Abstract
In 1961, the public security bureau of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”) adopted a measure called shourong shencha (“shoushen”), meaning “sheltering for examination,” to deal with the increasing flow of migrants throughout China.’ Shoushen was designed as a measure whereby the police could detain and investigate suspected criminals who had no known status or confirmed residence or suspected “itinerant criminals” (liucuan fan). In the 1960s, shoushen was used primarily as a means of population control. By the 1980s, it was being used to promote criminal justice and social control. More recently, shoushen has been used as a measure for collecting debts. Shoushen was never a legislatively sanctioned police power, being at all times since its inception purely an administrative measure. Shoushen was never officially adopted by the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) or by the NPC Standing Committee, but shoushen received favorable legal interpretations from the NPC. As originally conceived, shoushen had few procedural safeguards. Eventually, the State Council and the Ministry of Public Security issued a number of directives concerning the proper use of shoushen, including directives covering the jurisdictional scope, approval authority, time limits, and administration of the practice of shoushen. However, these directives were largely inconsistent, unclear, over-broad, and open-ended. The NPC Standing Committee, the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, and the Ministry of Public Security all attempted to control the exercise of shoushen, but met with little success.