC), functions began to be divided. This reform led to the formation of a new military unit in April 1983, the PAP.

From 1983 to 1989 the PAP built up its organizations, and since 1989 it has become an important force confronting "unstable elements." Five years ago, China News Analysis presented the PAP's complex structure which reflects its military heritage and the police functions it assumes. In the past five years, the role and the importance of the PAP has continuously developed. Its status has risen both politically and economically. The PAP's role and its various developments in recent years reflect in their own way the evolution of Chinese society.