Chinese police on Italy's streets

In Rome and Milan, Mandarin-speaking officers work alongside Italian counterparts to help tourists

Police officers from China have started joint patrols in Rome and Milan with their Italian counterparts to provide assistance to Chinese tourists, who increasingly are choosing Italy as a vacation destination.

Two uniformed Chinese police officers will patrol for two weeks beginning on May 9 at the city's popular tourist spots, including the Colosseum in Rome and Milan's Gothic cathedral.

The initiative stems from an agreement between the two countries reached in 2014 and confirmed last year. Italian police have carried out similar collaboration with such countries as the United States, Spain and Poland.

"Today is an important day because we are strengthening collaboration with China in a very special field," Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told a news conference in Rome that was attended by officials from the two countries.

The interior minister said he hopes the bilateral collaboration will be deepened with further agreements and extended to other Italian cities.

Gennaro Capoluongo, head of the international police cooperation service in Italy, says: "We feel proud to be the first one in Europe to undergo such an important collaboration program with China."

Luca Sarais, owner of Cantine Isola wine bar in Milan's Chinatown, calls it "a positive initiative". The initiative is an intercultural response to local criminal gangs, he adds.

Huang Feng, a professor of international criminal law at Peking University, says the Chinese police officers will perform their duties according to Italian laws.

The four officers, who speak Italian and English along with Mandarin, received training from Italian officers in Beijing before they were sent to Italy.

"The command of the Chinese language is their strength in assisting law enforcement, and they know the customs of Chinese tourists and therefore are better able to explain legal regulations and procedures to Chinese when they are in trouble or in disputes," Huang says.

Wang Gang, head of the European division of the Ministry of Public Security's international bureau, says that under a memorandum signed by the two countries, China will send officers to Italy during the peak tourist season every year, and Italy can also send police officers to patrol in China if necessary.

This new mode of law enforcement cooperation is based on strengthened mutual trust and demonstrates the closer collaboration of police departments of the two countries after years of efforts, says Zhao Yu, vice-dean of the International Law Enforcement Institute at the People's Public Security University of China.

"This exemplary move is likely to have a positive effect on cooperation between China and other European countries," he says.

The patrols have symbolic significance as China increasingly works with foreign countries on law enforcement, Zhao adds.

Contact the writer at zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/06/2016 page2)