Review of Police Powers of Administrative Detention in the People's Republic of China

This article illustrates the ways in which the legislative regimes for the imposition of sanctions of administrative detention give broad and vaguely defined powers to the police in the People's Republic of China. The research found that most legislation gave police wide discretion to exercise their powers and, in particular, to determine whether certain conduct merited the detention of the person. While processes to review such police actions have been legally established, they tend to be limited in scope. For the most part, the person aggrieved by the administrative action has limited capacity to require the review body to investigate or act upon their complaint.