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As one of the three components of the police force in China, and given its military organization, the PAP has a special role in the control of social order. However, the difficulties that the police force must now face make that role all the more important.

Many reports stress that the increase in the rate of crime is mainly due to the fact that the police is no longer a deterrent force. "We have authority but no power" (有權無威) is a common complaint. One commentator listed four main reasons for this state of affairs. First, in asking the police to focus primarily on the management of social issues (registration and family planning, for example), the legislators have left aside the "dictatorship" function of the police. As a result, it is legally ill-equipped to fight serious crimes. Second, in the transition from a rather static society (planned economy) to a dynamic one (market economy), the daily work of the police has basically remained unchanged. Accustomed to dealing with the routine management of society, the police was not prepared to deal with a new wave of criminality. Third, police equipment is often outdated. Fourth, corrupt behavior and lack of proper training have created a bad image which has ruined the relationship between the police and the citizens. The low education level of the police is also often criticized. In 1995, for example, out of all the members of the Public Security Police, only 3 per cent had received university education and 17 per cent had attended training colleges, while 20 per cent had not studied beyond the junior high school level. The majority (60 per cent) had a senior high school education. This is far below the provisions of Article 26 of the People's Police Law (February 1995) which states that policemen must be over 18 years of age and senior high school graduates.

The relatively small number of policemen compared to other countries is also a hindrance. There are 144 policemen for every 10,000 people in Hong Kong, 48 in the United Kingdom, 29 in the United States and Taiwan, but only 8 in China. Even though it can be argued that the Chinese policemen have less bureaucratic tasks than their foreign counterparts (court reports, for example), with an estimated 960,000 policemen, the control of social order is often a very difficult task. Not only the criminal police and the patrol police are understaffed, but as the China Police Daily complains, some local governments even give policemen additional tasks which, the policemen feel, should be done by others. For example, they are asked to ensure that citizens pay their taxes, to enforce population control or to evict tenants from buildings marked for development.

The police still lacks the proper structure to deal with crime. It was not until August 28, 1997 that the first county-level criminal police bureau was set up in Jinjiang (晉江, Fujian). Although such bureaus are now rapidly developing across the country, by the end of 1997 they had been set up in less than half of the counties. Another development was the routine police street patrols which were adopted in over 300 municipalities in 1993. At the scene of an accident, residents would wait for the police for a long time. The "110" emergency phone call centers have somewhat improved this situation. The first one was installed in 1986 in Guangzhou, but in 1997 this service did not yet exist in 35 per cent of the counties.

In the past, to supplement police power, there were security teams (保安隊) composed of local volunteers. Since members of these teams did not receive proper training and also because concrete regulations were lacking, local governments are suppressing them to improve the quality of security. However, impostors are still present, and in many provinces a "strike the three fakes" (打三假) movement has been going on for some time in an attempt to eradicate fake policemen, fake police vehicles and fake police enterprises.

With the setting up of a county criminal police, of emergency phone call centers and of police patrols, together with other developments, it is expected that the police will gradually become more efficient and be able to face the new problems of public security. Yet at present, the PAP remains an important tool to redress the weaknesses of the ordinary police force.