Research On The Protection Of Chinese Citizens Overseas From The Perspective Of Mega Police Cooperation

Recent years have witnessed rapid and steady growth of China's economy as well as significant increase of people's disposable income,and with it an increasing number of Chinese people are going abroad for sightseeing or to further their studies.Moreover,with the advancement of the “Belt and Road” initiative,more and more Chinese enterprises are going global and along with it more and more workers are working abroad.On the other hand,as the current global political and security situation is very complex,non-traditional security threats such as terrorism and transnational organized crime continue to spread,posing many security threats to Chinese citizens abroad.According to the Consular Protection Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,China saw over 146 million exits across the border in 2017 and in the same year China's embassies and consulates abroad responded to 73,172 security-related incidents involving Chinese citizens overseas.Statistics reveal that China is second only to the United States in terms of the number of crime victimizations abroad.Therefore,how to establish an effective mechanism and take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens overseas has become an important research topic.Currently,consular protection is China's most common and effective means to protect Chinese citizens abroad by means of information provision,diplomatic assistance and postincident relief,which cannot keep pace with the development of the situation both at home and abroad.International police cooperation can help expand the scope of protection and proves very successful in rendering assistance to Chinese citizens overseas.However,because of the cross-border nature of the protection,the Chinese police alone cannot be that effective,and have to cooperate with relevant departments both at home and abroad to fulfill this mission,i.e.the Chinese police must pool all possible resources together and thus form a large cooperative network.Therefore,this paper delves into the protection of Chinese citizens overseas from the perspective of mega police cooperation.Mega police cooperation is aimed at protecting the safety of Chinese citizens overseas which is police-led,featuring cross-border,cross-department,cross-sector,and cross-region.This thesis is divided into five parts.The first part is an introduction,which deals with the significance of the topic,literature reviews,and a brief introduction to the research methods and the overall structure of the paper.The second part explains three core concepts-Chinese citizens overseas,overseas safety and security,and mega police cooperationand related theories.The third part mainly introduces the present situation and causes of victimizations of Chinese citizens overseas,and analyzes the constraints faced by the Chinese police in the protection of Chinese citizens overseas.The fourth part,the highlight of this thesis,elaborates the mega police cooperation system: China should establish a comprehensive network for the protection of Chinese citizens overseas which incorporates information sharing,emergency response and trans-border law enforcement cooperation.This can be achieved by bringing the initiatives of the Chinese police into full play,by coordinating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,the Ministry of Commerce,Overseas Chinese Affairs Office as well as multinational enterprises and non-governmental organizations,and by encouraging the participation of individuals abroad,overseas Chinese community,and overseas Chinese Community and Police Co-operation Centers.