A comparison of confidence in the police in China and in the United States

Few studies, either qualitative or quantitative, have been done on public attitudes toward the police in the People's Republic of China. The "bamboo curtain" still covers China, which since 1979 has launched ambitious economic reforms hut has continued to maintain restrictions on public opinion surveys on key political issues. This study analyzed a rare data set that contains information about public confidence in the police in China as well as in the United States. The data show that the public in the U.S. has greater confidence in the police than do their Chinese counterparts. The Tiananmen incident has undoubtedly attributed to this gap, although how much is directly attributable to it cannot be determined. The study also indicated that a universal pattern of evaluating the police is emerging despite the cultural, economical, and political differences. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.