How can some chengguan (urban management) officers be so ruthless and barbaric with street peddlers or those who they believe have violated urban management rules? No one would believe that they are actually taught to enforce law in such a manner.

Yet, part of a book for the training of chengguan officers posted online seems to have corroborated what we hate to believe - "instructions" on how they should "physically subdue offenders as swiftly as possible without leaving blood stains on their faces and bruises on their bodies".

Chengguan officers are an outreach of local law enforcement establishments and they are supposed to deal with such matters as illicit makeshift buildings and unlicensed street peddlers. They have earned themselves a bad name over the years for the lack of respect while checking violators.