Ever since China’s local urban administrative and law enforcement bureaus were set up in 2001 with the goal of improving city governance as urban areas faced rapid growth, the units have been criticized for their seemingly unrestricted brutality. One notable case of abuse was the beating death in 2008 of Wei Wenhua, which we wrote about at CMP here. In this recent cartoon, artist Kuang Biao (邝飚) again explores the evils of China’s “urban management police”. His cartoon shows a vicious wolf prowling toward the viewer, his red armband bearing the familiar Chinese character for “control” or “manage” worn by so-called urban management police, or cheng guan (城管). The wolf’s leash is loose, suggesting he has been given license for the violence so clear in his eyes.
