The evolution of policing in China has been influenced by several countries, particularly Japan, the United States, and the former Soviet Union. The modern police structure traces to the formation of a General Bureau of Police by the Qing Dynasty in 1902, shortly after the Boxer Rebellion and a withdrawal of the eight occupying Western countries. A Ministry of Public Security was established when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. The Ministry initially followed the Soviet model, but Mao Zedong moved to gain more public support for the police by giving local Communist Party committees. During the Cultural Revolution public security was placed under military control; public security officials speak of the Cultural Revolution as a time of fear and uncertainty and as something that should never be allowed to happen again. Public Security lacks sophisticated technology, but the deeply rooted involvement of the police community, the lack of mobility by the population, and a fairly sophisticated approach to investigation results in a high clearance rate for major crimes. Since the early 1980s China has been conducting a major overhaul of its police structure and is trying to upgrade and professionalize the police at every level. Law enforcement policy rests on the concept of democracy and centralization; government policy appears to be consistent with public attitudes. Photographs