A policeman’s lot in a police state: not happy

IN THE southern province of Fujian last year, a 43-year-old police officer shot himself in the dormitory of the station where he worked. His suicide note said that he could no longer cope with the pressure of his job. Wang Kun, a 24-year-old rookie in the same province, understands what he went through. “What really gets me,” he says, “are the long hours and lack of sleep. People don’t understand what we do and often think we’re out to get them. The pressure is huge.”

Such stresses are common across China, according to a new study by Suzanne Scoggins and Kevin O’Brien at the University of California, Berkeley. They argue that a policeman’s lot is “filled with uncertainty, hardship and feelings of powerlessness”. The authors conclude that one must “rethink the image” of the much-disliked police in China’s authoritarian state.