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Special Police Units (Abbreviation: SPU; Simplified Chinese: 特警队) are SWAT units of the Chinese People's Armed Police at the provincial and municipial level. There is at least one of such unit in each Chinese province to offer their services when requested by the local police, or other law enforcement agencies such as the customs service and the regular police. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Look up July in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Peoples Armed Police Force (Abbreviation: PAP; Simplified Chinese: 人民武装警察部队; pinyin: Renmin wuzhuang jingcha budui) is a paramilitary police force primarily responsible for domestic security within the Peoples Republic of China. ... Special forces or (sometimes colloquially and incorrectly) special operations forces (general term) are military units formed and trained to conduct missions of unconventional warfare, counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, direct action, and foreign internal defense. ... Counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, and strategies that governments, militaries, and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism. ... For the band, see The Police. ... French mobile gendarmes doing riot control. ... (Simplified Chinese: 广州; Traditional Chinese: 廣州; pinyin: GuÇŽngzhōu; Wade-Giles: Kuang-chou; Postal System Pinyin: Canton) is the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. ... The Special Duties Unit (Abbreviation: SDU; Chinese: 特別任務連, nicknamed 飛虎隊 Flying Tigers) is a secretive and elite paramilitary police unit of the Hong Kong Police. ... Abbreviation (from Latin brevis short) is strictly a shorter form of a word, but more particularly, an abbreviation is a letter or group of letters, taken from a word or words, and employed to represent them for the sake of brevity. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Image:Members of the 600th Security Police Squadrons Base Swat Team. ... The Peoples Armed Police Force (Abbreviation: PAP; Simplified Chinese: 人民武装警察部队; pinyin: Renmin wuzhuang jingcha budui) is a paramilitary police force primarily responsible for domestic security within the Peoples Republic of China. ...

History

Early Years

With the rise of global terrorism and increasing incidence of local aircraft hijackings in the 80's , came a need for a tactical armed response group to respond to both such local and international crises. With approval from the People's Liberation Army, a select group of elite officers was chosen and organised into the Anti-hijack Special Police Group (反劫机特种警察部队) in July 22nd, 1982, officially code-named Public Security Unit 722 (公安部警字722部队). They were officially inaugurated into the PLA in the capital of Beijing during a ceremony on the 28th. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Beijing [English Pronunciation] (Chinese: 北京 [Chinese Pronunciation]; Pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ), a city in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

The command of the the unit was later transferred to the People's Armed Police in 1983, and renamed China People's Armed Police Special Police Force (中国人民武装警察部队特种警察大队), and they were to undertake new roles such as counter-terrorism and counter-riot. In accordance with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Public Security regulations, the unit was again renamed China People's Armed Police Special Police School (中国人民武装警察部队特种警察学校) in 1985. The unit went on a recruitment exercise and, took in its first batch of new cadets that September. The Peoples Armed Police Force (Abbreviation: PAP; Simplified Chinese: 人民武装警察部队; pinyin: Renmin wuzhuang jingcha budui) is a paramilitary police force primarily responsible for domestic security within the Peoples Republic of China. ...

2000 Onwards

In 2002, with Central Military Commission approval the Special Police course was institutionalised into college studies comprising of various disciplines. It was renamed People’s Armed Police Special Police College, combining both combat and education roles. The Central Military Commission (Chinese: 中央军事委员会 pinyin: Zhōngyāng JÅ«nshì WÄ›iyuánhuì ) refers to one of two bodies within the Peoples Republic of China. ...

Since its inauguration, the People's Armed Police has set up Special Police Units in 36 states nationwide.

Organization

Main article: Beijing SWAT

The original Special Police Unit was set up in Beijing, but the increasing incidence of armed criminal activity throughout the whole of China has emphasized a need for such units within the individual states. The various units all answer directly to the Central government and enforce the same laws, however similar to such units in the United States they can only react to incidents within their own state of jurisdiction. The Beijing Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (Abbreviation: SWAT; Simplified Chinese: 北京特警总队; also known as Beijing Special Police Force) is a police unit in the Peoples Republic of China that deals with incidents beyond the capabilities of normal patrol officers such as hostage situations, high risk warrants and riot control. ...

Selection and Training

Equipment

Due to their multiple roles of acting as a tactical armed response to armed criminals, counter-terrorism duties, and riot policing duties, the SPUs employ a wide array of weapons and equipment.

Special Police Units in the People's Republic of China

Main article: List of Special Police Units in the People's Republic of China

Though initially confined to the metropolitan cities, today virtually every city has a paramilitary tactical unit of its own. A variety of abbreviations and acronyms are used for these organizations, which operate at national, municipial, and provincial levels. Although the SPU moniker is used colloqually to refer to all such units in the PRC, some teams have been known to use the SWAT acronym instead. Both names/acronyms are interchangeable when referring to them in the English language as they are actually the same (The phrase "特警", is used in the PRC to refer to both SWAT and SPU and thus may cause confusion for English speakers who think of them as different units). The confusion is made worse when some units tend to officially adopt their nicknames. Some of the more well-known Special Police Units are:

• Special Armed Police Corps Snow Wolf Commando Unit (SWCU)
• People's Armed Police Immediate Action Unit (IAU)
• Beijing's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team
• Hong Kong Police Special Duties Unit (SDU)

The Snow Wolf Commando Unit (Abbreviation: SWCU; Simplified Chinese: 雪狼突击队) is a special police unit of the Peoples Republic of China (P.R.C.) tasked with counter-terrorism, riot control, and other special tasks such as anti-hijacking, and bomb disposal. ... The Peoples Armed Police Force (Abbreviation: PAP; Simplified Chinese: 人民武装警察部队; pinyin: Renmin wuzhuang jingcha budui) is a paramilitary police force primarily responsible for domestic security within the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Immediate Action Unit is a primarily counter-terrorist special forces unit of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Beijing Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (Abbreviation: SWAT; Simplified Chinese: 北京特警总队; also known as Beijing Special Police Force) is a police unit in the Peoples Republic of China that deals with incidents beyond the capabilities of normal patrol officers such as hostage situations, high risk warrants and riot control. ... The Hong Kong Police Force (香港警察) (from 1969 to 1997, Royal Hong Kong Police Force (皇家香港警察) is the police force of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Special Duties Unit (Abbreviation: SDU; Chinese: 特別任務連, nicknamed 飛虎隊 Flying Tigers) is a secretive and elite paramilitary police unit of the Hong Kong Police. ...

References

• Sinodefence article on the SPU
• 中国特警部队成长风采录 (The Growth and Glory of China's Special Police Unit) -- Photo Gallery and brief history of the SPU. Accessed on October 27th, 2006.

See also

• Special Weapons and Tactics

• Beijing SWAT

• List of special forces units

Alternate meaning: SWAT (TV series), the 2003 feature film remake S.W.A.T. (movie) or the SWAT videogame series SWAT is an acronym for Special Weapons And Tactics. ... The Beijing Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (Abbreviation: SWAT; Simplified Chinese: 北京特警总队; also known as Beijing Special Police Force) is a police unit in the Peoples Republic of China that deals with incidents beyond the capabilities of normal patrol officers such as hostage situations, high risk warrants and riot control. ... The following is a list of special forces units. ...

External Links

• Photo Gallery and article on the Special Police Units in China
• Special Police Units Trying Out New Uniforms
• Training campaign for special police held in Nanjing