Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security (Public Economy and Urban Governance in China) 9819939275, 9789819939275

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Public Economy and Urban Governance in China

Xiaoliang Liu

Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security

Public Economy and Urban Governance in China Series Editor Baijun Wu, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

This book series aims to promote the research in innovation-driven development of public economy and urban governance in China, and ultimately the social governance model based on collaboration, participation, and common interests enhancing the foresight, precision, and efficiency of urban governance. Focusing on the urban governance of Chinese top megacities, this book series combines economics and sociology and explores a new way to solve problems of social governance concerning urban public goods supply mechanism, innovative models of social governance, as well as critical urban development issues like public safety, infrastructure and environmental pollution.

Xiaoliang Liu

Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security

Xiaoliang Liu School of Social and Public Administration East China University of Science and Technology Shanghai, China Translated by Xin Li School of English Studies Shanghai International Studies University Shanghai, China

ISSN 2948-1872 ISSN 2948-1880 (electronic) Public Economy and Urban Governance in China ISBN 978-981-99-3927-5 ISBN 978-981-99-3928-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2 Jointly published with East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from: East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. ISBN of the Co-Publisher’s edition: 978-7-5628-6361-8 This work was supported by the publishing project of “Shanghai universities serving the state’s major strategies” © East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief Baijun Wu

Editors Wanzheng Chen Liwen Hou Jiachen Li Xiaoliang Liu Chunyang Pan Maogang Tang Youcai Tang Baijun Wu Jibo Yang Shangguang Yang Chenfeng Zhang Fangdu Zhao

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Series Editor’s Preface

After more than 40 years of rapid development, the economic society of China has demonstrated some new characteristics in recent years, which is mainly reflected in changes in the ways the Chinese economy is developing at the current stage. These changes often occur when economic development reaches a certain stage, partly like what happened in the history of developed countries, but with unique Chinese characteristics. In economic growth and structural adjustment, a remarkable feature is the continuously increasing contribution made by the public goods sector to national economic growth. To counter the economic recession and maintain a fast economic growth and social stability, the Chinese government has continuously invested heavily in public infrastructure construction, particularly after the global financial crisis in 2008. At the same time, in the context of urbanization and population system reform, and the mounting needs of people’s social welfare to be met, the government has increased its investment in public services, such as education, health, safety, and social security, which makes the supply of economic and social public goods an important part of the total social supply. Even in some years, investment and supply of public goods have become decisive factors for economic growth. In terms of social development and structural changes, although the overall social form and power structure have changed little, social forces, like the new emigrant class, middle-income class, and private capital class that came into being, as a result of modern social activities continues to grow, exerting an increasing influence on economic and social development. These emerging social forces are imperceptibly changing China’s social structure and having a profound impact on the pattern of social interests. At the same time, with people’s production and lifestyles becoming increasingly market-oriented and socialized, the ideas, social needs, and demands of ordinary people have also undergone great changes, which adds to the difficulties in accurately grasping people’s needs, preferences, and behavioral changes in social governance and poses challenges to the effective implementation of public services. In addition, with the change of production mode and the expansion of economic activity space, people’s social mobility has been increasing, far exceeding the scope of administrative areas and posing a huge challenge to the traditional administrative vii

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management system and the top-down governance mechanism of the government. All these have put forward new requirements on how to reconstruct the structure and mechanism of social governance in the modern political and economic constructions. Seen from the economic development trend of various countries, the role and status of the public goods sector in the economic and social development are gradually improving, and its asset scale and proportion in the total social supply are constantly increasing, with the economic development and the improvement of residents’ income level. This reflects the state and trend of the continuous development of social economy. With a reference to the law of the development of the public goods sector in other countries, the rapid development of the public goods sector in China after the reform and opening up also reflects a regular trend of economic and social changes. However, it should be clearly realized that in the rapidly changing social and economic development environment, the growth of the private product sector will be affected by technological, market, and institutional changes, and the development of the public product sector will also face many new challenges. This is manifested mainly in the following aspects: First, how to allocate social and economic resources reasonably and effectively in the private and public product sectors. This requires a comprehensive grasp of the objective needs of the economy and society, and an effective mechanism for resource allocation to achieve a balance between the supply of the two sectors and the needs of individuals and society, and a balance between moderate economic growth and the improvement of social welfare, so as to basically achieve the two goals of economic efficiency and social equity in development. Second, how to effectively supply public goods, especially according to China’s national conditions, to solve the problems that truly show people’s needs and preferences in theory and practice, adopt appropriate public choice methods, and let the public participate in the selection and decision-making system of public product projects. This problem involves a country’s public goods supply system and mechanism, and political, technological, market, social, and cultural factors, but the core problem lies in the arrangement and mechanism design of political and economic systems. The old stereotype of an “all-in-one government” should be abandoned, the needs of the people be truly put squarely in the center, and the government does what it should and refrain from what it should not, delegating power to the grass-roots and freeing up space for the development of social organizations and their performance of social governance functions. At the same time, the government should also reform the existing government-led public goods supply mechanism through institutional arrangements and political procedures and explore a public goods supply mechanism featuring multi-subject cooperation, which is suitable for China’s national conditions. Third, how to build a social governance pattern featuring joint contribution, cogovernance, and shared benefits, establish a social governance community in which “everyone is responsible, lives up to their responsibility and shares in the benefits,” how to establish a social governance system integrating the government, social organizations, and the public under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and

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how to stimulate the enthusiasm of the public to participate in community governance, and improve the ability and level of community workers and community affairs participants. Fourth, how to innovate grass-roots governance methods, which involves making social governance the cornerstone and focus of national governance and the basic link in the modernization of the national governance system and management ability. At the same time, the government must eliminate any “idle” phenomena through institutional arrangements and rule of law and establish the governance methods that adapt to multiple governance subjects to resolve administrative dilemmas of community institutions, explore de-administrative reform paths for community grass-roots organizations, and build systems for resource mobilization, public service provision, and public affairs decision-making. Fifth, how to innovate the production and supply methods of public products based on new technologies like the Internet, big data, and Al to improve public service efficiency and enhance community grass-roots governance performance. This requires continuous improvement of laws and regulations, to enable public service departments to legally use IT to understand the real needs of society members for public products and services. It also provides sufficient information for public decisionmaking and technical means for the supervision and performance evaluation of public services, aiming to achieve effective resource allocation and supply. Based on the above thinking and understanding of China’s long-term social and economic development and structural changes, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences at East China University of Science and Technology has formed a research team to study public economics and social governance issues in China’s socioeconomic development. They aim to analyze China’s socioeconomic development from a grass-roots and microeconomic perspective in the context of the sea changes in China’s society and economy. The team, composed of young teachers specializing in public economics, sociology, and public management, has undertaken quite a number of international cooperative projects and State Fund projects, focusing on three main research themes: 1. Studying the basic theory of public goods sector development and China’s practice, exploring the structural relationship and internal mechanism of public economics and social governance in social development. 2. Investigating new methods and forms of public economics and social governance in the context of new technologies like the Internet, big data, and Al. 3. Conducting social surveys, field experiments, and empirical analysis in public infrastructure, public services, and community grass-roots governance, aiming to find beneficial practical experiences with Chinese characteristics, review and revise classic theoretical views, and expand theoretical research scope. This series is a preliminary summary of their previous research work, with each volume reflecting these research themes. The content of this series mainly covers the areas of public economy, social governance, and social policy. Regardless of the discipline, most of the research is based on the theory of public economics and public management and discusses scientific issues in public economy and social governance in an interdisciplinary way. We also study policy issues from the perspectives of different disciplines.

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Since the publication of the Chinese version, this series has received extensive attention from the academic community and society. In particular, studies on how to establish a diversified public goods supply mechanism for social organizations and public participation, and how to establish an effective grass-roots social governance mechanism have generated strong interest and triggered off more in-depth discussions. Now that the series is available in English, more readers can understand the great changes in the public economic sector and social governance in China since the reform and opening up, and understand the understanding of Chinese scholars on the practical issues of public economy and social governance. At the same time, it is hoped that scholars from all over the world will pay more attention to the reform process of China’s public sector, thus promoting international academic exchanges in this field. The publication of this series in the original has been sponsored by the National Publishing Fund and the “Publishing Project of Universities Serving the National Major Strategies”. Without the support of the East China University of Science and Technology Press and the hard work of its editors, the acquisition of the fund and high-quality publication would not have been possible. The English version would never have been imagined without the constructive cooperation with Springer Nature. To these quarters, we owe our heartfelt gratitude. Shanghai, China May 2020

Baijun Wu

Foreword

In 2008, more than half the world’s population lived in urban areas. In 2011, China’s urbanization rate reached 51.27%, exceeding half of the total amount for the first time. The importance of urban governance in China’s overall construction was further promoted. On December 20, 2015, a working meeting on central cities was held in Beijing after a lapse of 37 years. It was proposed on the meeting that the law of urban development should be respected and the mode of urban development be changed, urban governance system should be improved and the capacity of urban governance be enhanced, so as to solve such prominent problems as “the city disease.” Safety should be put first, safety and quality should be kept in check, and safety work should be carried out to each and every link and domain of city work and city development. To this end, it is imperative to give a timely summary of the development of urban public safety construction and practical experience and to explore the internal structure and evolution law of urban safety risk prevention and control system. This has both theoretical and practical significance to the promotion of the normal prevention and control capacity of city security risks and the enhancement of modernization of the governance system and governance capacity in the field of urban security. Over the past decade or so, the construction of the state-promoted public safety management system is mainly an exploration centering around the city. Restricted by many objective conditions, there has been relatively little work done on the vast rural areas in the field of safety management. Therefore, the development process of urban public safety management, to a great extent, is consistent with the development track of the overall national public security construction. In other words, after some direct policies and actions at the central level are separated from the overall national public security construction, the rest are almost all related to urban public safety management. In addition, because public safety problems or public crisis events directly intervened by the central government are mostly related to cities, this book will focus entirely on the work of the central government and that of the city government. It will conduct a comprehensive review of the policies and measures as well as the major events related to the prevention and control of urban public safety risks, in an attempt to fully present the whole process of urban public safety risk

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prevention and control system construction, summarize the past experience, analyze the existing problems, and respond to the key issues from a theoretical perspective. The prevention and control of urban public safety risk per se is a governmentled management task. On account of this, the book will mainly adopt the research paradigm of public management and conduct a comparative study of domestic and international practices around the development of urban risk prevention and control system. It will draw upon foreign advanced experiences, take the USA and the UK as typical cases, and compare them with the representative cities of Beijing and Shanghai in China, with a view to unraveling the similarities and differences of city construction strategies in safety and risk prevention under the two political systems. It will seek to find out the sources of impetus from inside and outside the government and analyze the structure and interaction mechanism of internal and external factors after discussing the impetus behind urban risk prevention and control construction. Based on empirical observations, it will divide the actual operation of urban risk prevention and control into two types, namely the normal risk prevention and control model and the abnormal risk prevention and control model. Through relevant case analyses, it will put forward the idea that integrating the effective factors of abnormal risk management into the city’s normal risk prevention and control system through the organizational application of system and technology is a possible approach to enhance the city’s capacity of normal risk prevention and control. Moreover, to realize the prevention and control of urban public security risks from the source, it is also necessary to tamp down the work of urban grass-roots communities through effective grass-roots construction. Only in this way, can we respond effectively to the top-level design of urban public safety and enhance the normal capacity of urban public safety risk prevention and control in an all-round way. Related to the overall situation of social stability, urban public security has a strong political nature. In China’s practice, it is closely tied to the ruling legitimacy of the Party and the government. Therefore, part of the book also introduces the logic of political science as an analytic methodology, in response to the idea that “Security is the biggest politics,” as well as the red line consciousness and the bottom line thinking in urban security. Apart from that, the book applies part of the sociological lens of observation. The study of urban public safety is inseparable from the social realities, especially since pluralistic governance has gained wide international recognition. Under such circumstances, there are all the more reasons that the prevention and control of urban public security risks should be based on the social development and evolution of cities, to respond to the reality that urban population has changed from “unit person” to “community person”. Efforts must be made to expand the participation force of pluralistic co-governance and respond positively and effectively to the problems in reality. The risk prevention and control of urban public security should be focused on the construction of normal risk prevention capacity. In China’s existing urban safety risk prevention and control system, the institutional system is fairly well-established, and the biggest problem at present is how to use the existing system resources to effectively carry out the city security risk prevention and control. Therefore, this book lays its emphasis on the construction of mechanisms outside the system, highlighting

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the efforts on how to generate momentum, mobilize resources, and join synergies, to integrate effective risk prevention and control work into the grass-roots level, into every link of urban management, and ultimately into the normal urban governance capacity-building. Readers are invited to kindly contribute their opinions on any issues that remain in the book. Shanghai, China

Baijun Wu

Summary

This book focuses on the construction of urban public security risk prevention and control system. It systematically analyzes various security problems which are inseparable in the process of urban development and evolution, thoroughly discusses the background of times of the aggravation of security risks and the main sources of public security risks, and makes a comprehensive review and comparative study on the development of urban safety risk prevention and control systems in and outside China. Based on the analysis of the internal structure and development forces of the urban risk prevention and control system, it further combs through and sorts out internal mechanisms of the effective operation of the urban risk prevention and control system while explaining in depth the important status of grass-roots governance in the construction of urban risk prevention and control system. Finally, the author puts forward some thoughts in view of the development trend of urban safety risk prevention and control system in the future. This book is closely linked to the forefront of the urban public safety risk prevention theory and practice. Combining theory with practice, it systematically discusses the important problems in the construction of urban public safety risk prevention and control system. It can be read by scholars in related fields, Party and government leading cadres, civil servants and practitioners in the field of emergency management as well as other readers who are interested in urban safety management. It can also be used as a reference book for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in public administration, city management, emergency management, etc.

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Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Civilization Evolution and Security Concern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 Disaster and Civilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 Destruction and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Background of the Times in Which Risks are Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 The Spread of Instability Factors Caused by Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 From Risk Society to World Risk Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 A Systemic Threat to Non-traditional Security . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.4 Immediate Challenges of Social Transformation . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.5 Normal Development of Crisis Management Theory and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Security Risk Challenges in Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Urban Sprawl and Risk Intensification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Classification of Urban Safety Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.3 Characteristics of Urban Safety Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 2 2 5 8

15 16 17 20 24

2 Sources of Urban Public Safety Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Urban Development and Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 Urban Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Multiple Intersecting Risk Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Natural Disaster-Causing Risk Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Human Disaster-Causing Risk Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Operational Risks of Complex Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Risk Conduction and Amplification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 From Start to Finish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.3 Modernization and Traditional Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31 31 32 37 37 44 50 50 53 54

3 Development of Urban Risk Prevention and Control System . . . . . . . . 3.1 The Evolution of Risk Prevention and Control System in China . . . 3.1.1 During Ming and Qing Dynasties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57 58 58

8 10 12 13

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3.1.2 From the Founding of the People’s Republic of China to the Early Stage of Reform and Opening-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.3 From the Early Stage of Reform and Opening-Up to 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.4 Since 2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Comparison of the Development Process In and Outside China . . . . 3.2.1 Development Characteristics of Risk Prevention and Control System In and Outside China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sources of Impetus for Urban Risk Prevention and Control Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 The Power Mechanism Within the Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 Accountability Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 The Impulse Effect of “Special Regulation” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 Crisis Consciousness and Self-revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.4 Internal Competition within the Administrative System . . . . 4.2 The Socialized Mechanism of External Impetus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 The Push of “Major” Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Role of International Demonstration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.3 Participation and Promotion of Organizations outside the Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.4 Pressure of Public Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Structure and Optimization of Multiple Impetus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 The Internal Structure of Multiple Impetus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Practical Operation of Security Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.3 Structural Optimization of Multiple Impetus . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Effective Operation of Urban Risk Prevention and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Normal Operation Model of Risk Prevention and Control in Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.1 Understanding of Normality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.2 Characteristics of Urban Normal Risk Prevention and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1.3 Problems with Normal Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Urban Abnormal Risk Management and Control Model . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.1 Understanding of Abnormality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.2 Characteristics of Urban Abnormal Risk Prevention and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2.3 Problems with Abnormal Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 The Organized Use of Institutions and Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Strengthening the Responsibility System Construction with Accountability as Its Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Improving the System-Based Process Management and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59 61 63 72 72 77 77 78 82 84 86 88 88 93 95 101 102 102 104 107 117 117 117 118 123 128 128 129 131 133 134 135

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5.3.3 Building an Auxiliary Platform System with Technical Means as an Important Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 6 Grass-Roots Governance of Urban Risk Prevention and Control . . . . 6.1 Source Prevention and Control and Grass-Roots Governance . . . . . 6.2 Practical Value of Grass-Roots Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Grass-Roots Practice in Normalized Risk Management . . . . 6.2.2 Grass-Roots Security Prevention and Control in Abnormal Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Future-Oriented Prevention and Control System of Urban Safety Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Regional Urban Security Risk and Governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 Risk Types and Characteristics of Regional Cities . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 Reflections on Regional Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.3 Problems Encountered in Regional Risk Management . . . . . 7.1.4 Effective Paths to Promote Cooperation in Inter-City Regionalized Risk Prevention and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 New Strategies for Risk Management in the Big Data Era . . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Big Data—The New Power of Risk Governance . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 Evolution of Risk Governance in the Era of Big Data . . . . . . 7.2.3 New Strategies for Urban Risk Management in the Era of Big Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3 Building a Community of Urban Security Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 Theoretical Underpinning for Urban Safety “Community” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.2 Shaping a Community of Shared Future in Urban Safety Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Special Thoughts on Covid-19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

141 141 149 149 157 163 163 164 166 168 169 171 171 173 176 179 179 181 183

Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Chapter 1

Introduction

Cities are the center of human civilization. As such, they act as a key nexus in politics, economy, culture, transport and other domains as well as a vital support for the normal operation of social order in an era of globalization. Since the advent of the twenty-first century, various kinds of public crisis events have happened frequently throughout the world. Natural disasters, accidents, infectious diseases, terrorist attacks and the like keep occurring one after another. In Jan. 2015, when reviewing Outline of the National Security Strategy, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China pointed out that amidst the vicissitudes of international situation, China’s economic society is undergoing profound transformations. Reform has entered a critical phase and the deep-water zone, where social conflicts and contradictions are interwoven and multiplying. The challenges of security risks, whether foreseeable or otherwise, are unprecedented. At the same time, China’s urbanization program is speeding up, with large numbers of people continuing to pour into cities. While establishing and maintaining the normal operation order of cities, various security risk challenges have also become a major concern that cannot be avoided in urban governance. From the perspective of the relationship between development and stability, the betterment of cities is inseparable from the construction of security systems. Particularly in the aftermath of “9·11” terrorist attacks in the United States and the “SARS” epidemic in China, countries around the world, including China, have increased their attention to security management. Urban security has thus become a significant part of national security. Likewise, urban security governance has also become an important window for testing and demonstrating the comprehensive capabilities of national security management. Accordingly, a systematic study of the process, motivation and structure of risk prevention and control system construction of urban public security, and an exploration of the internal rules of urban security management, is of strong practical significance for both the research on security management and the construction of urban security guarantee system.

© East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_1

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1 Introduction

1.1 Civilization Evolution and Security Concern What is a city? In ancient time, “city” and “market” were two distinct notions. A city was the abode of kings, a meeting place of power and wealth. Ancient Chinese cities usually had high protective walls, complete with a deep moat and a drawbridge to connect the gates which were heavily guarded. There were similar designs in the west where many castles stood on the cliffs on the mountain top, making them easy to defend but difficult to attack. Hence, the building structure of a city naturally served as a shelter against external threats and harsh environments. A market, on the other hand, was a place of exchange, which was not located inside the city in early days. However, with the city’s growing population, its frequent interactions and the need to trade the necessities of life, the market gradually moved from the outside into the inside, and merged with the city little by little. But fundamentally, a city was closed and assumed the role of protection, whereas a market was open and assumed the role of trading. Modern cities are very different from their ancient counterparts in both form and function. Modernized cities are extremely embracive, characterized by towering skyscrapers, extensive rail transits, clusters of high-rise buildings, and an influx of tourists and businessmen from all corners of the world. While showcasing their openness, inclusiveness and powerfulness, cities are increasingly paying attention to the construction and promotion of risk-resistance capabilities. This is due to the fact that the vulnerability of cities also increases along with the steady rise of the development level of cities. At the same time, the city residents also place higher demands on a safe environment after their living standards are greatly improved. In fact, security is an enduring issue of concern. Ever since the birth of human society, human history is teemed with stories of struggle with disasters and risks. It can even be claimed that the history of human development is literally a history of crisis management, in which the civilization evolution of human society is inextricably linked with risks and disasters.

1.1.1 Disaster and Civilization Historical records about the snippets of disaster abound throughout the development of human society. In its unique form, disaster leaves its traces in the course of progression of different civilizations, and even constitutes part of the cultural tradition of some civilizations, such as sacrifices, prayers, offerings and worships. Many early human myths have been around in China. According to scholars’ textual research on numerous myths of the pre-Qin period in China, the content of most of the legendary tales is closely related to various disasters,1 like Nüwa Patches 1

Wang, X. C. Literary echoes in the vision of disaster–literary expressions of the pre-Qin disasters and their significance [J]. Journal of Xiangtan University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 2012, 36 (3): 90–94.

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up the Sky, Houyi shoots the Sun, Kuafu Chases the Sun, Yu the Great Harnesses the Flood, and Jingwei Determines to Fill up the Sea, to name but a few. As is recorded in The Huainanzi·Surveying Obscurities: “Going back to prehistoric times, the four pillars were broken; the nine Provinces were in tatters. Heaven did not completely cover the earth; nor did the earth hold up Heaven all the way around its circumference. Fires blazed out of control and could not be extinguished; water flooded in great expanses and would not recede. Ferocious animals ate blameless people; predatory birds snatched the elderly and the weak. Thereupon, Nüwa smelted together fivecolored stones in order to patch up the azure sky, cut off the legs of the great turtle to set them up as the four pillars, killed the black dragon to provide relief for Province Ji, and piled up reeds and cinders to stop the surging waters.”2 This is an account of why and how Nüwa patches up the sky. The Book of Lieh-tz˘u· The Questions of T’ang mentions it as follows: “When Gonggong was fighting Zhuanxü for the empire, he knocked against Mount Buzhou in his rage, breaking one of the pillars of Heaven, snapping one of the threads which support the earth. For this reason Heaven leans northwest, and the sun, moon and stars move in that direction; the earth does not fill the southeast, so the rivers and the rainfloods find their home there.”3 This excerpt describes a disaster scenario in which the earth and Heaven are out of order. Houyi Shooting the Sun and Kuafu Chasing the Sun both allude to the disaster of droughts. The Classic of Mountains and Seas has it documented that “Yi the Archer shot nine suns which landed on the lower reaches of a river”. The Huainanzi·The Basic Warp recounts the tale of Houyi Shooting the Sun: “Coming down to the time of Yao, the ten suns came out all at once. They scorched the standing grain and the sheaves and killed herbs and trees, so that the people had nothing to eat. Chayu, Nine Gullet, Typhoon, Mound Pig, Chisel Tusk, and Long Snake all were causing the people harm. Yao therefore commanded Yi the Archer to slaughter Chisel Tusk in the water meadows of Chouhua, to kill Nine Gullet on the banks of the Xiong River, to shoot down Typhoon in the wilds of Greenhill, to shoot upward the ten suns and to kill downward Chayu, to chop Long Snake in two at Dongting Lake, and to capture Mound Pig in Mulberry Forest.”4 Yu the Great Harnessing the Flood alludes to the disaster of floods. Mencius·Duke of Teng has it recorded: “At the time of Yao, the flood still raged unchecked, inundating the Middle Kingdom. Snakes and dragons occupied it, and the people had no place where they could settle themselves. In the low grounds they made nests on the trees or raised platforms, and in the high grounds they made caves. ”Even Records of the Historian included something about the flood: “During the time of Emperor Yao, flood waters surged towards the heaven, so vast that they embraced the mountains 2

Adapted from The Huainanzi–A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in early Han China, trans. & eds. by John, S. Major et al. New York: Columbia University Press. 2012. 3 Adapted from The Book of Lieh-tz˘ u: A Classic of the Tao, trans. by A. C. Graham. New York: Columbia University Press. 1990. 4 Adapted from The Huainanzi–A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in early Han China, trans. & eds. by John, S. Major et al. New York: Columbia University Press. 2012.

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1 Introduction

and swept the hills.”5 So many tales of disaster culture were created and collected in ancient China, and passed down to this day, simply because they were closely intertwined with a variety of disasters that have been plaguing us for so long in the whole process of evolution of human society. The same is true of western civilization. Both the Bible and the Koran tell the story of the Great Flood and the Ark of Noah. According to the Bible, Jehovah saw that the whole world was corrupt and full of violence and evils. He intended to bring floodwaters over the earth to destroy every human being under Heaven. In the meanwhile, he commanded Noah to make an ark, take his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives with him, and bring living creatures of every kind onto the Ark to escape the floodwaters. The Great Flood prevailed exceedingly upon the earth for 40 days; they covered all the high hills everywhere under the whole heaven. After 40 days the waters began to recede and at the end of 150 days the waters finally abated.6 With the spread of religion, the stories of the Ark of Noah spread far and wide. In addition, the research of anthropologists has also shown that there are legends of the world being destroyed by floods at different times in Mesopotamia, Greece, India, the Maya and other civilizations. The Great Flood has almost become a common legend shared by all nations. Through this interesting historical and cultural phenomenon, it is not hard to see that in the early stages of human development, although geographically more isolated from each other, there were striking parallels when it comes to disasters. Attention and response to disasters has constituted an essential component of human civilization. Corresponding to earlier disaster myths, many prophecies have appeared in human society about cataclysmic events and even the end of the world. There are more than a hundred different kinds of prophecies out in the open.7 Although they are basically confirmed as a myth, whenever the clock of history is about to point to the time of prophecy, there is always a certain number of people on Earth who are afraid of the prophecy, fearing that it would become a real event. Of all the prophecies, Maya’s is arguably the most well-known. As an ancient, mysterious and long-lost civilization, the rise and fall of the Maya civilization are full of mystery, so much so that scientists around the world are fascinated by it. There are five popular Mayan prophecies, and the first four were correct, but the fifth failed. It is rumored that its fifth prophecy declares the year 2012 would usher in the end of the world, the Earth would have a major disaster on Dec. 21, 2012, or “Three nights in a row” would appear and so on. Now, 2012 has long been history, the human society did not meet with a major disaster in 2012. Although history has long given the answer, at that 5

The Beijing News. Book review weekly. The history of human civilization is, in a large measure, a history of disaster resistance. [EB/OL]. (2018-5-11) [2019-9-15]. http://baijiahao.baidu.com. 6 In the face of prehistoric floods, eastern and western treatment are completely different; the wisdom of the ancients is a source of admiration. [EB/OL]. (2019-04-03) [2020-03-14]. https://mini.eastday. com/a/190403165036593.html. 7 “Task force for vigilance and suppression of cult activities” by the Interministerial Committee for the supervision of extremist sects in France (MIVILUDES) pointed out that since the fall of the Roman Empire, there have been 183 predictions of the demise of the Earth, and such predictions continue to grow due to the appearance of new technologies and global fears.

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time, “Doomsday theory” had triggered a wide-ranging discussion in the world. A disaster movie 2012 based on doomsday prophecies were made by artists, which recounted the story of global destruction and hit a box office record at the time. In fact, as the prophesied doomsday approached, a number of countries had warned and acted against the social crises that could be triggered by the prophecy. For example, a formal warning was issued in 2011 by the French government against the cults’ use of “Doomsday theory” to create crises and demagogues. In Dec. 2012, with the approaching of “Doomsday” on Dec. 21, the provincial government of Códoba, Argentina, announced the closure of the Ulidorco Mountains, to avoid mass suicides linked to the “Doomsday”. In those days, discussions or news about doomsday prophecies flooded the streets and the mass media. It can be seen that the disaster culture has been deeply engraved in the history of human civilization. Even as science and technology is so advanced as today, there is no escape from the fear of disaster for mankind. Even as some of the technological advances have gone beyond the scope of most people’s knowledge and control, such as nuclear power, cloning technology, Artificial Intelligence, etc., sociologists and some elite groups have begun to speak out frequently about the major risks that human society may face in the future, and have begun to take preventive actions.8

1.1.2 Destruction and Development Destruction is a form of extinction for what already exists. As the product of the development of civilization to a certain stage, cities are faced with all kinds of threats that can lead to destruction all the time. There are many ways to cause the destruction of cities, and a few extreme natural disasters can cause the total destruction of cities (Table 1.1). More often than not, cities face a variety of man-made disruptions. Among them, war is an important form of urban destruction. As the most intact civilization in the history of the world, Chinese civilization has gone through countless wars throughout its history, many fruits of civilization were destroyed in the wars. For example, the Legendary Epang Palace, which is still being studied by the academic circles, is said to be burned under the order of Xiang Yu. Although archaeologists have yet to find the exact location of the Epang Palace and a thousand-year-old legend may just be an illusion, there have indeed been many outstanding achievements of urban civilization in China’s history, which are long gone today in the wake of the warfares of past dynasties and the massive destruction of foreign invaders. The destruction of the city by the war was immense; it can make the fruits of civilization that have developed over hundreds upon thousands of years completely 8

The famous sociologist Ulrich Beck proposed the concept of “Risk society”, to warn of the “Reverse-feeding” effect of human technological development. To face future risks, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and IBM have formed a nonprofit organization of Artificial intelligence. The aim is to promote public understanding of Artificial intelligence technology, and organize people to better deal with the challenges of Artificial intelligence.

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1 Introduction

Table 1.1 List of cities destroyed by natural disasters in history9 Country

Time

The city destroyed

Present location Possible risk factors

China

Northern Song Dynasty

Ancient capital Shajing

Kaifeng

Flood

Circa 376AD

Loulan

Xinjiang

Circa 994 AD

Tongwan

Sandstorm and drought

End of fourteenth century

Changyi

End of seventeenth Sichuan century 1976

Tangshan

Tangshan

Earthquake

Jordan

Circa 3223 BC

Doma, Gomorrah

Southeast seafloor of the Dead Sea

Meteor shower

Syria

Byzantine period, Roman period, Persian, Greece period, Bronze Age

Five ancient cities

Aleppo (same place)

Earthquake

Italy

79 AD

Pompeii

Ten kilometers southeast of Vesuvius

Volcanic eruption

India

1897

Gauhati

Gauhati

Earthquake

Egypt

6–7 centuries

Heracleo

Seafloor of the Abu Qir Bay, Egypt

Ground collapse

Greece

Circa 227 BC

Rhodes

Rhodes

Earthquake

Jamaica

1692

Port Royal

Port Royal

Earthquake

Turkey

Circa 4 century

Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Earthquake

Chile

1835

Concepción

Concepción

Earthquake

The United States

1900

Galvis

Galvis

Hurricane, flood

2005

New Orleans

New Orleans

Hurricane

disappear in a very short period of time. With the advancement of science and technology, human beings have more and more power to destroy existing urban civilization. For example, in the Second World War, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, more than half of the buildings were destroyed by the atomic bomb blast, tens of thousands of people went blind, and over ten thousand people died instantly. 9

Collated according to the network data, and with reference to –Tang, Aiping, Tao, Xiaxin, Xie, Lili, et al. Study on the management model of city disasters [J]. Journal of Natural Disasters, 1999, 8 (1): 92–97.

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If people’s awareness of peace and development has risen to a higher level when human civilization has developed to this day, coupled with the existence of international organizations such as the United Nations to promote world peace and development, can the risk or threat of wars be reduced to a minimum? But the truth can be frustrating. Syria is a striking example. Syria is an ancient civilization of western Asia with a history of several thousand years. Its capital, Damascus, is one of the world’s most famous ancient cities and is reputed as “Paradise on earth” in ancient Arabic texts. However, since the beginning of 2011, a protracted conflict broke out between the Syrian government and the opposition. The Syrian people were displaced by the fighting, and the whole country began to face collapse. By 2016, its northern metropolis Aleppo, the provincial capital of Aleppo, originally a city that attracted tourists from all over the world, is now in ruins. A lot of valuable historical heritages have been reduced to rubbles. Similar to it is Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city. As the capital of Donetsk Oblast, Donetsk is a major industrial and economic center of the country, just a short drive of 1000 km from Kyiv and Moscow. It has its own port, its rail, road and air systems are well-developed, and has many military enterprises. In 2014, protesters occupied government offices in three cities in eastern Ukraine, including Donetsk. On Apr. 7, 2014 a rally broke out in Donetsk Oblast. Some parliament members set up the “Donetsk People’s Committee” and declared an independent “Republic of Donetsk” to demand independence. In response, the Ukrainian government launched an “Anti-terrorist” campaign. The conflict escalated, with heavy civilian casualties and one hundred thousand people displaced by the fighting. By 2015, Donetsk, once an advanced industrial city where people lived and worked in peace and contentment, was in ruins. The devastating effects of the war have provoked fear and rejection. This has also inspired the construction of a large number of war defense systems. This book will study the city public safety risk prevention and control system, which, from a modern point of view, has developed from the civil defense of cities against the threat of war (to prevent air strikes). This book will elaborate in detail the western city risk control system in the following parts. Judging from the adaptability to nature and creation of conditions for a better living environment, there is no doubt that human beings have extraordinary abilities. Hiroshima, a city destroyed by the atomic bomb, now has developed into a very modern city. It embodies the human capacity to recover and develop after a disaster. The case of Tangshan, China is similar. It can be foreseen that both at present and in the future, the risks, threats and challenges facing humanity will not go away. As human society becomes more and more complex, the challenges faced by urban security risks will only increase. At the same time, the means and ability of human beings to deal with urban security risks will be developed and enhanced accordingly. Urban safety risk prevention and control system will be an eternal topic of urban civilization development.

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1.2 Background of the Times in Which Risks are Born Today, human beings are fully aware of the risks that cities face, and various measures have been taken to nip risks in the bud. However, objective risks are right in front of us, we have no way to escape them. The only thing to do is better understand the situation, grasp the evolution of things, take precautions and minimize the losses of risk that can not be completely avoided. In general, human society has entered a high-risk stage. With the increasing complexity of social development, the fragility of the whole system has become more and more apparent. The normalization of risk challenge and public crisis have gradually become the main features of security problems now and for a long time to come. In order to effectively interpret the theoretical premise for this statement, we will make a comprehensive analysis using several theories that are widely followed today. They are globalization theory, risk society theory, non-traditional security theory, social transformation theory and crisis management theory respectively.10

1.2.1 The Spread of Instability Factors Caused by Globalization A buzzword since the mid-1980s, “Globalization” has quickly replaced the terms “Internationalization”, “Transnational” and “Integration” to describe the everintensifying web of human interaction across borders. Globalization has brought about a broad and profound change, it is happening in almost all fields of human activity such as politics, economy, culture, technology, military and education. Globalization is coming thick and fast, its initial stage was using military means to open the doors of one closed country after another. Then it gradually adopted the powerful means of economy to link closely all countries and regions around the world. Convenient transportation, means of communication, free movement of people, developed commercial networks, these have reduced the whole world to a “Global village”. Globalization provides such a platform where what happens every day around the world can be transmitted very quickly to the whole world, including the impact of various crises. Let’s explain this with contingency and necessity: crises might happen by chance in a certain place. But on a world scale, crises happen every day. The perils of many crises, such as mad cow disease, SARS, avian influenza and other malignant infectious diseases can be transmitted through globalization. As long as they break out in one corner of the world, they will evolve into a common human risk through the transmission of globalization. Globalization can not only facilitate the flow of risks and crises, but is a complementary process as a matter of fact with the risk society, formation of non-traditional security problems and social transformation. First, globalization has promoted the 10

Liu, X. L., Kong, F. H. A multi-theoretical analysis of the normal management of public crisis in China [J]. Southeast Academic Research, 2010 (1): 57–62.

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formation of a global risk society, while the formation of a global risk society has in turn pushed forward cooperation between governments of different countries as well as non-governmental cooperation, intensifying globalization from the political, economic, cultural and other aspects.11 As a historical process, globalization has actually emerged at the same time as risks in the modern sense, and when it becomes the main epoch feature of this contemporary period, risk has become an essential feature of the same period.12 Second, non-traditional security problems are to some extent the result of globalization. Some of the issues contained in non-traditional security theories have nothing to do with globalization. For example, environmental pollution can spread across borders through water, air, etc. But many other important threats, such as financial security, public health security and terrorist attacks, are inextricably linked to the man-made process of globalization. On a deeper level, as globalization leads to a forest of world’s factories, the plundering of resources, the destruction of the natural environment, and ultimately the threatening of the safety of human beings, natural factors have the influence of human actions. Natural factors also have the influence of human actions, therefore, the process of globalization also provides impetus for the development of non-traditional security theory. Finally, social transformation also has a lot to do with globalization. Many countries in the world have gone through social transformation, China is also in a critical period of social transformation. Although transformation is a process that will occur at a certain stage of a country’s social development, today’s social transformation in China is inextricably linked to globalization. In terms of economy, in order to adapt to the requirements of globalization, China is striving to develop a market economy and integrate itself into the world’s free trade system. Various marketrelated reforms are still ongoing. In terms of politics, issues such as democracy and human rights which the international community is concerned about are also issues of great concern to China in recent decades. The establishment and improvement of various grass-roots democratic systems is the result of this effort. In terms of living, globalization has promoted modernization, and China’s urban population has increased. The accompanying problems of the transition period are also increasingly prominent. China’s social transformation is a natural result of adapting to the transformation of globalization, the process is bound to be impacted by the effects of globalization. Globalization has promoted the progress of human society, it has also provided a platform for crisis and risk factors to spread globally. At the same time, the direction of globalization is uncertain, and globalization itself has brought many crises. For example, the world’s diverse cultures are disappearing, economic development is increasingly tied together, and the tendency of major powers’ domination of the world has increased, even the forces of anti-globalization are consciously creating all kinds of conflicts to further increase the risks of uncertainty, and so on. Obviously, 11

Tong, X., & Zhang, H. B. Social risks and their identification in China’s transitional period [M]. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2007. 12 Yang, X. D. Risk society and reconstruction of order [M]. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006.

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globalization is a double-edged sword. Behind the visible strengthening of global ties lie countless unpredictable risks.

1.2.2 From Risk Society to World Risk Society The problem of risks has always existed. However, only when the society has developed to a certain stage and people have reached a certain level of cognitive ability has this problem which has accompanied human society from beginning to end been brought up and put into perspective under the current social development. As we all know, the concept of “Risk society” got widespread following the worldwide popularity of Ulrich Beck’s book Risk Society. Ever since the concept of “Risk Society” came into being, people have been discussing this issue intensively. When many scholars discuss a public crisis, they naturally associate it with risk. In fact, a lot of the talk about risk is about potential crises. Accordingly, the discussion of a risk society is primarily concerned with the possibility of a public crisis. The debate about risk has already begun since 1950s, originating from the discussion of risk events related to the environment. So far it has gone through roughly four stages13 : The first stage was 1950s. People were beginning to realize that there were risks in the use of nuclear energy. At this point the subject of the debate was experts and the public was excluded. The second stage was 1960s. At this point, the focus was still on nuclear power, but there were public voices involved in the debate. At the same time, global environmental issues became a topic of debate. The third stage was 1970s. During this period, the issue of nuclear energy became a landmark issue. Accompanied by debates on some global issues, such as public health, water and air pollution, the public became anxious about risks, and began to approach risk issues from a psychological stance. The fourth stage is from the late 1970s to the present. During this period, a wide-ranging discussion of risks was launched. Particularly after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant incident in 1986, predictions about the stability of nature, social institutions, science, technology, expert opinion, and development, etc. are being challenged. The resulting extreme uncertainty, anxiety, conflict, antagonism and differences have provoked reflections for the first time. Since then, the subject of risk discussions has expanded and deepened. Risk analysis involves sociology, political science, cultural theory and many other fields of study. Academics, industry, associations, the state and the wider community are all involved. Risk has been at the heart of public discourse in the late twentieth and twenty-first century. Only when the reality of conflict and public opinion reaches a certain level will the debate about a phenomenon get widespread in the cultural, social, and political spheres. The scholars who support the theory of risk society have summarized theoretically the possible disasters that mankind will face today. Beck divides risk 13

Xue, X. Y., Zhou, Z. C. Globalization and risk society [M]. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2005.

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into three sub-categories, of which the artificially large-scale “Post-industrial” risk is the risk society he discusses about. This kind of risk will be large-scale, ecological, nuclear, chemical and genetic risk. He argues that the most disturbing threat we face is that of “Man-made risks”, which come from the unrestricted advancement of science and technology. Science is supposed to make the world more predictable, but at the same time, science has created new uncertainties–many of them are global ones. We generally can not use the past experience to eliminate these unpredictable factors.14 Meanwhile, due to “The Boomerang Effect” of global risks, that is, those who produce risk will sooner or later be punished by risk, even those developed countries that have shifted dangerous industries to lower-wage Third World countries are no exception, because industrial pollution and destruction happens regardless of national borders.15 In contrast, Achterberg argues that in a risk society, the risks of pre-industrial society such as earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as the risks of classical industrial society such as occupational accidents and diseases will remain.16 This illustrates the comprehensiveness of risk in both human and natural terms. Giddens directly and comprehensively divides risk into external risk and man-made risk, and when emphasizing man-made risk, he puts forward the famous “Reflexivity of Modernity)”,17 which is interpreted as the possibility of creative (self) destruction of an entire era—the era of industrial society. The “target” of this creative destruction is not the modern revolution of the West, or the crisis of Western modernization, but the triumph of Western modernization.18 The scenarios of risk described by risk society theorists are closely linked to public interest, the occurrence of these risks tends to have a large reach. The risk society corresponds closely with the public crisis, and the risk society is the background of the times in which the public crisis occurs frequently, Public crisis is the inevitable reality of risk society. In a risk society, the frequency of public crises is almost inevitable; therefore, for any government, the management of public crises will become the daily work of risk society in this historical period.19 Beck published World Risk Society again in 1999, 13 years later from his Risk Society in 1986, as a further thinking about the risk society and a new wake-up call to the risk problem of human social development under the background of globalization. In this new book, Beck has raised the stakes to the level of Earth politics. No matter where the actual situation is going, it is already an indisputable fact that the risk 14 Giddens, Anthony. The consequences of modernity [M]. Trans. Tian, He. Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2000. 15 Beck, Ulrich. Risk society &: towards a new modernity [M]. London: Sage Publications, 1992. 16 Achterberg, Walter &Zhou, Zhanchao. Democracy, Justice and risk society: the form and significance of ecological democracy [J]. Marxism and Reality, 2003(3):46–52. 17 Giddens, Anthony. The consequences of modernity [M]. California: Stanford University Press, 1990. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and self-identity [M]. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. 18 Beck, Ulrich, Giddens, Anthony & Lash, Scott. Reflexive modernization politics, tradition and aesthetics in modern social order [M]. Trans. Zhao, Wenshu. Beijing: Commercial Press, 2001. 19 Tong, X., & Zhang, H. B. Social risks and their identification in China’s transitional period. [M]. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2007.

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society is an important internal theory that influences the operation of society in the present age.

1.2.3 A Systemic Threat to Non-traditional Security It was only in the early twenty-first century that non-traditional security issues began to attract widespread attention in China. The main events leading to this major shift were “9·11” terrorist attack in 2001 and “SARS” epidemic in 2003. In fact, apart from these two crises which have caused widespread shock in the international community, there have also been many unsafe incidents that have triggered various public crises in other countries and regions of the world. These can all be boiled down to nontraditional security issues. As the largest inter-governmental cooperation organization, the United Nations has been concerned with non-traditional security threats for a fairly long time. As early as 1960s, the United Nations proposed to take care of the environment, food, population, poverty and other non-traditional security issues. In 1970s, it issued Declaration on the Human Environment, emphasizing the interdependence of security, and calling for a combination of environmental protection and economic and social development objectives. In 1980s, the concepts of “Environmental security” and “Economic security” began to appear in the UN literature. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development submitted the report Our Common Future, putting forward the concept of “Sustainable development”. The United Nations’ Human Development Report 1994 put forward the concept of “Human security”, and elaborated on seven major security issues: Economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security and political security. In addition, the academic community has also paid attention. At the beginning of 1970s, The Club of Rome published The Limits to Growth, which describes in detail the various dilemmas facing humanity. In 1972, 152 experts from 58 countries co-published Only One Earth, pointing out that human beings are walking on a self-destructive path of ecological destruction, natural resource depletion, population growth, and food scarcity.20 The prominence of non-traditional security issues has aroused widespread concern in academic, political, economic and other fields. At this time, the risk society theory has also attracted a lot of attention in the West. This has led the international community to reflect on the future of mankind, and a series of efforts and measures have emerged. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol signed by 156 countries and regions of the world is one of the results achieved in protecting the environment. It can be claimed that non-traditional security problems and risk society are integrated. At present, there is still no accepted definition of non-traditional security in academia, and Western scholars often use several phrases to refer to non-traditional 20

Yu, X. F. Non-traditional security and public crisis governance [M]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2007.

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security, such as Unconventional security, Nontraditional threats, Nontraditional issues and New security. After summarizing various non-traditional security studies, we can find that non-traditional security issues cover almost all areas except military force security, including natural disasters, economic, cultural, social, ecological and environmental fields. Among them environmental problems coincide with environmental pollution caused by the industry as is concerned by Beck’s risk society theory. Besides, areas of non-traditional security concern are also essentially divided into natural and man-made categories, which is exactly identical to Giddens’ division of a risk society. Thus, the non-traditional security theory and the risk society theory are like twin sisters, the latter is based on a sociological perspective while the former is a blend of more disciplines. Together, they focus their attention on the various public crises that the world is facing today. Only very prominent problems will attract widespread attention, and can attract the common attention of today’s two major international theoretical systems. This fully illustrates that the public crisis has become a global issue of the times. At the same time, a large number of case studies which have emerged under different theoretical systems also make the most vivid annotation for the normalization of public crisis and the normalization of public crisis management.

1.2.4 Immediate Challenges of Social Transformation China’s reform and opening-up practices have triggered social transformation within its borders. In thought and theory, the concept of transformation has gradually caught on in China since 1992. At that time, during a relatively long period, all the studies closely related to social reality were entitled “Under the background of transformation”. The main reason why social transformation has acquired such an important status is that it has brought about a profound change in Chinese society. There are three main understandings of social transformation: The rapid transformation of the social system in a relatively short period of time, the major transformation of the social structure, and the gradual change in social development.21 All these understandings take economy as a fundamental factor, and extend the economic base to social institutions and social structures. Some of the obvious factors also include changes in the structure of social stratification, demographic changes in urban and rural areas, changes in cultural hierarchy and ideological pluralism, etc. China has a large population and a complex social structure. With so many major shifts happening at once in a concentrated period of time, the difficulty and riskiness are so high that no country has ever experienced before. The transition period is a huge test for China, because the long accumulated contradictions and crises may find a breakthrough point at any time and burst out. Some have already burst out and turned into disasters, blocking the evolution and 21

Song, L. F. Trends, costs and measures of social transformation in China [J]. Jiangsu Social Sciences, 2002(6): 30–36.

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transformation of society. For this, some scholars have listed out the major risks that China will face in the process of social transformation,22 including the problems of government and the marketization tendency, government and the direction and speed of social development, the financial system and reform of state-owned enterprises, the sudden economic crisis, unemployment, polarization of the rich and the poor, etc. Undeniably, these problems are indeed challenges China is currently facing. Some of them are directly manifested in public crises, some are indirect triggers of public crises, and some have not yet been transformed into public crises but have to some extent turned into a problem of risk that could be ignited. Part of the problems have not led to a public crisis, but it does not mean that they do not exist. Many problems are still in the gestation stage, not reaching a critical point yet. When these problems do erupt, they are likely to be public crises on a large scale. The question of transformation is ultimately a question of development. During this particular period of social transformation, the social security system will become an important means of coordinating the relationship between the state and society, between the elite and people.23 However, given the limitation of initial basic conditions, China has not reached the corresponding height in economic capacity. It is still in the process of reform in terms of its operational system and mechanism, and the reform has not been carried out smoothly. There are still some conservative factors in thinking; hence it is difficult to form a good coordination system of social security in a short period of time solely depending on the government’s efforts. Besides, China had maintained a high level of economic growth for a long time before 2008. Economic development ensures the survival needs of China’s population, but economic development also has serious consequences, such as water, air, food contamination, desertification and ecological degradation. The United States subprime mortgage crisis in 2008 triggered the global financial crisis, and in the context of economic globalization, the Chinese economy was inevitably implicated. As a result, China’s economy ended its long period of rapid growth and stepped into the downward pressure zone. A series of complicated problems hidden in the extensive economic development that had been maintained for a long time in the past also surfaced. All kinds of social problems burst out in a concentrated manner, causing a bout of significant social risks. These risks have continued to ferment to this day and created various new problems in different areas. At present, the world economic situation is still grim, and the global economic landscape is undergoing a new round of adjustment. China’s social transformation is no longer shown in the titles of public research, but deep-level reforms such as supply-side structural reform and new and high technology focused development are still going deeper and further. The transformation into the deep water period is a true portrayal of China’s social development at present and in the future. With the passage of time, the transformation that we will face in the future will be even more arduous 22 Sun, L. P. Transformation and discontinuation: changes in China’s social structure since reform [M]. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2004. 23 Tong, X., Zhang, H. B. Social risks and their identification in China’s transitional period [M]. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2007.

1.2 Background of the Times in Which Risks are Born

15

and the risks are rising accordingly. At the opening ceremony of “Provincial and ministerial-level leading cadres adhering to the bottom line thinking to prevent and resolve major risks” seminar in Jan.2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China identified the prevention and mitigation of major risks as a priority for current needs, which shows the complex risk environment that China is currently facing.

1.2.5 Normal Development of Crisis Management Theory and Practice Risks and crises are a natural or social phenomenon, the development of human society has never been short of risks and crises. With the accumulation of experience in fighting against crises, the theoretical system of crisis management gradually takes shape. The development of theory is always accompanied by the need of practice, and in reverse, from the development of theory we can roughly reconstruct the situation of practice. First, the definition of crisis can reflect the trend of normalizing crisis management. In the understanding of crisis, early research mainly emphasized the emergency and urgency of the crisis. But it is becoming increasing clear that many crises have complex symptoms, there will be a cycle of growth and change. In fact, many crises lack a panacea or a quick fix, since crisis is characterized by both particularity and universality.24 After the theory of risk society was put forward, people began to realize the twin relationship between crisis and risk; risk is constant and normal, and the same is true of crisis. Therefore, crisis management has evolved from a simple theory of crisis decision-making to a theory of crisis prevention, it has now evolved into a theory of comprehensive crisis management.25 Secondly, the main theory of crisis management shows the trend of the normalization of crisis management. From the perspective of management, current crisis management theories mainly include the system theory, “Normal” accident theory, risk auto-balance theory, usual operation theory, risk matrix theory, cultural theory, the theory of solving structural defects, the theory of decomposed hierarchical process and the theory of decision-making in disaster situations.26 These theories range from real-time decision-making at the point of interest, hierarchical and structural analysis of wider coverage, to three-dimensional management of the overall system, most of which contain systematic, comprehensive, and normal management thinking. From 24

Gao, E. X., Yu, Z. Y. On the normalization trend of crisis management [J]. Journal of Yunnan Administration College, 2008(1): 114–117. 25 Gao, E. X. From abnormal management to normal management–review of Western crisis management theories [M]// Li, R. C. Crisis, Security and public governance [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2007. 26 Zhu, Q. W. A brief introduction to crisis management theory [M]// Li, Ruichang. Crisis, security and public governance [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2007.

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1 Introduction

a simple technical response to a systematic, comprehensive and cyclical management, it reflects the deepening of people’s understanding of crisis management and the ideological renewal of normal management. Finally, the application field of crisis management shows the generalization and normalization of crisis management. In an age when crisis management was unrecognized, the most primitive practice of crisis management was already carried out with great self-awareness. In primitive times, human beings gradually formed some experience in crisis management in their fight with nature to survive. Primitive means such as drilling wood to make fire can be regarded as a successful crystallization of crisis management by humans. After entering the class society, crisis management in the political sphere is fraught with struggles and compromises. With commercial activities coming along, the idea of ensuring business interests through crisis management was first articulated in the economic field, and this field is also the freest and most active, so much so that many famous crisis management theories and ideas were generated from the economic field, before they were transferred to other fields. Today, military, politics, society, nature and all other fields are consciously engaged in learning and researching crisis management, crisis management has almost become the most interdisciplinary and widely applied theory. Crisis research is rising again aided by theories of globalization and the risk society.27 Crisis management research is inextricably linked to increased risks on a global scale. Most of the crises in risk society are public crises with a wide range of impacts. Therefore, crisis management research receives widespread concern in the present society, because it is inextricably linked to addressing the various public crises brought about by the risk society, non-traditional security, social transformation and globalization. Through the analysis of multiple theories, we can find that cities today can not escape the influence of any of these theories. Even the major areas where a large number of practical problems in the theories are happening are intertwined with the city spatially. It can be said that cities have become the main generating and explosive place for all kinds of security risks, and security risk management has become an important part of urban governance.

1.3 Security Risk Challenges in Cities The security risks facing cities are real and diverse. With the continuous spread of urbanization, the expansion in spatial volume and population quantity of cities, inevitably, the security risks cities are involved in have increased exponentially.

27

Tong, X., Zhang, H. Social risks and their identification in China’s transitional period [M]. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2007.

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1.3.1 Urban Sprawl and Risk Intensification Whatever the security challenges, only those which incur negative effects on people are considered security threats in the end. As the world’s population moves from rural to urban areas, disaster-bearing bodies are also increasingly shifting to urban spaces and urban populations, thus constituting the basic motivation for the continuous increase of urban safety risks. According to the United Nations State of World Population Report 2007,28 the world’s urban population grew very rapidly in the twentieth century, from 0.22 billion to 2.8 billion, and cities in developing countries will see unprecedented growth in size in a few decades after entering the twenty-first century, especially in Africa and Asia, the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030. By 2030, cities and towns in developing countries will account for 80% of the world’s urban population.2008 was particularly an epoch-making year in the history of human civilization, because for the first time, more than half the world’s population, 3.3 billion to be exact, was moving into urban areas. By 2030, this figure is expected to reach 5 billion. With the rapid increase of population in cities, the risk of urban security inevitably increases in the same pace. In the past 20 years, natural disasters have become more frequent and serious, affecting several large cities. According to a report in Nihon Keizai Shimbun, data released on Oct. 10, 2018 by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR)shows that the global economic losses caused by natural disasters in the past two decades (1998–2017) have increased by 2.2 times over the last two decades. In the past 20 years, there have been 7,255 major natural disasters in the world, 91% of which were meteorological disasters. In particular, floods and storms were the two major frequent disasters causing a total of 1.3 million deaths and 4.4 billion injuries.29 The report from Sigma, a Swiss reinsurance company shows that in recent years, the total economic losses caused by disaster events around the world have even reached more than 100 billion US dollars. Asia continues to be the region with the greatest losses, and this is closely related to its high population density. As shown in Fig. 1.1, China’s urbanization rate has been hovering at a low level for a long time. In 1949, China’s urbanization rate was only 10.64%, that between 1960 and 1980 had been very close but below 20%. Later, with combined efforts of the policy incentives of reform and opening up and the market mechanism, urbanization was on the fast track. In 2011, China’s urban population surpassed that of rural areas for the first time, crossing the 50% dividing line. According to Statistical Bulletin on National Economic and Social Development of People’s Republic of China 2018 by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2018, the total population of China

28

The United Nations’ State of World Population Report 2007 [EB / OL]. [2019-9-25]. https:// www.un.org/Chinese/east/swp/2007/. 29 UN report: In the past two decades, natural disasters have caused economic losses of about 2.9 trillion US dollars [EB/OL]. (2018-10-11) [2019-9-25]. http://news.xmnn.cn/xmnn/2018/10/ 11/100,438,389.shtml.

1 Introduction

China’s urbanization rate/ %

18

Year Fig. 1.1 China’s urbanization rate between 1949 and 201832

had reached 1.39538 billion,30 an increase of 5.3 million as compared to the end of 2017. The permanent population of cities and towns was 0.83137 billion, an increase of 17.9 million as compared to the end of 2017. The proportion of urban population (urbanization rate) accounted for 59.58% of the total population, an increase of 1.06% as compared to the end of 2017.31 In China, the problem of increasing security risks due to urbanization is particularly acute. Take the case of urban floods,33 in recent years, the city has frequently encountered the dilemma of “sea views” whenever it rains. Every time there is a storm, the city becomes “a vast sea”, a seemingly unbreakable cycle. In 2011, the State Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development conducted a survey in 351 cities across the country, the results of which shows that between 2008 and 2010, 62% of the cities experienced waterlogging, and 137 cities experienced over 3 times of waterlogging. Cities affected by waterlogging disasters with the maximum water depth over 50 cm accounted for 74.6%, those with the water depth over 15 cm accounted for over 90%. Cities whose water accumulation exceeded half an hour accounted for 78.9%, among which the maximum water accumulation time in 57 cities was more than 12 h. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi’an and other cities suffered serious losses consequently. According to statistics 30

Including active-duty military personnel from 31 Provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and People’s Liberation Army, but not including overseas Chinese in Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan. 31 Data in 1981 and before are household registration statistics. The data for 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010 are extrapolated from the census data for that year. Data for the other years are extrapolated from the annual population sampling survey. The total population includes active-duty military personnel which is included in the urban population. 32 Liu, H. X, Chen, W. W. The total population of Chinese mainland at the end of 2018 approaches 1.4 billion [EB/OL]. (2019-1-21) [2019-9-25]. http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/201901/21/ content_5,359,797.htm?. 33 360 cities across China experience waterlogging phenomenon on every rainy day. Experts: because the ground is impermeable to water [EB/OL]. (2015-8-17) [2019-9-25]. http://news.youth. cn/gn/2015081720150817_7013625.htm.

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from Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, between 2013 and 2015, on average, 180 cities across the country were flooded each year, the worst was 2015 when as many as 360 cities were flooded. According to the published figures, in recent years, the phenomenon of “sea views” has demonstrated the trend of spreading from coastal cities to inland cities and from southern cities to northern ones. In addition to the southeast coast, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Baoding, Xingtai, Handan, Xi’an and other cities are also under increasing threat from waterlogging. Most cities have seen a change from “Waterlogging every few years” to “Waterlogging every year”. What was once a rare disaster has now become a common one. With the acceleration of industrialization, China’s urbanization has made great achievements, there has been a marked increase in the number and size of cities. In order to meet the requirements of new situations such as the development of urbanization, the state made adjustments to the standards for the division of city size in 2014.Based on the statistics of the permanent population in urban areas, the new division standards divide the city into five classes and seven sub-classes. Cities with a permanent population of less than 500,000 are small cities, those of more than 200,000 and less than 500,000 are I-class small cities, those of less than 200,000 are II-class small cities, those of more than 500,000 and less than 1 million are medium-sized cities. Those of more than 1 million and less than 5 million are big cities, among which those of more than 3 million and less than 5 million are I-class big cities, those of more than one million and less than 3 million are II-class big cities, those of more than 5 million and less than 10 million are megalopolises, those of more than10 million are mega-cities.34 At present, among over 600 cities in China, there are 16 mega-cities with populations of more than 10 million, namely Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanyang, Linyi, Shijiazhuang, Harbin, Suzhou, Baoding, Xi’an, Zhengzhou and Hangzhou.35 The growing number of mega-cities is accompanied by the continuous emergence of high-rise buildings.36 According to the Ministry of Public Security, there are 0.347 million high-rise buildings in the country, more than 6,000 are super high-rise buildings of over 100 m, ranking first in the world in number. Among them, there are 19,000 in Chongqing, more than 20,000 in Beijing and 30,000 in Shanghai.37 Review of High-rise Buildings 2018 released by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban 34

Circular of the State Council on adjusting the standards for urban scale division [EB/OL]. (201411-20) [2019-9-25]. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2014/11/20/content_9225.htm. 35 Xian, R. Another Chinese city with a population of 10,000: Hangzhou, Alibaba’s hometown [EB/ OL]. (2019-7-13) [2019-9-25]. http://news.mydrivers.com/1/636/636051.htm. 36 In the US, buildings above 24.6 m or 7 stories are considered high-rise buildings. In Japan, buildings above 31 m or 8 stories are considered high-rise buildings. In the UK, buildings of or above 24.3 m are considered high-rise buildings. Clause 1.0.2 of Technical Specifications for Concrete Structure of High-rise Buildings in China (JGJ3—2010) stipulates that residential buildings of 10 storeys or more or with a height of more than 28 m and other high-rise civil buildings of concrete structure of a height of more than 24 m are high-rise buildings. 37 Li, H. Ministry of Public Security: Over the past decade, there have been 31,000 high-rise fires nationwide [EB/OL]. (2017-7-10) [2019-9-25]. https://www.chinacourt.org/article/detail/2017/07/ id/2917785.shtml.

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1 Introduction

Habitat shows that China has built the largest number of and tallest skyscrapers in the world. In 2018, China built 88 skyscrapers of more than 200 m across the country, accounting for 61.5% of the global total. With the completion of the 528 m Citic Tower in Beijing, China became the country with the tallest building erected that year for the fourth year in a row. Besides, China has maintained a high rate of growth in the construction of high-rise buildings around the world over the past decade. By the end of 2018, the total number of high-rise buildings of 200 m and above in the world had amounted to 1,478, an increase of 141% as compared to the 614 in 2010. And a large part of this data was contributed by China, of all the high-rise buildings over 200 m currently built in the world, China had 678. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively 86, 80 and 88 high-rise buildings over 200 m were built in China.38 High-rise buildings are large in volume, complex in function, dense in personnel, with many dangerous sources and large fire loads, posing a serious challenge to fire prevention and control. A total of 31,000 high-rise fires have occurred throughout the country in the past decade, with a death toll of 474 people and a direct property loss of 1.56 billion yuan. Among them, there were three particularly serious fires, four major fires and 24 big fires, the “11·15” high-rise residential fire in Jing’an District of Shanghai in 2010 is a typical serious fire. In fact, floods and high-rise fires are only a small part of the city’s many security threats. In the process of urbanization, due to the spread of space and the accumulation of wealth, even if the total volume of disasters does not increase, the city’s disaster losses will face a gradual rise. In addition to the threat posed on cities by natural disasters, in the course of urban spatial expansion, the complex social operation system composed of human beings has also created a lot of unstable factors, and caused more hidden dangers for urban public safety.

1.3.2 Classification of Urban Safety Risks The classification of urban safety risks varies from country to country according to the national conditions and the system of government administration. Some security risks do not exist for certain countries or regions, which are naturally excluded from their classification system. China has a vast territory and faces many kinds of natural disasters. With the largest population in the world, various security risks arising from the complex system of social operation are even more numerous. Sorting out and classifying the security risks will help better prevent and manage the various kinds of risks.

38

Tang, Z. S. China has built 88 skyscrapers this year, the tallest in the world [EB/OL]. (2018-12-21) [2019-9-26]. http://www.bjnews.com.cn/graphic/2018/12/21/532497.html.

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Table 1.2 Classification of public emergencies Category

Event content

Natural disasters

Floods, droughts; typhoons, hails, snowstorms, high temperatures, sandstorms and other meteorological disasters; Earthquakes, mountain collapses, landslides, debris flows and other geological hazards, forest fires and major biological disasters, etc

Accident disasters

Major traffic and transport accidents such as civil aviation, railway, highway, water transport, rail transport, etc.; All kinds of major safety accidents that occur in industrial and mining enterprises, construction projects, public places, government agencies, enterprises and institutions; Urban lifeline accidents such as water supply, power supply, oil and gas supply that cause serious impacts and losses as well as communications, information networks, special equipment and other security accidents; Nuclear and radiation accidents, major environmental pollution and ecological damage accidents, etc

Public health events

Sudden outbreaks of a major infectious disease that causes or may cause serious damage to public health; Mass diseases of unknown causes, major food and occupational poisoning; Major animal outbreaks, as well as other serious impact on public health events

Social security Major criminal cases; Foreign-related emergencies; Terrorist attacks as well as events large-scale group emergencies, etc

1.3.2.1

Classification at the National Level

According to the national early emergency management system,39 China divides all kinds of public emergencies into four categories: natural disasters, accident disasters, public health events and social security events,40 as shown in Table 1.2. Public crisis management not only emphasizes the emergency management of unexpected events, but lay more emphasis on pre-event monitoring, early warning and preparedness for all kinds of emergencies, that is, risk management in public safety. Therefore, starting from the above four categories, the early and most basic security risk classification standards across China were evolved. As can be seen from the content of public emergencies in Table 1.2, a bulk of the four categories of events can be found in urban spaces. In fact, the expression of the above four categories is still inadequate, since there are some risks that are not covered. The main risks encountered in reality are severe shortages of resources, energy and necessities of life, financial credit crises and other 39

National early emergency management system refers to a set of national emergency management operational systems gradually established after the 2003 “SARS” epidemic with the Emergency Management Office of the State Council (hereinafter referred to as the “Emergency Office”) (officially set up in 2006) at its core. After the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the “Ministry of Emergency Management”) in 2018, there has been a major shift in its management and operational system. 40 General Response Plan for National Public Emergencies promulgated by the State Council in Jan.2006 dictates that according to the process, nature and mechanism of public emergency, public emergencies are mainly divided into four categories: natural disasters, accident disasters, public health events and social security events.

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1 Introduction

serious economic maladies as well as other emergencies involving economic security such as serious economic disorders and economic turbulences. With the rapid development of economy and society, cities are often at the center of regional economy; Shanghai, New York, London and other international metropolises in particular act as global financial hubs. Global financial crises also tend to occur in these central cities, the ripple effect41 spreading across the globe. In 2017, the collapse of Reyman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, two giant Wall Street firms and the sub-prime mortgage crisis broke out, triggering a major earthquake in the US stock market, which quickly spread to the global market. A large number of institutions went bankrupt, companies cracked up, causing a wave of unemployment, quickly weakening the city’s rapid economic development. Crises such as these are not clearly defined in the original four categories at the national level, nor is it entirely appropriate to classify them as a social security event. Therefore, there are also popular opinions that economic security events should be added to the classification of public crises. With the establishment of the Ministry of National Emergency Management, the state institutions have undergone major adjustments and restructuring. The national emergency management model coordinated by the Emergency Response Office under the State Council have undergone some changes, and the classification of public crisis events also becomes different.42 In addition to the emergency management system, China also has a set of classifications for national security management system. On Apr. 15, 2014, when chairing the first meeting of the Central National Security Committee, Xi Jinping said that we must adhere to the overall concept of national security and follow a path of national security with Chinese characteristics. The overall national security concept is a national security system which integrates 11 national security systems: political security, homeland security, military security, economic security, cultural Security, social security, science and technology security, information security, ecological security, resource security and nuclear security.43 This is a classification of security risk issues from a higher vantage point of national governance. “Security” was mentioned 55 times in The Report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, 18 of them are “National security”, therefore, the classification system of the overall national security concept is an important guiding theoretical system currently in line with China’s practice. It will play an important leading role in security risk management in all fields. It must also serve as an important pointer

41

A ripple effect is a phenomenon in which the effect of an event spreads, a situation similar to the one in which an object falls to the surface of the water and the ripples spread. 42 The Ministry of Emergency Management integrates the functions of relevant departments for emergency response to both natural and accident disasters, emergency response functions for public health and social security events are not included. Xue Lan, a senior expert in China’s emergency management research field, said in the future, the functions of The Ministry of Emergency Management will focus more on natural disaster and production accident response. 43 The first meeting of the Central National Security Committee was held and an important speech was delivered [EB/OL]. (2014-4-15) [2019-9-26]. http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2014/04/15/content_ 2659641.htm.

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to guide urban safety risk management and exert a substantial influence on the safety risk management of the city government.

1.3.2.2

Local and Folk Studies

The academic research and specific practice among the folk organizations also has different conception of the classification of urban security risks. Jin Lei has carried out a panoramic description of urban disasters. He believed that cities are just like a huge disaster-bearing body; almost all disasters are concentrated at the urban level.44 Using a large number of urban disaster examples, he summarized urban disaster sources into a total of 14 types: earthquake disaster, flood disaster, meteorological disaster, fire and explosion, geological disaster, public hazard, “constructive” damage disaster, high-tech accidents, noise disasters, indoor “integrated disease”, ancient building disaster prevention and epidemic disease, traffic accident, and disasters caused by engineering quality.45 It can be seen that this classification focuses on natural hazards based on natural science and risks of science and engineering, but hardly touches on the safety risks of humanities and social sciences constituted by human beings in the course of city operation. As a typical summary of urban safety risk management experience, Yu Gensheng, who once served as deputy head of Shanghai Disaster Reduction Leading Group, executive deputy director of Shanghai Disaster Reduction Office and director of the Civil Defense Office, reviewed the common disasters in Shanghai from a statistical point of view. Natural disasters include typhoons, storms, storm surges, tornadoes, red tides, thick fog, high temperature, lightning, geology, earthquakes; man-made disasters include road traffic accidents, fire, chemical accident, lifeline engineering accident (water supply, gas supply. power supply, and communications).46 With the change of the times, all kinds of environmental conditions are changing slowly. After a certain period of time, certain categories of security risk that have previously existed gradually disappear or are reduced to a level that do not constitute a significant threat, while some new risks are gradually rising to become important concerns. On Apr. 17, 2019, Provisions of Shanghai Municipality on the Release and Dissemination of Meteorological Disaster Warning Signals issued by Shanghai Municipal People’s Government adjusted warning signal type, classification, standards and defense guidelines. The new provisions came into effect on Jun.1, 2019, this was the first adjustment since 2007 on meteorological disaster warning signals in Shanghai. This adjustment fully combines the experience of data statistics and forecasting. The new version of meteorological disaster warning signals is divided 44

Jin Lei defines a disaster as the phenomenon and process of mass casualties and loss of social wealth triggered by an uncontrollable or unexpected destructive factor, causing sudden or cumulative destruction or deterioration of the environment on which human beings depend. 45 Jin, L. Safety warning of Chinese cities. Beijing: China City Press, 2004. 46 Yu, G. S. Reflections on safety in Shanghai in twenty-first century [M]. Shanghai: Xuelin Publishing House, 2002.

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1 Introduction

into 13 categories: typhoon, rainstorm, snowstorm, cold wave, gale, low temperature, frost, high temperature, lightning, hail, fog, haze and road icing. An addition is “Low temperature” warning signal, this is because frequent extreme low temperatures in recent years has a great impact on the lives of citizens in Shanghai.47 Since the implementation of early warning signals for meteorological disasters in Shanghai, “drought”, “sandstorm” and other related disasters have not occurred, so the associated warning signals have been removed this time. Thus, in the practice of local governance, each city has a different classification of urban safety risks based on actual security problems and from a proper problem-solving perspective. In addition, the folk research generally divides urban safety risks into more detailed categories. For example, urban safety risks are classified and studied from law, social psychology, politics, economy and finance, culture, terrorism, network information, talents, environment, energy, large-scale international activities, international security cooperation and other perspectives.48 Whether it is the overall plan at the national level, the classified governance at the local level, or the exploration in academic research, what are reflected are the major security risks prominent at a certain stage, as well as the realization path of government administration in a specific period. Urban safety risk classification is a relatively stable but dynamic system. With the development of society and continuous innovation of technology, some new risks are gradually rising to become major urban risks, for example, the demographic risks of an aging population, the ripple negative effect of technological progress, including new risks of social instability resulting from the technological divide and Artificial Intelligence stealing people’s employment opportunities, etc. Therefore, relatively speaking, traditional natural disasters have always existed and maintained for a long time the relative stability of subdivision in city risks. Human-related urban safety risks have been slowly changing, the various security risks arising from the operation of complex urban social systems in particular have gradually become the focus of urban safety governance in the new era.

1.3.3 Characteristics of Urban Safety Risks City has become the most important living space and shelter of human society today. To maintain the stability and orderly operation of a city, it is necessary to probe into its internal law and grasp the running track of the city. From the perspective of risk management, urban safety risks present the following main characteristics.

47

Shanghai adjusts the release standard of meteorological disaster warning signals, adding low temperature warning signal [EB/OL]. (2019-4-29) [2019-9-26]. http://sh.people.com.cn/n2/2019/ 0429/c13476832892093.html. 48 Shen, G. M. Study on urban safety [M]. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2008.

1.3 Security Risk Challenges in Cities

1.3.3.1

25

The Characteristics of Diversity

The characteristics of diversity in urban safety risks are reflected in the diversity of disaster-causing and disaster-bearing factors. The former refers to the multiple factors that lead to urban safety risks. Because cities are scattered all over the globe, almost all kinds of known natural disasters are likely to have disastrous effects on cities. And because of the high concentration of urban population and the diversified feature of the population structure, the safety risks associated with various human factors become the important foundation of city safety risk diversification. Many security risk factors, such as terrorist attacks, disease outbreaks, all kinds of production safety accidents, mass protests, cultural conflicts, class antagonism, and technology risks have brought diversified security risk threats to the city. Disaster-bearing diversity refers to the large number of people and wealth in urban space that makes disaster-bearing objects diverse. The expansion of the city includes the increase of the population and the expansion of the urban space. Public safety not only refers to personal safety, but also includes property safety closely related to people’s life and production. All physical and chemical forms other than human beings in urban space are disaster-bearing objects of security risks, such as commercial buildings, ordinary residences, public roads, bridges, stations and docks, even important intangible cultural heritages. If these disaster-bearing objects are damaged, the interests of relevant individuals or groups will also be damaged. Therefore, with the continuous development of the city, the degree of security risk diversification is also deepening.

1.3.3.2

The Characteristics of Basicness

Urban security risk is an integral part of the city. Because human society can not completely rid itself of all kinds of security risks, as long as there are human interactions, there are bound to be problems arising. To maintain a normal life for a population of one billion, the city is running non-stop all the time, since all kinds of unexpected and uncontrollable factors will lead to the occurrence of security problems. First, the steady operation of urban lifeline projects, namely water, electricity, gas and transportation, is a huge challenge for the city. The requirement of high temperature for urban electricity, the test of rainstorm for urban waterlogging, and the challenge of morning and evening rush hours to the road traffic, these are the risk points city administrators can not avoid. Not only that, but there are also many safety risks that have always been the “psoriasis”, so to speak, in urban safety management. Take the case of fires, according to the data of 2017, there were an average of 879 fires every day in the country, most of which happened in cities. The basic nature of urban safety risk emphasizes the inseparable link between hidden dangers of safety and urban operation. Objectively speaking, although the city can not fundamentally get rid of safety risks, city safety risk management should proceed from the perspective of the basic law of the existence and occurrence of risks to recognize the corners and links where security risks may be hidden and occur in

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1 Introduction

areas such as production and living in the city. The city should do its utmost to monitor early warning and early prevention, and strive to minimize the probability or negative impact of risks.

1.3.3.3

The Characteristics of Particularity

Particularity can also be regarded as uniqueness or discrepancy. Each city has its own unique history, culture and local customs, which will have a certain impact on the breeding and coping of urban risks. For example, coastal cities will face the threat of a tsunami, cities in mountainous areas will face risks such as mudslides and landslide, while the southeast coast of China is frequently threatened by typhoons every summer. These are the discrepancies in urban security risks caused by natural conditions. In addition, the cultural tradition and conceptual understanding will also lead to the particularity of urban security risks. For example, during the outbreak of Hepatitis A (hereinafter referred to as “Hepatitis A”) in Shanghai in 1988, about 300,000 people contracted Hepatitis A in just one month. According to the experts, local residents’ habit of eating raw clams contaminated with hepatitis A virus was the leading cause of this Hepatitis A epidemic.49 At the beginning of 2018, most areas in the south of China suffered from rare rain, snow and freezing rain, which caused serious losses in a large area. Apart from the extreme weather, other reasons were the lack of experience in dealing with such situations for the cities in the south of China, inadequate construction and allocation of urban infrastructure, and insufficient preparation for residents living at home. In the face of such disasters, cities in the north of China generally will not suffer such serious consequences. Therefore, due to the particularity of urban security risks, the city should take into full account the special geographical and cultural environment in which it is situated, and combine the historical and realistic conditions, to study the major security risks that cities may face closely and address the problem of prevention accordingly.

1.3.3.4

The Characteristics of Complexity

The complexity of urban security risks first points to its formation process, as many risks arise from multiple and complex relationships. For example, Europe has become extremely unstable in the last two years, very serious public security incidents and even terrorist attacks have broken out in many cities, the security situation is worrying. On the surface, this is related to the global economic crisis as well as the near stagnation of the European economy and rising unemployment, but on the deep level, this has a complex relationship with a series of issues such as religion, politics,

49

The outbreak of Hepatitis A in Shanghai in 1988: 300,000 people got sick in a month [EB/OL]. (2014-1-16) [2019-9-26]. http://history.eastday.com/h/20140116/u1a7888858.html.

1.3 Security Risk Challenges in Cities

27

race, refugees, and immigration.50 Given the complexity of the causes of urban safety problems, it is also a very complicated task to successfully eliminate urban safety risks. Because many factors are involved in the formation of security risks, it is necessary to study fully the role played by the various factors involved in the search for solutions. Sometimes even with a thorough knowledge of all the influencing factors, cities will face the dilemma of assembling many favorable conditions in order to solve the problem smoothly. Based on the reality, in the process of governance of many urban problems, we will be caught in a double bind. Under poor coordination within the government, insufficient social mobilization and participation, and interference for specific interests from a minority of individuals or groups, there is no doubt that the process of dealing with urban security risks is also extremely challenging. Therefore, city safety risk management needs to be put in the hands of specialized agencies. After the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management, at present, emergency management bureaus have been established at the municipal level in major cities across the country, the emergency management system at the district level is also undergoing corresponding adjustments. Many problems still remain in this process. There are running-in obstacles after the integration of multiple departments, and the difficulty in adjusting the work content and focus after the disruption and reorganization of the system. In a word, whether from the occurrence, development and response process, or from the subject and object of prevention and response, there are very complex factors that need to be studied and coordinated on the issue of urban safety risks.

1.3.3.5

The Characteristics of Linkage

Linkage is a kind of conduction relationship, that is, when a safety problem occurs, it triggers or activates another or multiple security problems, causing them to propagate in a butterfly effect manner. This kind of phenomenon is often encountered in city safety risk management. For example, urban power outage will lead to subway outage, traffic lights failure, causing urban traffic crisis. A power outage would also cause a network outage, so that many communications and capital transactions that rely on the network can not be carried out normally. The city’s high-rise elevators will be out of service, and people can not get in or out normally, etc. As one of the urban lifelines, the electric power system, like other urban lifeline projects, plays an important role in the safe and stable operation of the city. The city itself is like a living organism, under normal circumstances, when various functions of the organism work normally within a reasonable and effective range, the city can keep its normal and orderly operation. But when something goes wrong, it will cause a whole series of symptoms. This is the linkage presented by the city’s own internal operating system. 50

Shi, Z. Q. Why Europe is becoming less and less safe [EB/OL]. (2018-4-3) [2019-9-26]. http://www.rmlt.com.cn/2018/0403/515618.shtml?from=groupmessage.

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1 Introduction

From the point of view of globalization, the crisis or risk of the city’s external environment will sometimes experience linkage. In the context of the United States subprime mortgage crisis, in 2011, a group of young people unhappy with America’s financial oligarchs launched the Occupy Wall Street movement, with the protests spread to more than 120 cities across the United States. And over the next month or so, the “Occupy movement” quickly spread to more than 80 countries and regions in Europe and Asia. Demonstrations took place in more than 700 cities around the world, participants held demonstrations in London, Paris, Madrid, Seoul, Jakarta and other cities, protesting the global economic crisis, holding politicians and bankers accountable.51 The linkage characteristic endows urban safety risks with the global recessive quality, cautioning us not to ignore the negative impact that events in other cities or regions may have on us while focusing on the security risks in our own cities.

1.3.3.6

The Characteristics of the Times

The characteristics of the times emphasize that the urban security risk changes with the evolution of realistic conditions. The physical environment of a city will always change because of some particularly powerful factors, thus giving new themes to this era. The significant factors that city security risks face, which can reflect the influence of the times, come from people and science and technology. Human factors have a strong influence on urban safety management. Among them, population size, age structure, gender structure, ethnic structure, educational level, religious belief, family income, social stratification and so on, are all important components of factors of the times. For example, “Post-80s” has once been widely discussed as a social topic, to illustrate the different characteristics of the generation born after 1980 and that born in 1960s and 70s. Likewise, the later “Post-90s” and “Post-00s” have both been tagged differently by social media. For people born in different times, varying changes in their family conditions, social environment, and educational beliefs will cause them to behave differently, and that has had a transformative impact on urban governance. Science and technology are more characteristic of the times. Since the advent of the Internet age, the wide application of technologies such as Big data and Artificial intelligence provides more advanced tools for city safety risk management, but also brings new risks. When technological factors and human factors are combined, a new series of risks are created. For example, lawbreakers use the Internet to commit fraud and steal information. There is also the conflict caused by the replacement of a large number of industrial workers in cities by Artificial intelligence, etc.

51

The Occupy Wall Street movement spread to Europe [EB/OL]. (2012-10-16) [2019-9-26]. http:// world.people.com.cn/n/2012/1016/c15727819274811.html.

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The many characteristics presented by urban security risks point to the difficulty and challenge of urban security risk management. Only by stepping up more in-depth and detailed research into the risks of urban safety can we achieve a more accurate understanding and firmer grasp, and develop a more effective strategy to deal with a variety of future risks.

Chapter 2

Sources of Urban Public Safety Risks

Cities are like living organisms, each of which has a specific and complex internal operating system. At the same time, they are all affected by the external environment. Based on different resource endowments, governance systems, ecological compositions, population structures, physical forms, and environmental opportunities, specific conclusions can be reached for each city on the sources of security risks. And over time, the sources of urban security risks will also change. In order to get to the heart of the formation law of urban safety risks, this chapter attempts to analyze the issue from the perspective of disaster-causing factors and vulnerability.

2.1 Urban Development and Vulnerability With the rapid development of the city, “Urban disease” and vulnerability of the city are also on the rise. After entering the twenty-first century, a series of public risk events have taken place all over the world, including the “9·11” terrorist attack in the United States, tsunami in the Indian Ocean, floods in New Orleans, and the “11·13” terrorist attack in Paris, etc. China has also been hit by the 2003 “SARS” epidemic, the 2008 “5·12” Wenchuan earthquake, the 2015 “8·12” fire and explosion in Port of Tianjin, and the strange “sea view” in the city whenever it rains. Human society has gone through a long period of development, it has constantly summarized and improved scientific solutions in the process of dealing with various problems, but why do urban safety problems still occur frequently? In face of this situation, more and more scholars and urban governance practitioners are pondering on the vulnerability of cities. A great deal of facts have shown that the destructiveness of a disaster is related to the intensity of the source of the accident disaster, and to the vulnerability of the city itself and its capacity for prevention. The greater the intensity of the disaster, the higher the vulnerability, and the more destructive the disaster. In addition, vulnerability also magnifies a disaster. When a smaller event occurs, if there © East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_2

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are structural vulnerabilities in the systems of managers and disaster-bearing bodies, it can even mutate, expand and accelerate disaster behavior. As a result, losses will increase and recovery becomes difficult.1

2.1.1 Urban Vulnerability 2.1.1.1

The Concept of Urban Vulnerability

The concept of urban vulnerability is mostly derived from the concept of vulnerability per se. Based on different understandings of the concept of vulnerability, scholars’ understandings of the concept of urban vulnerability also vary. Climate scientists regard vulnerability as the likelihood and extent of the impact of climate change on cities,2 sociologists think of vulnerability as people’s ability to cope with disturbances and recover from adverse events. Through the understanding and analysis of these concepts, we can understand urban vulnerability from multiple perspectives. According to the different research objects and perspectives, Wang Yan and other scholars classify the concept of urban vulnerability into eight categories, as shown in Table 2.1. Combining previous studies on urban vulnerability, we can find that at present, there are two widely accepted views in the academic circle. One view is that the definition of urban vulnerability can be understood in both a narrow and a broad sense: In a narrow sense, urban vulnerability refers to the threat and destruction from nature and human beings themselves, causing the city in the natural environment and the social environment to display problems in various aspects unconducive to sustainable urban development. Urban vulnerability in a broad sense also includes the deficiencies and defects that cities exhibit when compared to other cities in their development. In other words, every city has a vulnerable side, urban vulnerability has its commonalities. But each city is vulnerable in different ways and has its own focus.3 The other view is that urban vulnerability is a comprehensive measure of the level of urban development, referring to the problems of population growth, economic development, resource utilization, environmental pollution, ecological destruction and so on which go beyond the capacity of the existing socio-economic, scientific and technological levels to sustain long-term urban development under the joint action of natural factors and man-made factors. Excessive human activities, inappropriate human activities and unreasonable economic development patterns will cause the city

1

Liu, T.M. Re-understanding the causes of accident disasters—research on vulnerability [J]. Journal of Safety Science and Technology, 2010, 6 (5): 5–10. 2 Wang, Y., Fang, C. & Zhang, Q. Progress and prospect of urban vulnerability [J]. Progress in Geography. 2013, 32(5): 755–768. 3 Yu, X. H., Xia, A. T. & Liu, Y. J. Research of urban vulnerability and its countermeasures. Journal of Hunan City University, 2007, 28(3): 96–98.

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Table 2.1 Definitions of urban vulnerability Research perspective

Typical definition

Concept of urban The vulnerability of regional economic vulnerability based on development is a standard to measure the economic system level of regional economic development. It refers to the poor stability of economic development of a certain region and its sensitivity to changes in external economic conditions. This region suffers a great degree of loss under the interference and changes of the external conditions.

Representative scholar/ institution Zhenhuan Feng

Concept of urban The vulnerability of an eco-system means the Li Yu vulnerability based on extent to which the characteristics of system eco-system damage and degradation may occur in the face of various external pressures and disturbances (including disturbances in human activities). Concept of urban A state in which the system is prone to Fei Su vulnerability based on unsustainable development due to the social system sensitivity of social system to internal and external disturbances and the lack of ability to deal with adverse disturbances. It is an inherent nature of the system, which only shows up when the system is disturbed. Concept of urban The vulnerability of cities to natural disasters Fineberg et al. vulnerability based on (such as earthquakes) is a function of human natural disasters behavior. It describes the extent to which urban socio-economic systems and the physical environment are affected by natural disasters or the ability to recover from them. Concept of urban Vulnerability is the extent or degree of Intergovernmental vulnerability based on ongoing hazards that a natural or social Panel on Climate climate change system is vulnerable to exposure from climate Change (IPCC) change (including climate variability and extreme weather events). It is the characteristics, magnitude and rate of climate variability within the system and functions of sensitivity and adaptability. Concept of urban vulnerability in broad and narrow perspectives

Urban vulnerability in a narrow sense refers Xiaohong Yu to the threat and destruction from nature and human beings themselves, so that cities in the natural environment and social environment show problems in different aspects that are not conducive to the sustainable development of cities. Urban vulnerability in a broad sense also includes the weaknesses and defects the city shows which is inferior to other cities in the process of its development. (continued)

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Table 2.1 (continued) Research perspective

Typical definition

Representative scholar/ institution

Concept of urban vulnerability from the perspective of structure and stress

Structure-type vulnerability is the inherent Zhuo Chen instability of an urban system. Stress-type vulnerability means external interference and stress (natural or man-made) is prone to cause losses or adverse changes to the urban system.

Understanding the vulnerability of resource-based (mining) cities

Under the influence of disturbance factors inside and outside the city, mining cities are highly sensitive in economic, social, ecological and environmental aspects and lack coping capacity, which makes urban structure and function vulnerable to damage.

He Li

system to change. When reaching a point of vulnerability, vulnerability will appear in some places, bringing the whole urban system into a state of vulnerability.4

2.1.1.2

Performance of Urban Vulnerability

As a huge system with an unusually complex structure, there are ongoing interactions between cities and their natural and social environments, which have all kinds of effects on the cities. With continuous gathering of the urban population, cities are beginning to face systemic problems such as resource shortages and environmental degradation. As the feedback effect of urban population’s production and life is increasingly intensified, cities are becoming more sensitive to human factors. At the same time, the elastic space of their own bearing capacity also becomes increasingly tight, thus the level of external interference continues to increase, so does their vulnerability. First of all, the input of the city. As a symbol of modernization, the city continues to attract a massive influx of people, but there is an upper limit to its size. Although scholars in many fields such as sociology, demography and economics have expressed different views, and compared the population of cities in different countries, it is still hard to come up with a generally convincing and acceptable number of the people that a city can accommodate. However, since 2016, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other mega-cities have proposed population “ceiling” control plans: Beijing has proposed a “red line” of 23 million permanent residents by 2020, Shanghai has set a target of no more than 25 million by 2020, and Guangzhou has proposed to control the size of its population moderately.5 Although experts differ on the government’s proposed “upper line”, it is clear that the government, based on its actual management 4 Wang, Y., Fang, C. & Zhang, Q. Progress and prospect of urban vulnerability [J]. Progress in Geography. 2013, 32(5): 755–768. 5 Population red line plan: the population in Shanghai is to be controlled within 25 million by 2020 [EB/OL]. (2016-1-26) [2019-9-27]. http://sh.bendibao.com/news/2016126/154022.shtm.

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capacity, has carried out a series of population control operations in accordance with relevant plans. Judging from the act of putting a population “upper limit” in a city, it is quite obvious that over-population is considered by the city government as beyond the bearing capacity of the city. This capacity may be judged on the basis of an assessment of the government’s management ability. But in any case, it reflects the vulnerability of a city’s bearing capacity, that is, cities can not accommodate the influx of people indefinitely. Based on the large population of the city, another input of the city is the huge daily needs of the city. In terms of maintaining the basic needs of life alone, the amount of material that cities consume every day is staggering. Take Shanghai for example, it consumes 150,000 tons of vegetables a day, and other resources required for daily travel due to its large population are also enormous. Recalling the various “water-grabbing” and “salt-grabbing” incidents that have occurred in different cities in recent years, including problems such as the city “sea view” on rainy days, we can find that cities have many weak points, which often erupt suddenly under special conditions, making the city fall into a state of short-term “disorder”. Second, the output of the city. The output of a city refers to the daily consumption and discharge of its population, the most direct is the daily garbage disposal. According to statistics, Beijing produces nearly 260,000 tons of household waste every day, Shanghai produces about 20,000 tons of household waste every day, the waste volume of other cities is also roughly proportional to their population size. In the face of so much garbage output, how to deal with the problem becomes a challenging task. Garbage affects the atmosphere, soil, water and the people living around it, to avoid being besieged by garbage, it is necessary to set up places for garbage collection, transportation and centralized treatment in the city. But in a densely populated urban space, such places are often prone to all kinds of conflicts, the continuous occurrences of neighborhood avoidance incidents have become a “stubborn disease” in urban governance. In addition, the need for human transportation can cause serious problems. As the capital of China, Beijing has been nicknamed “the country’s most congested city” (“du” meaning “capital” is homonymous to “du” meaning “congested” in Chinese), which reflects the traffic jams in big cities. The increase of urban population increases the demand for transportation. At the same time, the increase of economic consumption capacity has made the number of private cars continuously increase, this in turn increases the burden of urban transport. So far, traffic jams are basically a problem in cities at or above the county level throughout the country, especially in cities above the provincial level. During rush hours, cities across the country are gridlocked. Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and other big cities have all introduced restrictions on out-of-town license plates. Even license plate lottery, license plate bidding and other measures have long been in force for the licensing of newly purchased motor vehicles to limit the massive growth of urban motor vehicles. Third, the city’s own mutation. There is an inevitable possibility of accidents in the operation of any complex system, which is especially true in large cities with large populations. Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong has a good chance of going wrong. There are countless links in every moment of the city’s

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operation, a failure is always likely in some of the links. The scenarios presented are full of minor problems, such as small traffic accidents, while some may be serious accident disasters, like the fire in Jiaozhou Road of Shanghai in 2010, the explosion in Binhai New Area of Tianjin in 2015, and the explosion in Xiangshui of Jiangsu, etc. An emergency can plunge parts, or even the whole of a city, into crisis, like the “Blackout in US and Canada” in 2003. At 4:12 EST (eastern standard time, US) on Aug. 14, 2003, a large-scale power outage first occurred in Manhattan, New York City, then several major cities in eastern United States, such as Detroit, Cleveland and Boston, lost power one after another. At the same time, Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and the commercial center of Toronto were not spared, the affected areas included parts of northeastern United States and eastern Canada, covering an area of about 24,000 square kilometers, one-third of the population in Canada and one-seventh of the population in the United States were affected directly by the blackout. A similar incident occurred again on Jul. 13, 2019. At 6:47 that evening, there was a massive blackout in the Midtown Manhattan and Upper West Side, a large area covering the Times Square, subway station, cinema and Broadway in the heart of Manhattan was plunged into darkness. At its worst, about 73,000 customers were affected, and power was only restored around 10 o’clock that night. The cause of the blackout was found to be a transformer fire. The sudden power outage in the city left many people trapped in elevators, people waiting for first aid at high levels could not be transferred in time, traffic lights at intersections stopped working, and traffic was at a standstill…. There are still many unexpected problems in the process of city operation, all of which expose the vulnerability of the city. Finally, the sudden change in the external environment of the city. Modern cities are also an integral part of the global environment, the openness of the city makes it inevitable to keep in touch with the outside world, and therefore can not escape the impact from unexpected events of the outside world. Looking at urban vulnerability from the sudden change of the external environment is similar to the logical analysis of internal and external causes. When a sudden event occurs somewhere in the globalized system, it will trigger some of the urban vulnerabilities associated with it. For example, the subprime mortgage crisis broke out in the US in 2008, and this financial crisis spread around the world, causing cities all over the world to suffer from a chain reaction of business failures and job losses to varying degrees. The same conduction effect also happened in China. For example, with a serious natural disaster in a major vegetable-producing area leading to a sharp drop in vegetable production, city prices may go up, low-income urban residents who are price-sensitive will raise their voices against the government, causing social problems. This is like “Butterfly effect”, except that the effect is used to point to an analysis of urban vulnerability. Beck’s description of risk society has shown us the universality of risk in modern society, no individual entity can escape its influence. Similarly, the city is a colossus consisting of a large population. When there is any risk from the outside, there will often be some reaction from within that echoes with it. It will inevitably trigger many problems in the city itself, which are then translated into a serious crisis of the city itself.

2.2 Multiple Intersecting Risk Factors

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2.2 Multiple Intersecting Risk Factors Disaster-causing factors and vulnerability are a pair of corresponding factors similar to the spear and shield. Urban vulnerability is a protective factor against urban safety risks, while disaster-causing factors are an aggressive issue that acts on the urban operation system and causes the risk to occur. A city built on the rapid development of modern industrialization is generally facing the threat of multi-intersecting and complex disaster-causing factors.

2.2.1 Natural Disaster-Causing Risk Factors The environment in which human beings have lived for generations can not escape the effects of changes in natural conditions. Summarizing the natural disaster-causing risk factors that the city will face, we can find that they include drought, high temperature, low temperature, cold wave, flood, mountain torrents, typhoons, tornadoes, hail, frost, heavy rain, heavy snow, freezing rain, heavy fog, high wind, frozen ice, haze, earthquake, tsunami, debris flow, floating dust, blowing sand, sandstorm, lightning, thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions and many other forms. In the face of nature, human power is insignificant. Chapter 1 in this book has already mentioned some of the cities that have been destroyed in history by various natural disasters. Some forces can destroy a city in a short time, while other forces are relatively slow which would take a relatively long time to pose a significant threat to the city.

2.2.1.1

Earthquakes

Among so many natural disasters, earthquakes are undoubtedly the biggest and most direct disaster-causing factor to urban safety. According to seismologists, an earthquake of about magnitude 7 occurring in and around the city is enough to destroy the whole city. In the twentieth century alone, nearly 20 cities were destroyed by earthquakes. China has had two particularly powerful earthquakes in the twentieth century. The first was Haiyuan earthquake on Dec. 16, 1920 with a magnitude of 8.5. The violent shaking lasted more than ten minutes. The quake was recorded by more than 96 seismic stations around the world, known as the “Global earthquake”. Haiyuan earthquake released as much energy as 11.2 Tangshan earthquakes in 1976, the death toll was enormous. The News of Apr. 3, 1921 reported that half of the county town had collapsed. Feng Jun Hanying, a student visiting Beijing in Haiyuan County of Gansu Province (Haiyuan was under the jurisdiction of Gansu at the time) received a letter from home saying: “On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, an earthquake struck our village at dusk. Houses were flattened all over the city, 9 out of 10 people were killed or injured. Our family’s Huayawan Villa was completely overrun. Mountains fell and cracked. Rivers were surging in an upheaval. More than 40 members of our

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family, except our father and your grandmother, all died in the disaster. The house fell to the ground, leaving nothing behind. Over 60,000 people were killed or injured in the county…” At the same time, in the 5th edition of US National Geography in 1922, Kraus and Mccormick co-authored “Where the mountains go,” describing several phenomena that occurred during 1920 Haiyuan earthquake: Mountains that moved at night were waterfall-like landslides sinking into a great crack in the houses and camels, and everything that swept the village into the soft, rising sea soil… The death toll from Haiyuan earthquake reached more than 230,000.6 Of these, more than 70,000 people were killed in Haiyuan County, accounting for 50% of the entire county’s population. Four County towns were almost completely destroyed in the earthquake.7 The other earthquake is Tangshan earthquake on Jul. 28, 1976, with a magnitude of 7.8. More than 240,000 people were killed, more than 160,000 people were seriously injured, and the whole city of Tangshan was in ruins. So far, advances in science and technology have not stopped earthquakes from continuing to wreak havoc. Since the twenty-first century, in the short span of 20 years, mankind has experienced many severe earthquake disasters. Among them, more than 60,000 people were killed in Wenchuan County earthquake reaching a magnitude of 8, more than 60,000 people were killed, more than 370,000 people were injured and more than 10,000 were missing, making it the most destructive earthquake since the founding of People’s Republic of China, and the deadliest earthquake since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The impact of the Wenchuan County earthquake was enormous, 10 counties (cities) were in the worst-hit areas, 41 counties (urban areas) were in the severely-hit areas, and 186 counties (cities) were in the averagely-hit areas. Earthquakes have always been one of the biggest threats to urban safety. Since the twentieth century, the death toll from earthquakes in China has accounted for 54% of all natural disasters in the country, including floods, wildfires, debris flows, landslides, etc. In terms of the number of deaths, the earthquake is the worst. Besides, China lies between the world’s two great seismic zones—the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Eurasian seismic zones, under the compression of the Pacific Plate, the Indian Plate and Philippine Sea plate, seismic faults are very active. Because China has a large population, the urban population is highly concentrated, and the urban distribution is also relatively concentrated, once a large-scale earthquake occurs in or around the city, it will cause unpredictably huge losses. Therefore, many big cities have taken earthquake prevention as an important part of city safety risk prevention and control after the Wenchuan earthquake.

6

Since it happened a long time ago, there were many statistical problems in that special period. Researchers later concluded that the death toll was 27 million people. 7 The 1920 Haiyuan earthquake—the “Global earthquake” forgotten for 90 years [EB/OL]. (201012-18) [2019-9-26]. http://www.sx.chinanews.com/news/2010/1218/29813.html.

2.2 Multiple Intersecting Risk Factors

2.2.1.2

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Tsunamis, Rising Sea Levels and Sinking Cities

Most cities in human society are close to large water sources. People like to live near water such as rivers and lakes. And in the modern world, with the rapid development of global trade, many of the world’s top cities are located along the coast. The convenient maritime transportation also provides more favorable conditions for the development of cities along the coast, with 60% of the world’s population living in coastal areas about 100,000 km from the coast. But there are two sides to everything, and coastal cities are under serious threat. First, the threat of a tsunami. Tsunamis are destructive waves caused by undersea earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, undersea landslides or meteorological changes. Tsunamis can wreak havoc on coastal areas. The Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004 has struck many countries around the Indian Ocean, mainly Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, over 230,000 people from 14 countries lost their lives. The epicenter of the east Japan earthquake on Mar. 11, 2011 was located in the eastern Pacific Ocean off Miyagi Prefecture, Japan with a focal depth of 20,000 m. The huge tsunami caused by this earthquake devastated Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in northeast Japan, and caused nuclear leaks in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. So far, about 260 destructive tsunamis have been recorded globally, one every six or seven years on average. The proportion of earthquakes and tsunamis that occurred in the Pacific Rim accounted for about 80%, while the earthquakes in the Japanese islands and nearby waters also accounted for about 60% of the earthquakes and tsunamis in the Pacific Rim Region. Japan is the country most affected by earthquake and tsunami disasters in the world. The second is the threat of rising sea levels. A report was released by IPCC on Mar. 27, 2007 warning that humanity faces the threat of rising sea levels as the earth heats up. From New York to Tokyo, about two-thirds of the world’s cities with populations of more than 5 million are likely to be inundated, affecting 600 million people. In the report, scientists came up with a series of shocking figures: 10% of the world’s population lives below 10 m above sea level. As the climate warms, their survival is under threat; in cities with populations of more than 5 million, nearly two-thirds of the city is 0–10 m above sea level. They include Tokyo, New York, Mumbai, Shanghai and Jakarta. Asia may be the most vulnerable region to rising sea levels and the threat of flooding. Of the 634 million lowland dwellers, about three-quarters live in Asia. More than half the population of 21 countries lives near sea level, 16 of them are small island nations. More worryingly, some scientists have warned that as ice melts faster in Greenland’s waters and the west of the Arctic Ocean, sea levels will rise faster and faster, more than 1 m every hundred years. The draft report of IPCC states that according to the current population distribution, about 100 million people will suffer from floods every year by around 2080.8 As the sea level rises every year, some cities are sinking. On Aug. 26, 2019, Indonesia officially announced that it would “relocate” its capital in 2024, and one 8

Will the world’s big coastal cities be inundated by a one-meter sea-level rise in a century? [EB/OL]. (2007-4-1) [2019-9-26]. http://www.china.com.cn/world/txt/200704/01/content_8042920.htm.

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of the main reasons for this ambitious project is that Jakarta, the current capital of the country, is already a “dangerous city”, with an average annual subsidence of 25 cm, ranking the first in the world. A study by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows that in recent years New Orleans has been showing a clear sinking trend, with a subsidence rate of about 5 cm every year. It is understood that some areas of the city are already 4.5 m below sea level. According to this development, large areas of the city will be submerged by the year 2100. Similar to what happened in New Orleans, Atlantic City, New Jersey, was also devastated by hurricanes and floods. More worrisome than the fate of Atlantic City is that of Charleston, a port city on the southeast coast of the United States, local media have asserted for more than a decade that the city will be reduced to a “half-submerged ghost city” by 2050.9

2.2.1.3

Typhoons (Hurricanes)

Typhoons are essentially no different from hurricanes. They are both tropical cyclones, but in China and the western Pacific region they are known as typhoons while in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific, they are called hurricanes. The main effects of typhoon disasters are strong winds, heavy precipitations and storm surges, often causing very serious damages to the coastal cities that the typhoon passes through. In recent years, the most serious case of typhoon (hurricane) losses in cities is the destruction of New Orleans, US by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. On Aug. 23, 2005, Hurricane Katrina began to grow near the Bahamas and became a hurricane the next day, which landed in Florida at the strength of a small hurricane. A few hours later, the storm entered the Gulf of Mexico and became a Category 5 hurricane. A state of emergency followed in Louisiana and Mississippi. Some cities then declared a state of emergency and began to organize large-scale evacuations of citizens. On Aug. 28, Ray Nagean, mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana ordered residents to evacuate, but many old people, disabled people and people without cars were unable to leave the city. The storm surge caused catastrophic damage in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The levees used to separate Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans burst under the storm surge, flooding most of the city. Chaos of anarchy began to appear since Sept. 1 in the troubled New Orleans, looting was getting worse in parts of the region. The hurricane eventually killed nearly 2000 people in the city. After the disaster, there was a heated debate in the U.S. Congress over whether to rebuild New Orleans. Despite the reopening of hotels and the returning of refugees, the population did not return to its pre-disaster state for a long time. Every year, typhoons have brought severe effects to the coastal cities of China in different degrees. Over the past 20 years, on average, about seven typhoons have affected China every year, especially the cities along the southeast coast. Whenever 9

Yang, Z., Hao, S. H. Dozens of cities around the world are sinking? US media: By the end of twenty-first century, many areas of the United States may be flooded [EB/OL]. (2019-8-29) [2019-9-26]. https://world.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnKmvRA.

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there is a typhoon, temporary measures should be taken for transportation, production and operation, etc. Every year, some cities are also affected by urban waterlogging and other derivative disasters caused by typhoons. Therefore, flood control has always been an important task in the coastal cities of China in summer.

2.2.1.4

Freezing Rains and Snows

During the spring festival of 2008, the south of China experienced a large-scale disaster of freezing rain and snow, which caused a serious impact on many cities in the south. On Jan. 10, 2008, the weather situation in China changed significantly, from sunny and warm weather with little rain to low temperature, rain and snow, and freezing weather. Not until Jan. 31, the atmospheric circulation was stable and less variable, with southwest water vapor and the cold air moving southward from the north converged in the Yellow River and areas to the south, causing unusually low temperatures, rain and snow, and freezing weather since 1949. The impact was severe on 19 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Guangxi, Chongqing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Yunnan, Gansu, Henan, Qinghai, Tibet, Shanxi and Shanghai. The sustained low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather was mainly divided into three stages, the periods of occurrence were respectively from Jan. 1 to 16, Jan. 18 to 22, and Jan. 25 to 29. During this process, freezing rain or freezing weather occurred in Hunan, Guizhou, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and southern Anhui experienced freezing rain or freezing weather. Heavy snow to heavy snowstorms occurred in Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, northwestern Jiangxi, and northern Zhejiang. The cumulative precipitation from Jan. 10 to 30 reached over 50 mm in southern Henan, eastern and southern Hubei, most of Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, most of Zhejiang, northern Fujian, Jiangxi, most of Guangxi and southern Yunnan. Among them, the precipitation of parts of southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, northern Jiangxi, west Guangdong, east Guangxi and west Yunnan exceeded 100 mm, Tongling of Anhui and Jiujiang of Jiangxi both exceeded 2 mm, and Gongshan of Yunnan reached 205 mm. On Jan. 28, the remote sensing snow monitoring of China’s weather satellite shows that snow in 15 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Shaanxi covered a total area of 1,282,100 square kilometers. Among them, snow covered over 90% of the Province’s (municipality’s) area in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi, and 40–75% in Zuizhou, Hunan and Chongqing. In the observation of snow cover on Jan.29, there were two centimeters of snow cover in the middle of Anhui Province and the south of Jiangsu Province. Continued low temperatures, rain and snow, and freezing weather caused major disasters in many southern Provinces, with a particularly serious impact and loss on transportation, energy supply, power transmission and people’s lives. It happened during the spring festival travel rush, more than 800,000 passengers were stranded in Guangzhou, railway transportation was faced with great difficulties and challenges. Power supply

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in many cities was in emergency, heating was in dire trouble, and normal communication was also affected by the disaster. Freezing water pipes in Wuhan, Jingzhou and Yichang left 2,800,000 people without drinking water.10 The disaster has had a major impact on the winter emergency management systems of cities in southern China. Shanghai has added “low temperature warning” to its meteorological warning. Although the serious disaster in 2008 has not appeared on a large scale again in China, similar situations occurred in Europe and the United States, such as the snowstorms in New York City, extreme cold in Europe and so on. In addition to the above scenarios, heavy rain, heavy snow, freezing and other separate disasters will also pose a serious challenge to the normal operation of urban safety. All these phenomena indicate that the threat that nature poses to cities on a global scale is not mitigated at all by technological advances.

2.2.1.5

Drought and Water Scarcity

Why did the Maya and Loulan Kingdom disappear from history? Scholars have all hypothesized that “drought was the cause”. Although history can hardly be fully restored, at least it shows that water plays a vital role in the existence and development of a city. In order for a city to maintain the normal production and living of a huge population, it must consume a large amount of water. This is one of the main reasons why mega-cities need to be close to water sources. According to statistics, over 400 of China’s 660 cities are short of water, and two-thirds of the cities have insufficient water supply. The annual water shortage in Chinese cities is about 6 billion cubic meters, with 110 cities suffering from severe water shortages, Most of them are distributed in North China and the south of Northeast China, especially in big cities such as Beijing and Tianjin. Drought is widespread across the country, as shown in Table 2.2. Faced with water shortage in the city, Mao Zedong put forward the grand idea in 1952 that “There is more water in the south and less in the north, if possible, it is feasible to borrow some water from the south”. In 1979, The Government Work Report approved by the first meeting of the 5th National People’s Congress (hereinafter referred to as “National People’s Congress”) formally proposed “building a South– North Water Transfer Project to bring water from the Yangtze River to the north of the Yellow River”. The major strategic project of South–North Water Transfer is divided into three routes, namely east, middle and west. The eastern route project starts at the Jiangdu District water complex in Yangzhou. The starting point of the middle route project is located in the upper and middle Danjiangkou Dam of Han River, the water supply areas are four provinces (municipalities directly under the central government) of Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin. The western route is still in the planning stage.

10

2008 experienced rare freezing rain and snow disaster in South China [EB/OL]. (2014-5-9) [2019-9-26]. http://zj.weather.com.cn/zt/tqzt/2116841.shtml.

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Table 2.2 Main drought situation in China since 2003 Time

Provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government)/regions involved

Drought situation

2019

Jiangxi, Yunnan, North China

Parts of the areas suffer from drought

2017

Shandong

Rivers dry up, difficult for people to use water in many places

2015

Guangxi, Guizhou

Parts of the areas suffer from drought

2014

Henan

The most serious “summer drought” in 63 years, many places are short of water supply, and the residents draw lots to get water

2013

Most of the areas south of the Yangtze River

High temperature and little rain in summer, highest number of hot and very hot days in summer in the last 50 years, and the drought is widespread

2011

Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, etc.

9.89 million people in Hubei, 660,000 people in Hunan, and 330,000 people in Jiangxi have difficulty finding drinking water

2010

Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Chongqing

Biggest drought in the century

2009

Many Provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government) in China

For 3 months in a row, 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) in North China, Huanghuai, Northwest China, and Jianghuai do not see effective precipitation, cities are running out of water

2008

Yunnan

More than 130,000 people in Kunming have difficulty finding drinking water

2007

22 provinces (autonomous The country’s arable land drought area is 224 million mu,11 regions and municipalities 8.97 million people have temporary water difficulties directly under the central government)

2006

Chongqing

2005

The southern part of South Severe drought in autumn, winter and spring, Yunnan China, Yunnan experiences severe early spring drought rarely seen in the past 50 years

2004

Most of southern China

2003

East, South and Southwest Severe drought in late summer and autumn, some areas China experience drought in late autumn and winter

The most severe drought in the century, with a direct economic loss of 7.155 billion yuan, and 8.15 million people have difficulty finding drinking water

A rare drought in the past 53 years causes economic losses of more than 4 billion yuan and making drinking water difficult for more than 7.2 million people

Apart from the shortage of water supply, China also faces the serious problem of water pollution. The seven major river systems of Hai River, Liao River, Huai River, the Yellow River, Songhua River, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River are 11

1 mu = 0.000 667 km2 .

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contaminated to varying degrees. So, cities not only have to solve the problem of “having water”, but are faced with the severe test of “keeping water clean”. In reality, not only the natural disaster-causing factors listed above pose a security threat to cities, but also natural disasters such as forest fires and volcanic eruptions. All natural factors that have relations with humans could pose a threat to a particular city under certain conditions. Only by constantly increasing our own resistance and learning to get along better with nature can humans increase the ability to defuse natural threats.

2.2.2 Human Disaster-Causing Risk Factors After the settlement of a large number of people in cities, there are numerous human disaster-causing risk factors due to the diversity of human activities. According to the national classification of public crisis events, in addition to natural disasters, those directly related to humans include accidents and disasters, public health events and social safety events. The analysis of disaster-causing risk factors in cities in this section roughly follows these three categories of criteria.

2.2.2.1

Accidents and Disasters

Lifelines The lifelines of a city refer to the basic facilities of water, electricity, gas, transportation and communications essential to the daily life of the public. First of all, the city’s water supply, power supply and gas supply projects are related to the daily life of the citizens. If there is a problem, it will affect the basic urban stability system. Many of the cases mentioned above are related to the problems of urban water and electricity consumption and the resulting crisis. Secondly, modern urban traffic is a highly complex integrated system, including the ground, elevated highway, underground, water and many other levels. If an emergency occurs at an important node in the city traffic, it can cause serious stagnation in some or even most parts of the city. Finally, the communication safeguards also constitute a basic condition of modern city operation. China has become the country with the highest level of online consumption in the world, people’s daily life can not be separated from the network, nor can the operation of a city as a financial center be separated from the effective guarantee of the communication system. Around 16 p.m. on Mar. 23, 2019, a construction team in Shanghai cut off a cable during work, which only recovered by 8:00 p.m. that night. Tencent’s games lost billions of dollars due to Internet outage.

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Fires Most of the fires that have occurred were caused by human factors. Fire is one of the most important risk factors in cities, and nearly half of the fires that occur in the country every year happen in cities. Year-on-year casualties and property losses are also significantly higher in cities than in rural areas. For example, the Shanghai “11·15” major fire in 2010, Shenyang “2·3” Emperor Wanxin Hotel fire in 2011, the Tianjin “12·1” City Building fire in 2017, etc., a series of serious incidents constantly remind us to guard against city fires. In 2019, across the country 6,015 fires broke out in commercial premises, 5,872 in hotels and restaurants, 722 in schools, 346 in hospitals and nursing homes, and 384 in public places of entertainment. Although there is a year-on-year decrease, the proportion of fires in high-rise buildings and construction sites is still rising, reaching 6,974 and 2,926 respectively, an increase of 10.6% and 5.8% from the same period last year, According to the data published by relevant departments, more than 1.3 billion square meters of gross leasable area are being built in China every year. The number of high-rise buildings has reached 620,000, and there are already 40 cities with subway and other rail transportation, with a mileage of over 6700 km. The pressure and difficulty of preventing and controlling urban fires will continue to increase.12

Dangerous Chemicals Dangerous chemicals are themselves a potential safety risk factor. During the production, storage, transportation, operation, use and disposal of hazardous chemicals, too many links in the chain can be at risk from mismanagement. Modern urban layouts are often achieved by setting up chemical industrial zones in an attempt to effectively isolate most of the city’s population from hazardous chemicals. But inevitably in the daily operation of the city there are large numbers of people exposed to dangerous chemicals. For example, gas in every home is a dangerous chemical in itself. Besides, strong acid and strong alkali used in various industrial processes, a variety of industrial gases, pesticides used in gardens, all kinds of dangerous chemical materials used and developed by universities and research institutes, etc. constitute a risk source of the city. Tianjin “8·12”explosion in Binhai New Area in 2015, Jiangsu “3·21” Yancheng Chemical Plant major explosion in 2019 and so on are constantly warning us of the importance of urban safety management of dangerous chemicals.

12

The number of casualties from 233,000 fires reported nationwide in 2019 is the lowest in seven years [EB/OL]. (2020-1-11) [2020-1-26]. http://news.xmnn.cn/xmnn/2020/01/11/100652 124.shtml.

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Construction No city can avoid new construction, maintenance and demolition projects. The bigger the city, the more such projects there are, and the greater the hidden risks. In recent years, a series of devastating events have occurred in the construction of urban buildings. For example, in recent years, there have been numerous reports of “falling buildings” and “collapsing floors”. Several cities collapsed during subway excavation, serious collapses occurred frequently during the renovation and upgrading of old buildings, fires were constantly triggered during the decoration of the exterior facade, etc. As long as the city exists and continues to develop, all kinds of construction will last forever. Therefore, the risks in the field of construction will always remain in the city.

Crowded Places The safety risk control in crowded places is also an important point of prevention and control in the process of daily urban management. In the city, there are many tourist spots, traffic hubs, large complexes, places of community activities and other areas with high human flow. These areas need to be staffed with more control personnel and better prepared for prevention and control measures. On one hand, the large number of stampedes around the world reminds us that stampedes are very common in crowded places, such as the stampede during Spring Festival lantern exhibition at Miyun District in Beijing. On the other hand, with global terrorism going rampant, antiterrorist risk prevention and control in crowded urban areas has also become part of risk prevention and control that needs special attention.

Community Safety For everyone living in the city, there are many safety risks in the community. In recent years, the high-altitude projectile has become a kind of “stubborn disease” in the city. Although there have been many reports in the media, the phenomenon has not been effectively contained, and many people were injured by falling objects. Around 21:40 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2018, a billboard for a shop fell on passers-by on East Nanjing Road in Shanghai, killing three people and injuring six people. It triggered a citywide crackdown on outdoor billboards in Shanghai. In addition, elevator accidents have been occurring continuously in recent years. All kinds of pinching and wounding incidents cause widespread social panic. The hidden problems in social security also include all kinds of malfunctions in public facilities, hidden hazards in fire prevention and so on. The corridor is filled with all kinds of battery cars and waste materials, which is also often seen in cities. But in most Chinese cities, the problem has been difficult to solve effectively. All of these are putting communities at risk. In addition to the various aspects listed above, there are also aspects such as the safety of underground space, including safety risk management for a large number of

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civil defense projects, underground transport engineering, underground construction projects, etc. in cities; the management of a large number of special equipment in cities, such as boilers, pressure vessels, pressure pipes, lifting machinery, passenger ropeways, large recreational facilities, etc. In short, in the course of urban operation, there are a large number of factors that may lead to accidents and disasters. We should learn from historical experience and constantly improve the level of prevention and control.

2.2.2.2

Public Health Events

As a large number of people gather in cities, once public health events break out, the impact is often quite serious. Judging from past experience, with the continuous progress of human technology, while there are better responses to many diseases in public health, there emerge a number of new and more intractable problems. One of the problems is genetic modification which has cast a great shadow on human beings, so far no clear judgment has been given.

Infectious Disease Incidents The very nature of a city dictates that in the event of an outbreak of a serious infectious disease, it will cause serious damage to the basic operation of the city. There have been outbreaks of Class A and B infectious diseases in some cities in history, the effects were devastating. We all know that the Black Death brought more death and terror than any war in human history. The Black Death began to spread across Europe in 1320s. For those infected with the disease, a painful death was almost inevitable, with no chance of cure at all. In Jan. 1348, the Black Death hit the ports of Venice and Genoa, and then it spread all over Italy. Florence was the worst hit, 55,000 died out of a city of 95,000 people. China also has its share of typical infectious disease incidents. The outbreak of Class A hepatitis epidemic in Shanghai in 1988 got a total of about 300,000 people ill. The global outbreak of “SARS” in 2003 forced Beijing to close down. During the Spring Festival of 2020, the outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan spread rapidly to the whole country. Wuhan was locked down, and the whole country was forced into a state of suspension with full implementation of epidemic prevention and control work in closed-door households. Obviously, the impact of the epidemic on the city is extremely serious.

Food and Drug Safety Incidents Cities have a large number of food and drug manufacturers, and the largest consumer groups as well. No matter which of the two links has a problem, it will trigger a scale effect, causing serious social harm. In 2008, the milk powder produced by Sanlu Group, an important domestic milk powder manufacturer, was exposed to

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contain melamine, which triggered panic in the domestic milk powder market and the closure of Sanlu Group. In 2018, the Changchun Changsheng vaccine incident was exposed, causing many parents across the country to urgently look for foreign vaccines, resulting in a fever of going abroad for vaccinations. On the issue of safety and quality of food and medicine, two categories of necessities, apart from the damage caused by the substandard product itself, the social chain reaction stirred by it can also cause serious negative social effects.

Mass Poisoning With the development of chemical technology, people are exposed to more and more chemical products, resulting in an increase in cases of poisoning of different kinds. The most common impact is formaldehyde contained in a variety of decoration, home and other materials, the resulting pollution is found almost everywhere in the city. Besides, there are also many substances that can cause harm to the human body in daily life and work. For example, since 2014, in Beijing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Changzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and other cities, the phenomenon of “smelly track, smelly playground” has occurred in many schools. Some caused nosebleeds, allergies, dizziness, nausea and other symptoms among students. After investigation, the reason for the “toxic runway” phenomenon was found that some enterprises used unqualified raw materials in the production of related products. “Toxic runway” has caused concern among the majority of parents, testing on the environmental quality of the school track has begun across the country. What the incident has revealed is only a glimpse of the problem. In many processing plants, there are also cases of chronic poisoning or mass poisoning due to long-term exposure of workers to toxic substances. This kind of problem is often hidden in the daily production process of the enterprises. Only when problems come together can they be identified, but the negative social harm caused by them can not be underestimated.

Outbreaks of Animal Epidemics Animal epidemics mainly point to the food chain supply of large urban populations. Pork occupies a very important proportion in the meat diet of China. In Aug. 2018, the epidemic of African swine fever broke out in China and spread to 17 provinces and cities in a short time. The soaring price of pork across the country has seriously affected the supply of meat in cities. It was not until Jul. 2019 that the development momentum of the epidemic in China was brought under control, the lockdown was gradually lifted in 25 provinces and autonomous regions. Similar to this are the “Mad cow disease”, “Avian influenza” and so on, which have occurred many times in the past 20 years. In addition to the important impact on people’s daily meals, these animal epidemics will also deal a fatal blow to the economy and have a serious negative impact on the daily lives of urban residents.

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Mental Health The high-paced pressures of urban life also raise mental health risks. In modern society, the division of labor is becoming more and more refined, competition is intensifying, and a large number of people congregate in cities. To grasp the opportunity and strive for success has become an important force that pushes an individual spiritually. In recent years, there have been frequent outbreaks of various mental health problems. In 2018, a total of 35 police officers and 33 gendarmes committed suicide under intense work pressure. Since 2019 and by the end of Jul. 28, 2019, 44 more French policemen had committed suicide. In China, mental health issues are equally serious. There are a large number of people in the city who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses, and there are a lot of people with hidden, unmanifested mental problems. Some of them may choose extreme ways in their daily life, which is not only a threat to themselves and others, but also a threat to the neighborhood. Among them, the problem of pressure has spread to primary and secondary school students as well as college and university students. Statistics from the education system show that the number of students suffering from depression is increasing year by year, the number of suicides and the number of people who are suicidal are also increasing at the same time. This phenomenon deserves the full attention of the government.

2.2.2.3

Social Security Incidents

There are many types of social security incidents, all kinds of events occur in cities every day, which put a lot of pressure on the security system. Generally speaking, in addition to self-generated social security incidents, other events, such as natural disasters, accident disasters, public health events, etc. could also be a contributing factor to social security incidents. Among various social security incidents, the typical ones include: (1) civil disorders. In cities, events such as neighborhood avoidance and claims of special interests can easily cause civil disorders. (2) Criminal cases, including murder, arson, robbery, etc. (3) Financial emergencies. Financial emergencies such as banking, securities industry, like the subprime mortgage crisis in the US. (4) Ethnic and religious events. A large number of people gather in the city, which is easy to be used by special forces, so that some contradictions will rise to ethnic and religious conflicts. (5) Terrorist attacks. Judging from the terrorist-related incidents that have occurred all over the world, the extremist terrorists have turned their attacks on the civilian population concentrated in cities. They are often willing to choose to attack public meeting places, urban infrastructure, etc. to achieve their goal of creating mass panic. (6) Information security events. Urban public utility control network system, urban business network system, residential home network system, etc. may be subject to hacking or other sudden damage. Once paralyzed, they will also cause serious losses.

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2.3 Operational Risks of Complex Systems The operation of a city presents risks that are never the result of a single factor. There are innumerable forces that interact and interplay with each other in urban space at every moment, forming a variety of contingencies. The whole city management is like carefully maintaining a super huge and highly complex precision instrument. Its internal operating mechanism needs to be grasped in order to catch the key link which may cause mistakes in advance, and to intervene in a timely and effective manner. Therefore, urban risk prevention and control can not focus solely on the single disaster-causing factor or vulnerability. Instead, a holistic governance should be carried out from a systematic perspective of the overall operation of the city.

2.3.1 Risk Conduction and Amplification Two theories can be used to understand the operational risks of cities as a complex system. One is butterfly effect. The theory was first put forward by American meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz. He submitted a paper in 1963 to the New York Academy of Sciences which analyzed this effect to explain complex weather changes, as shown in Fig. 2.1. Now, this theory has been extended to many fields. We can think of butterfly effect as a dynamical system. Small changes in initial conditions can cause a long-term chain reaction throughout the system. It is a kind of chaotic phenomenon, which shows that there are fixed numbers and variables in the development of anything. In the process of development, there are not only rules to follow, but also unfathomable “variables” in their trajectories which can often backfire. A small change can affect the way things are going, showing the complexity of the development of things. There are many cases in the field of public safety that can be explained by the butterfly effect theory. On Mar. 11, 2011, an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale struck international waters in the western Pacific Ocean near Japan. The damage by the strong earthquake was enormous, causing the Honsh¯u of Japan to move about 3.6 m east. At the same time, the earthquake triggered a tsunami, causing severe economic damage to parts of the coast of Japan. Affected by this earthquake, radioactive material leaked from the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and hydrogen explosions occurred one after another in many units. On Mar. 20, Japanese officials announced that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant would be abandoned. The earthquake did much more than that. On the economic front, Asian stock markets on Mar. 11 fell across the board, global electronic, automotive and other industries were significantly affected in their production and procurement supply chain. Many companies resorted to emergency procurement schemes. China was also significantly affected. Some time after the earthquake, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) took close monitoring measures against Provinces in the country that might be affected by the nuclear leak in Japan. At the same time, the

2.3 Operational Risks of Complex Systems

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Fig. 2.1 Edward Norton Lorenz’s butterfly effect diagram

nuclear leak in Japan also triggered a “salt” storm in China, with a “Rush for salt” in many cities across the country. A resident of Wuhan even stockpiled over 6,500 kg of salt, and was nicknamed “Emperor of the salt rush” on the Internet. It can be seen that an earthquake has even triggered a chain of crisis events, causing a series of catastrophic losses, fully displaying the power of the butterfly effect. The other is the social amplification theory of risk. In 1988, researchers at the Institute for Decision Making at Clark University came up with Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF). The starting point of this theory is the assumption that “Unless humans observe it and transmit it to others, the impact of a “risk event” which may include actual or hypothetical accidents (or even latest reports of existing risks) will be largely irrelevant, or much localized.”13 According to SARF, there are two main mechanisms in the process of social amplification of risk: information mechanism and response mechanism, as shown in Fig. 2.2. The signal of risk or risk event enters the social amplifying station through the information system, spreads after being amplified and transformed, triggers behavioral responses from other participants in the social system, and forms the primary effect of risk amplification. The action response of society may lead to secondary effects that go beyond the direct impact of the original risk event. The importance of secondary effects is that they have some lasting effect, including the perception, imagination and attitude of risk, as well as economic effects, political and 13

Pidgeon, Nick, Roger E. Kasperson & Paul Slovic. Social Amplification of Risks [M]. Trans. Tan, Hongkai. Beijing: China Labor and Social Security Press, 2010.

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Fig. 2.2 Taken from Kasperson & Kasperson (1996)

social pressures. Subsequently, the spillover effects of social magnification of risks may not stop. Instead, they continue to spread to other areas, regions and even societies, creating a “Ripple effect” that continues to grow. “Ripples” spread outward, first affecting the direct victims, then the organizational level of responsibility, and then the social level with similar problems. This “Ripple effect” shows the inherent process and interrelation of risk society amplification. Scholars have used the social amplification theory of risk to explain the risk transmission and the impact amplification in various fields. For example, there have been various kinds of neighborhood avoidance incidents in recent years with a huge impact. Taking the Xiamen PX project incident as an example, the theory of social amplification of risk can explain the evolution of the case and further analyze the “Risk amplification” effect of the case in the country. On one hand, after the Xiamen PX project incident, “Collective walking” has become increasingly popular as a form of protest. As can be seen from the discussion in the Internet forum, this is the result of the transmission of successful experience that the case provides. On the other hand, the way of “Collective walking” also provides enlightenment to the society. Later, in the various civil disorders of other cities, there were protests of “Collective walking”, which further evolved into citizens’ “Collective shopping” and taxi drivers’ “Collective tea drinking” and “Collective resting” and other “moderate” forms of protest.14 The complexity of city operation sometimes goes beyond what these theories describe. Even if other, more complex theories are used to explain it further, it is hard to fully present its true nature. In such a complex system, minor changes may 14

Liu, X. L., Zhang, G. L. From environmental risk to civil disorder: an analysis of the phenomenon of “Social amplification of risk” [J]. Hubei Social Sciences, 2013 (12): 20–23.

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occur in the functioning of various elements, so that the laws we have summed up this moment based only on past experience will be subjected to severe practical challenges the next moment. Consequently, we need to be prepared for the risk of complex systems running “off the rails”.

2.3.2 From Start to Finish From the formation of a city to its continuous development, there are countless “Planning- construction-maintenance-abandonment” processes in the “Metabolism”, going through evolution from start to finish. These processes are fraught with uncertainties, which can lead to a pause, a detour, or even a direct step toward the end of normal evolution. Sometimes it is caused by a sudden external force, such as an unexpected earthquake or a super-strong typhoon, or a sudden financial crisis. Some of these unconventional factors are unpredictable, while some others are unchangeable despite our knowledge. We can only struggle to survive under their influence. What we are going to discuss is the process of natural occurrence caused by internal factors on the track of urban development according to the life cycle of things. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, many cities are built and developed around a key industrial project, such as steel, coal, general chemical industry, etc. With the continuous development and progress of technology and the transformation and upgrading of the national economy, a large number of cities that rely on the development of traditional heavy industry are beginning to run into difficulties. In the development of new economy and technology, the cities which are seriously left behind are facing daunting challenges. At present, the northeast old industrial base15 is a typical case. Although Some Suggestions on the Revitalization Strategy of the Old Industrial Bases in Northeast China and Other Areas by the State Council of the CPC Central Committee issued in Oct. 2002 proposed to help the old industrial cities in the northeast to transform, the situation has not been significantly improved. In recent years, the “Northeast recession” has become one of the hot topics in the media. The consensus is pretty much the same, given the reality of the situation: Among the top 10 cities in the national economic aggregate in 1978, the northeast occupied four seats, but all withdrew around the year 2000. In recent years, the population of the northeast continues to flow out, but the capital can not be attracted in. There is even a saying among the locals that “Investment can not go beyond the Shanhai Pass”, and “Revitalizing the northeast” has been shouted for years but the decline of “the old industrial base” is an undeniable fact.16 The impact of the overall decline of the city is comprehensive and enormous. A professor from a 15

The old industrial base in northeast China is a cover term for the Provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang as well as the northeast old industrial bases of Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia, Hinggan League, Tongliao City, Chifeng City and Xilingol League. 16 Wei, Z. What is the cause of the decline of the northeast? [EB/OL]. (2018-4-20) [2019-11-26]. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1598242391629652945&wfr=spider&for=pc.

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well-known university in the south of China once went on a business trip to a thirdtier city in the northeast. When he came back, he lamented that it was very difficult to meet a few young people in the streets, most of the people are over forty or fifty. That may not be the exact case in reality but it does feel like a city in its twilight years. The city as a whole is in decline. How will the left-behind population face the future life? This may leave a question for urban governance which will be difficult to answer in a short time. In addition to the overall evolution of the city, there are also local changes and evolutions in the fast-developing big cities. A first-tier city on the eastern seaboard used to build a chemical base on the outskirts of the city far from the center of population. With the settlement of the park personnel’s families, hospitals, schools, supermarkets and so on have been gradually established and matured, more and more people have been attracted there. After decades of development, the surrounding area, which used to be relatively sparsely populated, is already densely populated. The factory area is surrounded by residential areas. In recent years, chemical industrial parks across the country have been continuously impacted by neighborhood avoidance incidents, especially after PX project serial events and the explosion and leakage of chemical industry parks, people have begun to “get anxious at the mention of chemical stuff”. Local residents have begun to request the entire relocation of the chemical industry park, conflicts have thus ensued. In terms of time sequence, the development of events somewhat implies “a dog in the manger”, i.e. illegal occupation of other people’ place. But the logic of city operation is so complex that at a certain point, the metabolism is bound to change. Sometimes the shock can be disruptive. This is the very way cities are developing. After the super-rapid development of the past 30 years, Chinese cities are already teeming with high-rises, overheads and subways extending in all directions. However, when any project reaches a certain number of years, it will always enter a high incidence period in its life cycle. Especially in the context of China’s rapid economic development, after a certain period of full-load operation, many projects in the city have begun to show some problems. In Oct. 2010, after the viaduct rollover incident in Wuxi, the problem of overloading management stirred a heated discussion among the mainstream media. And now, experts in the industry have already begun to discuss various issues related to the life of a building that China is about to focus on, as well as how to deal with the serious challenges of a large number of concentrated problems.

2.3.3 Modernization and Traditional Problems Modernization means technological progress and the transformation of more past impossibilities into present possibilities. The concentration of modern elements in the city is pushing the city forward faster. However, just as Beck’s Risk Society makes clear, technological progress brings not only progress, but also more risks. Although the so-called risks in the operation of the city do not point to extreme events

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such as a nuclear leak, there are also many people who are troubled by traditional problems in addition to the advocates of modernization. They are also part of the urban “community”. When their problems get bogged down in modernization, the risks of city operation arise. A daily manifestation of the conflict between modernization and traditional problems is urban mobility. In recent years, with the rapid development of smartphone software, it already has a very powerful service function. Almost all daily life needs can obtain, through the corresponding mobile phone software, support for an existing object on the other end of the network. One of them is all kinds of ride-hailing apps. After people type their destination into the phone app, the system can send the vehicle demand information to surrounding taxis through the platform, and complete the accurate positioning service. This kind of service is very popular with the youth group. But the elderly, as another large group, is largely excluded. Many elderly people have difficulty mastering the corresponding operation techniques, or operating the mobile phone smoothly due to other physical reasons, so they have to hail taxis by waving their hands from the side of the road. Through realistic observation, we can see that it is hard for the elderly to successfully hail a taxi in many cases, since most of the empty cars pass by with the sign “Electronic dispatch”. Some elderly sighed that they have been abandoned by the times. This situation also exists in many other areas. For example, subway stations have added network recharge equipment, while greatly reducing the number of manual services, it also creates a barrier for many users who are not familiar with the operation of online payment. Confrontation has even appeared between technological advancement and human needs. Cities used to be full of job opportunities, but with the development of technology, cooperation between robotics and Artificial Intelligence quickly took hold a great deal of work that would otherwise have to be done by human hand. The demand for labor in many big cities has undergone a fundamental shift from a labor-intensive model to a highly intelligent model, and from a vast manpower model to an elite model. The indefatigability of the machine and its tiny error rate have led to massive layoffs and unemployment in cities. Similar situations have emerged in all walks of life. How are people’s job needs being met? Social risks are mounting in this regard. Modernization also goes hand in hand with the grim aging of cities. On one hand, the development of medical technology has greatly extended people’s life. On the other hand, a large number of elderly people need human care. However, today, with the development of technology, it is increasingly difficult to find more people who are willing to devote themselves to the nursing care of the elderly. The Report of the 19th Party Congress pointed out that socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the main contradiction in our society has transformed into the contradiction between people’s growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. The development of technology has advanced modernization, which in turn has further raised human needs. But many human needs still need to be met by people. When technology and modernization are competing to upgrade themselves and technology can not fully meet human needs, contradictions or breaks are formed. This kind of relationship will cause group stratification and dissatisfaction, thus leading to a rise in social conflicts and an increase in the risks of urban governance.

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Although a large number of senior nursing homes have been built in cities, there are very few people who can actually secure a place. The same reason applies here. Modernization and traditional problems such as birth, aging, illness and death are interwoven together, bringing great risks to the internal structure of urban society. These problems lie deep in the urban governance structure, and if we want to solve them, we need to tackle urban management and institutional design where the crux lies. It is hoped that in urban management, apart from focusing on and responding effectively to those obvious points of risk conflict, managers can also go deep into the complex system of city operation. Based on the fundamental needs of people, they can put forward a more reasonable and better plan from the perspective of the policy system to prevent deep-seated social problems from erupting and bringing about more serious social risks.

Chapter 3

Development of Urban Risk Prevention and Control System

This chapter discusses the development of urban risk prevention and control system, centering mainly on the evolution in modern times.1 Modern times is a rather vague concept. In fact, the truly modern urban risk prevention and control system was born during the First World War; it was the war that gave birth to a fairly structured system of Civil Defense. In non-war times, the frequent occurrence of natural disasters has promoted the development of the national emergency management system and the perfection of related legal systems. An urban safety management structure then emerged within the national governance system, which gradually evolved into a cityspecific security risk prevention and control system. In the early days of the urban risk prevention system, what countries around the world generally experienced was the process of building a national emergency management system. With the accumulation of short-term emergency management experience, they have entered step by step into the stage of constructing a pre-risk prevention system. Therefore, in the discussion of the development of urban risk prevention and control system, it is inevitable that we need to explore the development path of urban risk prevention and control system in the arduous process of the development of emergency management systems at the national level, before comparing and analyzing the status quo of the safety risk prevention and control system in major cities in the world based on a relatively static perspective. From this, we can parse through the internal law of the dynamic historical trajectories through which all countries have reached the present form.

1

There are differences in and outside China in the division of historical periods of modern time and contemporary time. The modern time in the history of China refers to 1840–1949, the contemporary time refers to post-1949, the modern and contemporary time refers to post-1840. The modern history of the world has traditionally begun with the English Bourgeois Revolution of 1640, the contemporary time began with the Russian October Revolution of 1917, and the modern and contemporary time of world history began since 1640. © East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_3

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3.1 The Evolution of Risk Prevention and Control System in China 3.1.1 During Ming and Qing Dynasties Since ancient times, various droughts and floods have occurred frequently in China, therefore, China’s ancient emergency management was mainly a series of famine relief measures developed on the basis of the practice of agricultural disasters, including witchcraft prayer, relief, millet, pension, pest control, Anji, Juanshu, lending, warehousing, irrigation, land reclamation and other means,2 to enhance the ability to resist natural disasters. The earliest emergency measures with true characteristics of the modern emergency management system can be traced back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, mainly as a complete set of relief procedures from preparation for famine, relief, Pingzhu to relief, construction, and set exile. The policy system, which covers everything from pre-disaster prevention to post-disaster reconstruction, is maturing. Take disaster reporting as an example. In ancient times, the original practice was “Autumn reports summer drought” and “Winter reports autumn drought”. That is, the disaster situation was not reported until after the harvest. In the Northern Song dynasty, it was specified that the deadline for reporting summer disasters be April 30 and autumn disasters be August 30. In terms of time, there was still a large lag. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the authorities became more strict in disaster management, stipulating that “Any place that has a disaster must be reported as soon as possible”, requiring immediate reporting of disasters, to ensure through the system that disaster information was communicated in a timely manner to the maximum extent possible. At the same time, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, there appeared a large number of books on famine control, which began to systematize and theorize the thought of famine relief. According to incomplete statistics, there were about 15 books on famine control in the Ming dynasty, and more than 60 books in the Qing dynasty. These books on famine relief have carried out detailed analysis and regulated induction of the famine relief procedures, making the relief procedures more standardized and planned, to help better guide local officials in disaster relief work. The fire prevention method of the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing dynasties is still in use. As the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City has been following the tradition of fire prevention of “Making a hole in ice in winter, injecting water in summer, weeding in spring and clearing leaves in autumn”. Fire was also a major disaster in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In order to prevent fire, a total of 308 large iron, copper and gilt-copper jars were installed in the Forbidden City to store water. The average storage water was more than 3,000 liters, and the water tank was always full. At the same time, a one-cubic-meter ice hole was cut 2

Xia, Y. X., Guo, Q. Y., Yang, J., et al. The historical experience and its enlightenment of public emergency rescue in ancient China [J]. Academic Forum, 2012, 35 (7): 55–60.

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every 20 meters inside Jinshui River in winter. In the event of a fire, these could be the nearest water source for convenient and timely use. In the spring and autumn seasons, the vegetation in the Forbidden City was often humidified, the roof of the palace was regularly cleared of weeds to prevent combustibles from causing fires.3 At the end of the Qing dynasty, in the political reform of modernization, there appeared the Ministry of Civil Affairs, a management organization specialized in disaster relief, in charge of post-disaster relief, pension, shelter and other affairs, but it was limited to political ideas and not put into practical use. During the Beiyang government period, a three-level institutional system was established from the central to the local level, with the Ministry of Internal Affairs as the central relief office, the provincial level as the Internal Affairs Department of the Government Department, and the county level also as the Internal Affairs Department. And special disaster relief funds were set up in the state budget, but they were not put into real use because of political turmoil.

3.1.2 From the Founding of the People’s Republic of China to the Early Stage of Reform and Opening-Up After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China has established successively professional disaster prevention and reduction organizations like the Ministry of Water Conservancy of the Central People’s Government, Meteorological Bureau of the Central Military Commission, China Earthquake Administration, Forestry Department of the Central People’s Government, State Oceanic Administration, etc. Some of these institutions have also set up a number of secondary institutions and rescue teams accordingly. A model of disaster prevention and rescue and relief has been formed with each organization handling only the disaster situation under its jurisdiction, which has an obvious characteristics of decentralized management and single emergency response. From the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the early days of reform and opening up, the central government, based on the principle of classified management, has set up corresponding functional agencies in response to major natural disasters such as droughts, floods and earthquakes, production safety accidents in industrial and mining enterprises as well as Schistosomiasis and other infectious disease outbreaks. In the area of natural disasters, it established the Ministry of Water Conservancy of the Central People’s Government in Oct. 1949, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central People’s Government in November, the Central Military Commission Meteorological Office in December as the precursor to the China Meteorological Administration. After the Xingtai earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 on Mar. 8,1966, the seismological office was set up consisting of the State Council for Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3

How to prevent fire in the 600-year-old Forbidden City [EB/OL]. (2019-4-19) [2019-10-27]. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1631224884797376564&wfr=spider&for=pc.

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and it was the forerunner of China Earthquake Administration. In the area of production safety accidents, the Ministry of Labor of the Central People’s Government set up the Department of Labor Protection in May 1950, various labor departments set up labor protection departments (sections), and many ministries of industry of the government set up special agencies in charge of labor protection within the production or personnel departments of the ministry. A framework has been established throughout the country of safe production work under the overall supervision of the labour department and specific management by the industry sector. In Jun. 1970, the Ministry of Labor of the Central People’s Government and the Central Resettlement Group Office became the newly formed Labor Bureau of the National Planning Revolutionary Committee, which was renamed the State General Bureau of Labor in Sep. 1975. In the area of public health, the Public Health Bureau was established in Nov. 1949 within the Ministry of Health of the Central People’s Government responsible for organizing and leading health and epidemic prevention of the nation. In Jan. 1953, health and epidemic prevention stations were formally established throughout the country.4 During this period, China has also established some day-to-day inter-departmental coordination bodies at the central level, to carry out auxiliary emergency regulation and control. In 1949, in response to the plague in Chabei Prefecture of Chahar Province, the Central Committee for Epidemic Prevention was set up, which was renamed the Patriotic Health Campaign Committee at the end of 1952. The year 1950 saw the establishment of the Central Disaster Relief Commission, composed of 12 relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central People’s Government and the Ministry of Finance of the Central People’s Government, as the supreme command of the national disaster relief work. In the same year, State Flood Prevention Headquarters was set up and renamed State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in 1971. In addition, in times of great disaster, the central government would also set up a temporary emergency command body to coordinate disaster relief work. For example, after the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, Central Headquarters for Earthquake Resistance and Disaster Relief was set up, and Front-line Headquarters for Earthquake Relief was set up in Tangshan.5 In general, at this stage, while China has established the classified emergency management model with the single disaster management as the basic characteristic, and the emergency management function can make the command and communication function smoothly vertically, but horizontally there is a lack of adequate communication and collaboration in the multiple functional departments.

4

Zhong, K. B. Evolution and development of emergency management institutions in China: an observation from the perspective of coordination [J]. Public Administration and Policy Review of policy, 2018, 7 (6): 21–36. 5 Zhong, K. B. From coercion to autonomy: the development and evolution of China’s emergency coordination mechanism [J]. Chinese Public Administration, 2014 (8): 115–119.

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3.1.3 From the Early Stage of Reform and Opening-Up to 2003 After the reform and opening-up, non-traditional issues such as domestic economic security, resource security, terrorism have become increasingly prominent, particularly social security and production safety. In view of the changes in the public security situation, the state has strengthened supervision over public security and production safety. In maintaining social stability, the central government has set up a comprehensive administrative body on maintaining public security and stability and followed up with corresponding institutional reform. In Mar. 1980, it reestablished the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission. In Jun. 19, 1982, the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force was formed consisting of internal security forces and gold, forest, water, electricity, and transportation forces, to undertake the tasks of suppressing riots, maintaining social stability, and protecting the safety of people’s life and property in extraordinary times, and dealing with target duty, emergencies and counter-terrorism, etc. in peace times.6 In 1991, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to set up a Central Comprehensive Social Management Commission, as a standing deliberative body to assist the Party Central Committee and the State Council in leading the work of comprehensive administration of social security throughout the country, with subordinate offices.7 In the field of work safety supervision, with the continuous development of economic construction and various types of production safety accidents occurring frequently, the state has begun to strengthen the construction of labor safety management agencies. In 1982, the State General Administration of Labor was renamed the Ministry of Labor and Personnel of the People’s Republic of China, consisting of Labor Protection Bureau, Boiler and Pressure Vessel Safety Supervision Bureau and Mine Safety Supervision Bureau. In Mar. 1988, because of the establishment of the Personnel Department of the People’s Republic of China, the Ministry of Labor and Personnel of the People’s Republic of China was renamed the Ministry of Labor of the People’s Republic of China. In 2001, the State Administration of Work Safety was established to comprehensively manage work safety throughout the country, and to perform the functions of state supervision and administration of work safety and coal mine safety supervision.8

6

Zhong, K. B. Evolution and development of emergency management institutions in China: an observation from the perspective of coordination [J]. Public Administration and Policy Review of policy, 2018, 7 (6): 21–36. 7 Major events in the work of comprehensive administration of social security throughout the country [EB/OL]. (2001-9–25) [2019-10-28]. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2001–09–25/365,090.html. 8 Zhong, K. B. Evolution and development of emergency management institutions in China: an observation from the perspective of coordination [J]. Public Administration and Policy Review of policy, 2018, 7 (6): 21–36.

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Deliberative and coordinating bodies of the State Council

Personnel of the “Leading group”, “Committee” and“General Headquarters, etc. ey in le g t ad o er d e s pu

nv

ty

Deputy Leaders: Deputy heads of certain ministries and commissions under the State Council Members: Deputy officials of various ministries and commissions under the State Council

pu de to g rs i n de e y lea

Co

nv

ty

Co

Chief Leaders: Heads of the State Council

Implementation of specific work

Member units 1 Coo

rdin

atio

n

Member units 2

Office (separate or within each ministry and commission under the State Council)

Internal organizations 1

Internal organizations 2

Coo

rd

io i n at

n

Internal organizations 3

Fig. 3.1 Operational mechanism of the deliberative coordination bodies in China before 200310

In addition to strengthening the management construction of departments with classified functions, during this period, the outstanding feature of emergency management in China was to rely on the coordination of administrative bodies. The operational mechanism of China’s deliberative coordinating bodies before 2003 is shown in Fig. 3.1. The various deliberative and coordinating bodies of the State Council were usually organized by the top leadership of the State Council. According to the actual work needs, the member units covered almost all ministries and commissions under the State Council. These deliberative and coordinating bodies were usually only responsible for formulating guidelines and policies, organizing research and studies, etc. The specific implementation and coordination work was carried out by the subordinate offices.9 Among them, many deliberative and coordinating bodies were re-established or newly established in response to specific emergencies. These include the Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, the State Council Work Safety Committee, the State Forest Fire Prevention Headquarters, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the National Disaster Reduction Commission, the State Council Environmental Protection Commission, etc. By the end of 2003, there had been a total of 9

Zhong, K. B. From coercion to autonomy: the development and evolution of China’s emergency coordination mechanism [J]. Chinese Public Administration, 2014 (8): 115–119. 10 Reference for Fig. 3.1: Liu, X. P., Wang, H. F. & Wang, Y. Y. Summary and cause analysis of the changes in the deliberative coordination and provisional bodies—based on data from 1993 to 2008 [J]. Chinese Public Administration, 2010 (9): 42–46.

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16 State Council deliberative and coordinating bodies related to emergency management, including 7 headquarters, 5 leading groups, and 4 committees.11 Thus, as the domestic public security situation continues to complicate, these “task-based” emergency deliberative and coordinating bodies increased significantly in number during this period. But also because of their task-centric nature, the existence and termination of these bodies were extremely susceptible to unexpected events. These bodies had a short life span, and often changed in a short time. At the same time, because the top leadership of the State Council “performs multiple functions”, assuming unified leadership of the deliberative and coordinating bodies, and because the responsibilities of these complex deliberative and coordinating bodies for each member unit were not clearly defined, there was often overlap in functions, making it difficult for these bodies to perform their functions effectively. This emergency management model of decentralized coordination and temporary response continued to the outbreak of “SARS” in 2003.

3.1.4 Since 2003 2003 was an important turning point in the development of China’s public safety management system. Triggered by the “SARS” incident, along with a general increase in the public security management system by the international community after the “9·11” terrorist attack in the United States, global security management systems are being built and transformed, the same is true in China. In general, China’s public security management system has experienced four periods: the initial period of specialization (before and after 2003), the period of systematic construction (2003– 2008), the period of all-round development (2008–2018), and the period of scientific perfection (since 2018). It has realized the transformation from emergency treatment to source management, from external management to internal reform, and from government management to multi-governance. The main periods and their features are shown in Table 3.1.

3.1.4.1

The Initial Period of Specialization (Before and After 2003)

Before the outbreak of “SARS” in 2003, the government functions related to emergency management in China were mainly as follows: The disaster reduction and relief system led by the departments of Civil Affairs, Water Conservancy, Earthquake and Meteorology, the safety supervision system led by the Work Safety Supervision and Management Department, the disease control system led by the health sector, and

11

Zhong, K. B. Evolution and development of emergency management institutions in China: an observation from the perspective of coordination [J]. Public Administration and Policy Review of policy, 2018, 7 (6): 21–36.

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Table 3.1 Development of public safety management system in China since 2003 Period

Core

Feature

Role

The initial period of specialization (before and after 2003)

With “Special rectification” as the core

Emergency treatment, passive response

The fragmented “Special rectification” and “Emergency treatment” laid the foundation and promoted the establishment of the public safety management system

The period of systematic construction (2003–2008)

With “One case, three systems” as the core

Standard management, active construction

“One case, three systems” established the organizational structure and working methods of the public safety management and management system, pushed forward the construction of institutionalization and standardization

The period of all-round development (2008–2018)

With deepening Fine management, construction as the comprehensive core optimization

Moving forward the checkpoints promoted “Source governance” and “Risk prevention and control”; “Multi-governance” injected new strength into public security management

The period of scientific perfection (since 2018)

With in-depth innovation as the core

“Big ministry system” reform in the Ministry of Emergency Management promoted institutional innovation, optimized the management system from the source, enhanced overall coordination, and improved management efficiency

Innovate governance, upgrade reform

the security “Maintenance” system led by the Public Security Bureau.12 The State Council General Office was in charge of overall coordination. China’s public safety management system has been built up gradually in the process of constantly dealing with all kinds of sudden crisis events. The design of the system at the initial period was not complete, mainly premised on scattered countermeasures, showing systemic and global deficiencies, and displaying a feature of dealing with problems on an ad hoc basis. In response to major security problems in a particular field or period, the government launched a targeted “Special rectification” campaign, which, to some extent, met the needs of early public safety management practice. Before the national public security system was fully developed, “Special rectification” measures mainly focused on safety in production, food and drug as well as major festivals, and would transfer to other areas after the success in one area. For example, The Government Work Report of 2003 pointed out that in 2002 taking the textile industry as the breakthrough point, and gradually expanded to coal, metallurgy, building materials, petrochemical, sugar and other industries, China closed 12

Zhang, H. B., Tong, X. Changes in China’s emergency management structure and its theoretical generalization [J]. Social Sciences in China, 2015(3): 58–84, 206.

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down a large number of enterprises without safe working conditions. In addition, the government launched a series of special rectification actions on safety in mining, transportation, hazardous chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals and other production and management fields. Before the establishment of the public safety management system, “Special rectification” had become a planned and extensive safety management work by the government, and was an important means of dealing with security challenges. In spring 2003, China experienced a public emergency caused by “SARS” outbreak affecting everything from public health to social, economic and life. Emergency management was highly valued by the government and the public. The construction of an emergency response system with “One case, three systems” (To formulate and revise contingency plans; to establish and improve the regime, mechanism and legal system for emergency response) as its core started. China gradually formed an emergency coordination mechanism which took the government emergency management office as the operation hub, to coordinate the system of joint meetings of several deliberative coordinating bodies and departments.13

3.1.4.2

The Period of Systematic Construction (2003–2008)

Based on the comprehensive review of experiences and lessons in combating “SARS”, the third plenary session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasized on “Establishing and improving various early warning and emergency response mechanisms to improve the government’s ability to respond to emergencies and risks”. In dealing with the relationship between contingency plans and the rule of law for emergency response, by taking into account the time frame for legislation, the central government took the approach of “Legislation lags behind and plans go first”, putting the formation and application of emergency plan system ahead of the enactment of emergency management laws and regulations.14 In Jan. 2005, the State Council adopted The Overall National Emergency Response Plan for Public Emergencies, requiring local governments at the provincial, city, and county (district) level to formulate contingency plans for the region, the industry and the field, and followed up with the release of relevant documents to strengthen the supervision and inspection of emergency planning. On Aug. 7, 2007, The State Council General Office’s Views on Strengthening Emergency Management at the Grass-roots Level was issued, proposing that the emergency plan system at the grass-roots level, such as villages and communities, should be improved, so as to gradually form a top-down system of China’s emergency response plans from the central to the local levels.

13

Zhong, K. B. From coercion to autonomy: the development and evolution of China’s emergency coordination mechanism [J]. Chinese Public Administration, 2014 (8): 115–119. 14 Zhang, H. B. China’s emergency plan system: structure and function [J]. Journal of Public Admistration, 2013, 10 (2): 1–13, 137.

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In the emergency management system, the Government Emergency Management Office, which assumed the function of comprehensive coordination, developed rapidly. In Apr. 2006, the state established the State Council Emergency Management Office (General Duty Room of the State Council), to be responsible for emergency response functions of on-duty emergency response, information gathering and integrated coordination. In the following year, Emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China was promulgated, the content of which clearly stipulates that “The state establishes an emergency management system featuring unified leadership, comprehensive coordination, classified management, hierarchical responsibility and territorial management”, and the law makes detailed provisions on the prevention of emergencies and emergency preparedness, monitoring and early warning, emergency response and rescue, post-recovery and reconstruction, as well as the legal responsibilities of governments, corporations and citizens. According to statistics, by the end of 2007, all provincial governments, 96% municipal governments and 81% county governments had established or defined emergency management agencies.15 As a measure to deal with emergencies, the emergency management mechanism was strengthened in many aspects, especially in the core area of information transmission. During the “SARS” epidemic, the press spokesperson system was implemented on a large scale and efficiently. On Feb. 11, 2004, the State Council adopted Implementation Opinions on Improving and Strengthening the Work of Domestic Emergency Press Release. On Sep. 20, 2006, it released Notice by the State Council General Office Central Military Commission Office of Further Strengthening the Building of a Mechanism for Sharing Information on Natural Disasters between the Military and the Local Government. On Dec. 30, 2007, it released Notice of the State Council General Office on Measures for the Publication of Information Reports on Public Emergencies (trial). On Mar. 28, 2008, the State Council issued Ordinance of Information Disclosure by Government of the People’s Republic of China. The promulgation and implementation of a series of laws and documents made scientific and reasonable provisions on the transmission of information concerning public security, to ensure the effective operation of the public safety management system. In the meantime, the deliberative and coordinating bodies previously led by higher-level leaders were streamlined and optimized, and the inter-ministerial joint conference system led by the host department for consultations became an important working mechanism for timely communication and coordination among member units. For example, when the “Snow disaster in the south” occurred in 2008, the State Council Coal, Electricity and Oil Transportation and Disaster Relief Emergency Command Center was set up, to be responsible for the comprehensive information of relevant parties in a timely manner, and to coordinate the cross-departmental, crosssectoral and cross-regional work in the transportation of coal, electricity and oil and

15

Zhong, K. B. Development and improvement of emergency management in China in the past 70 years [EB/OL]. (2019-10-21)[2020-4-27]. http://www.ccps.gov.cn/dxsy/201910/t20191021_ 135047.shtml.

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rescue and disaster relief.16 By 2008, The Government Work Report clearly pointed out that “The national emergency management system is basically established.” However, economic security incidents are one of the emergencies of the social security category. Despite the serious impact of the 2008 international financial crisis on China’s economy, China has not yet established a corresponding emergency response system. In addition, according to the emergency management of “Wenchuan County Earthquake” in 2008, although there were a large number of social organizations and volunteers actively participating in the disaster relief process, the participation of social organizations and volunteers was still rather disorderly, and there was an “Ebbing tide” of social organizations and volunteers in post-disaster recovery. It shows that the participation of social forces in emergency management in China was not yet mature at this stage.17

3.1.4.3

The Period of Comprehensive Development (2008–2018)

Driven by a series of major security incidents, China’s public safety management system has been further refined, consolidated and upgraded. During this period, on one hand, China’s public safety management continued to change and upgrade its management concept, such as “Moving forward the checkpoints” of work focus, transferring from emergency management to risk prevention and control, and curbing the public security risk from the source. On the other hand, it began to adjust and improve the management system and structure, such as the institutional reform in China Food and Drug Administration and State Oceanic Administration, and increasing political and administrative accountability. At the same time, it also absorbed a large number of social forces to participate in public security management, forming a multi-governance pattern. In the initial period, the public safety management mainly concentrated on the after-action. This kind of terminal management model has obvious disadvantages, often the loss of life and property can not be recovered in the intervention. Therefore, the government began to turn to “Governance from the source”, paying attention to risk prevention and control, moving forward checkpoints in security management, to try to prevent trouble before it happens. For production areas where safety problems are common, The Government Work Report between 2009 and 2013 continuously emphasized the strengthening of work safety supervision in key industries, and containing the occurrence of major safety accidents. By reviewing the past years’ government work reports, we can find that it was suggested that the safety of production should be strengthened in an all-round way to ensure the safety of food and drugs

16

The State Council has established the coal, electricity and oil transportation and disaster relief emergency command center [EB/OL]. (2008-2-1) [2019-12-27]. http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2008-2-1/ content_877816.htm. 17 Zhang, H., Tong, X. Changes in China’s emergency management structure and its theoretical generalization [J]. Social Sciences in China, 2015(3): 58–84, 206.

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in the whole process in 2015 and it was further proposed to accelerate the improvement of unified, authoritative food and drug safety supervision system in 2016. In the field of disaster prevention and reduction, the government was also committed to achieving “Moving checkpoints forward”. In The Government Work Report of the past years, it was proposed in 2008 to strengthen the study on the characteristics and laws of natural disasters under modern conditions and to improve the ability of disaster prevention and reduction; it was further emphasized in 2011 to speed up the construction of investigation and evaluation, monitoring and early warning, emergency prevention and control of geologically disaster-prone areas of mountain torrents; it was proposed in 2015 to strengthen the construction of ecological security barriers, safety infrastructure and capacity building for disaster prevention and reduction, to improve the monitoring, early warning and emergency response mechanism, to elevate the meteorological service level, and to do a good job in earthquake, mapping, geology and so on. At the same time, the rapid economic and social development also brought various conflicts of interest. Frequent civil disorders prompted the government to pay more attention to source control, improving the scientific nature of the public policy decision-making system, and introduced a risk assessment system for major decisions on social stability. Guidelines by General Office of the Communist Party of China and General Office of the State Council on Establishing and Improving Risk Assessment Mechanisms for Social Stability in Major Decision-making (trial) and National Development and Reform Commission on Interim Measures for Social Stability Risk Assessment of Major Fixed Asset Investment Projects clarified and specified the guiding ideology and working methods of social stability risk assessment. In Nov. 2013, the third plenary session of the 18th Party Central Committee adopted Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning the Comprehensive Deepening of Reform, emphasizing the improvement of risk assessment mechanisms for social stability in major policy decisions. Provinces, municipalities and localities widely applied the “Stable evaluation” mechanism in practice as the “Pre-procedure” or “Rigid threshold” of the government’s major decision-making. Good results were achieved in promoting the work of public safety management, and some effective “Stable evaluation” models were formed. In terms of institutional reform, as the issues of public security became increasingly complex, some functional ministries in the traditional administrative system were unable to fully meet the actual work needs. There was an urgent need to reform “the Big ministry system”,18 a typical case was the reorganization and reform of the food and drug regulatory agencies. In Mar. 2008, at the 11th National People’s Congress, the institutional reform of the State Council, whose main content was the Big ministry system, became an important issue. The main elements of this programme included: establishing a high-level deliberative coordinating body, the 18

The so-called Big ministry system means reorganizing some ministries with similar or related functions into a big ministry, to replace the original ministry and commission either with an internal functional directorate or with an executive body of no independent status.

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National Energy Commission, forming the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, forming the Ministry of Transport, forming the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and forming the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The State Food and Drug Administration was now under the management of the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Health shall be responsible for the overall coordination of food safety and the investigation and handling of major food safety accidents. But in practice, overlapping in food supervision responsibilities co-existed with supervision gaps, and it was difficult to fully implement the responsibilities and form a resultant force when resources were distributed widely. To solve the problem, in Mar. 2013, China Food and Drug Administration was established to supervise and administer food and drugs in a unified manner, which promoted the reform of the National Food and Drug Administration system. At the same time, the government began to strictly enforce the execution and strengthen the administrative accountability system. In Jun. 2009, General Office of the Communist Party of China and General Office of the State Council issued Temporary Provisions on the Accountability of Leading Cadres of the Party and Government, to further strengthen the management and supervision of Party and government cadres. In Mar. 2016, General Office of the Communist Party of China, and General Office of the State Council issued Provisions on Improving and Implementing the System of Leadership Responsibility for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, to emphasize the sound implementation of leadership responsibility system, scientific application of measures such as evaluation, supervision, assessment, motivation and punishment, one level at a time, one step at a time. This concretized and institutionalized the leadership responsibility for comprehensive administration of public security, combining the inner-Party legislation with the government accountability so as to force the implementation of the responsibility by accountability. During this period, multi-governance injected new strength into public safety management. The Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that it was necessary to improve “the social management pattern of Party Committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination and public participation”. In recent years, non-governmental organizations, volunteers and private organizations have become the leading force in society which played an increasingly prominent role in disaster relief. For example, in the 2013 “Lushan County of Sichuan earthquake” relief, Internet companies such as Tencent, Baidu and Sina engaged in cooperation and data sharing and provided emergency search services. This shows that the private sector began to participate in government emergency management in the form of “Self-organization”.19 In Dec. 2016, Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting the Reform of the System and Mechanism of Disaster Prevention, Reduction and Relief was issued, which explained in detail the social forces and market mechanism participating in the work of disaster prevention, reduction and relief. It proposed the principles of government promotion and market operation to strengthen the active 19

Zhang, H. B. China’s emergency plan system: structure and function [J]. Journal of Public Administration, 2013, 10 (2): 1–13, 137.

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role of market mechanisms such as insurance in risk prevention, loss compensation, restoration and reconstruction, with a view to building a multi-Party socialized pattern of disaster prevention, reduction and relief. During the ten years since 2008, the concept and practice of public safety management in China have been greatly improved. On the basis of the original “One case, three systems”, and after the promotion of the serious and major events of the snow and rain disasters and Wenchuan earthquake, China’s public safety management became more and more specialized and refined each piece of work. However, from the administrative structure, the work was still carried out based on the structure of “Emergency Response Office- Ministries and Commissions”, the coordination of the central specialized departments was still weak.

3.1.4.4

The Period of Scientific Perfection (Since 2018)

After more than ten years of construction and development, China’s public security management system has reached a stage where deep-seated reform is required. This reform should respond to the fundamental questions of top-level design of the traditional management system and the establishment of a national security management system of “Unified leadership, consistent authority and responsibility, authority and efficiency”. On Feb. 28, 2018, the third plenary session of the 19th Party Central Committee passed Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Deepening the Reform of the Party and State Organs, initiating a profound reform in the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. Afterwards, the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress approved Explanations on the State Council’s Institutional Reform Programme and formally established The Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China. Explanations on the State Council’s Institutional Reform Programme states: “According to the principle of hierarchical responsibility, general disasters are the responsibility of local governments at all levels, the Ministry of Emergency Management represents unified response support by the central government. In the event of a particularly major disaster, the Ministry of Emergency Management, as the headquarters, assists the comrades-in-charge designated by the central government in organizing emergency response work, ensures the Central Committee’s orders are carried out without fail and the command is effective. The Ministry of Emergency Management should handle the relationship between disaster prevention and relief well, make clear the division of duties and responsibilities with relevant departments and local governments, and establish a coordination and cooperation mechanism.” It can be seen that the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management has fundamentally broken through the system and institutional shackles. It coordinates the relationship between power and responsibility at the central level, pays attention to territorial management and hierarchical responsibility, pools disparate resources of various parties, and provides the Central National Security Council with a flexible and reliable starting point.

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The Ministry of Emergency Management integrates emergency managementrelated functions that were previously dispersed among State Administration of Work Safety, State Council General Office, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Land and Resources of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, State Forestry Administration of the People’s Republic of China, China Seismological Bureau as well as the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the National Disaster Reduction Commission, Disaster Relief Headquarters of the State Council, the National Forest Fire Prevention Headquarters and other departments, to prevent and defuse major security risks, improve the public security system, and integrate and optimize emergency response forces and resources. The establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management has realized the transformation of China’s public safety management from the response to a single disaster to comprehensive disaster reduction. On one hand, it extends the full-process, standardized and scientific safety management model and working mechanism to every specialized field, goes through prevention, preparation, disposal, evaluation, improvement and mitigation stages vertically, forms a closed loop of management in the work that connects head and tail, cycles back and forth and improves continuously, and elevates the foresightedness and initiative of public safety management. On the other hand, the Ministry of Emergency Management has strengthened the central authority of public safety management, clarified the boundaries of authority and responsibility, optimized coordination and linkage among multiple departments, effectively carried out public safety management in the fields of work safety, fire rescue, civil disaster relief, etc., overcome the separate “fragmented” management shortcomings of the past, become a veritable “Big ministry system”, and promoted the coordination and order of public safety management. As a result, the establishment of the Ministry of Emergency Management is another important milestone for China’s public safety management to be modernized and scientific, a full summary and promotion of China’s public safety management experience of more than ten years, and an important institutional innovation of China’s public safety management system. Looking at the development of emergency management in China, from individual response to comprehensive coordination, and to the integrated emergency management model, we can see that great changes have taken place in the concept of emergency management in China, that is, a major shift from passive response to active response, from special response to comprehensive response, and from emergency relief to risk management.

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3.2 Comparison of the Development Process In and Outside China 3.2.1 Development Characteristics of Risk Prevention and Control System In and Outside China Looking through the development of foreign emergency management system, we can find that the main development line of risk prevention and control system outside China, represented by the UK and the United States, has four characteristics. First of all, the importance attached to civil defense and the resource investment into it was affected by the war and nuclear threat facing the country. Take the United States for example, Emergency Management Office responsible for wartime production security during the Second World War was disbanded at the end of the war, and re-established as part of the Office of civil defense in the “Cold War” in response to the Soviet Union’s nuclear attack, and the increase or decrease of the civil defense budget mainly depended on the degree of threat from the “Cold War”. Similarly, in order to protect civilians against the risk of nuclear attack during the Second World War, UK enacted The National Defense Act, delegating emergency management to local governments by legislation. Civil defense became the first priority of the risk prevention and control system of every country in wartime. Second, in non-war period, crisis events have become an important driving force to promote the development of risk prevention and control system in foreign countries. From 1970s to 1990s, the severe natural disasters in the United States exposed the fragmented emergency management malpractice of the US government, thus pushing the establishment of FEMA and the reform of its organizational structure. The “9·11” terrorist attack has made counter-terrorism work the first priority in U.S. emergency management. The Department of Homeland Security developed The National Response Plan, a comprehensive resource mobilization and integration plan to respond to major accidents at the national level, and established a national emergency management system to provide uniform standards and norms for emergency response at all levels of government in the United States. Since then, in response to the emergency management deficiencies exposed by 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the United States revised the second edition of The National Response Plan. Similarly, public safety incidents such as the Great Flood in Britain in 2000 and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Britain in 2001 also led to changes in the emergency management system in the UK, and promoted the establishment of the National Emergency Secretariat, the supreme body for national emergency management. Thirdly, the construction and reform of risk prevention and control system are carried out on the basis of legislation. In the development of risk prevention and control system in the United States, a more prominent feature is to build and reform through the promulgation of emergency response plans and their supporting operational documents, such as The Stanford Act and The Federal Response Plan. In the aftermath of crisis events such as “9·11” event and Hurricane Katrina, the United

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States enacted The Anti-terrorism Act and The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. Similar to the US, the UK has built a risk prevention and control system centered on The National Emergency Act. Guided by The National Emergency Act, the UK followed up by issuing complementary regulations, operation guidelines and standards, as well as planning documents and experience summary materials. Thus, they provide specific guidelines for the whole process of risk management from risk prevention to risk assessment. Finally, by always following the principle of territoriality, the emergency management functions of the central government are being strengthened. The United States established FEMA in 1979 as the Federal Agency for Emergency Management. After the “9·11” incident, the federal government enacted and implemented The National Security Act, merging FEMA with the Coast Guard, Bureau of Immigration and Planning and 22 other federal agencies to create United States Department of Homeland Security, thus further strengthening and integrating the emergency management functions of the federal government. In Jul. 2001, UK set up the National Emergency Secretariat as the supreme body for emergency management. In May 2010, the Cameron Ministry established the National Security Council as UK’s top emergency management body, and included the National Emergency Secretariat into the National Security Council’s “Big national security” management framework, so as to integrate and collaborate resources across government departments. In contrast, China’s risk prevention and control system has the following characteristics in the main line of development. First, the crisis event-driven development model of risk prevention and control system. In the spring of 2003, China experienced a public emergency caused by the “SARS” epidemic public health affecting everything from the society, economy to life. Since then, on the basis of summing up the experience and lessons learned in combating the “SARS” epidemic, the construction of the emergency response system with “One case, three systems” as its core content was officially launched. After the Wenchuan County earthquake in 2008, the 6th meeting of the 11th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the revised Law of the People’s Republic of China on Earthquake Prevention and Disaster Reduction (promulgated in 1997). The poisonous milk scandal in 2008 stirred up a storm of “administrative and judicial accountability”, thus promoting the big ministry system reform in the field of food production safety in China. Second, building and reforming China’s risk prevention and control system under the leadership of the Party and government. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the development path of China’s risk prevention and control system can be summarized as “Crisis events trigger reform of emergency management–Party and government leaders carry out top-down reform”. Unlike Western countries which advocate “Legislation first”, China’s risk prevention and control system construction and development model is “Planning first”, that is, the formation and application of the emergency plan system should precede the enactment of emergency management laws and regulations. After the “SARS” incident, the third plenary session of the 16th Party Central Committee stressed on “establishing and improving various early warning and emergency response mechanisms to enhance

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the government’s ability to respond to emergencies and risks.” In Jan. 2005, the State Council adopted The Overall National Emergency Response Plan for Public Emergencies, and two years later The emergency Response Law of the People’s Republic of China was promulgated. Third, transformation from an emergency response-centered risk prevention and control system to a comprehensive, whole- process risk prevention and control system. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the early days of reform and opening up, the central government, based on the principle of classified management, established corresponding functional agencies in light of the major crisis events. The department-based classified emergency management model was characterized by single disaster management. Since the reform and opening up, the domestic public security situation has become increasingly complex, so much so that it was beyond the single disaster classified management model. Thus institutional reforms in coordination with inter-departmental agencies began to be carried out, but still focused on strengthening the classified management function. In Apr. 2006, the state established the Emergency Management Office of the State Council (General Duty Room of the State Council) as a government emergency management agency undertaking comprehensive coordination. In Apr. 2018, China established The Ministry of Emergency Management, which integrated the 13 responsibilities of the original 11 departments. So far, an emergency response consultation mechanism has been explored and established, which has formed a flat organization and command model for rescue, and an integrated operational model for prevention, rescue and disaster relief. A national comprehensive fire rescue team and 27 professional rescue teams have been set up, a number of trans-regional mobile rescue forces and 7 international rescue teams have been established.20 Therefore, China’s emergency management has realized the transformation from a single disaster response to comprehensive disaster reduction. Taking into account the development characteristics of risk prevention and control systems in and outside China, we can summarize the development path of domestic and western risk prevention and control systems as shown in Fig. 3.2. Among them, it is not difficult to find that Chinese and foreign risk prevention and control systems share two aspects of similarities in the development process: (1) Crisis events have generally become the trigger factor to promote the reform of national risk prevention and control system; and (2) All countries take comprehensive emergency management as the development direction of risk prevention and control system, and continuously strengthen the central government’s ability to coordinate departments and integrate resources for emergency management work in the process. What is quite different is the way China and foreign countries lead the reform of the risk prevention and control system, that is, the risk prevention and control systems in Western Europe and the United States have taken legislation as the starting point to carry out 20

International Online. China will further advance the reform of the emergency management system and mechanism [EB/OL]. (2019-1-22) [2019-10-27]. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=162335008 2100326723&wfr=spider&for=pc.

3.2 Comparison of the Development Process In and Outside China

Wartime or nuclear threat

Civil defence

Non-wartime

Crisis events

China

Leadership of the Partyand the government

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Legislation comes first Reform

The West

Comprehensive emergency management

Fig. 3.2 Development path of Chinese and Western risk prevention and control systems

corresponding reforms, while China has carried out the construction and reform of the risk prevention and control system by the central decision-making method under the leadership of the Party and the government.

Chapter 4

Sources of Impetus for Urban Risk Prevention and Control Construction

The maintenance of urban security needs to constantly improve its risk prevention and control capabilities. As the number of crisis events continues to increase, the contradictions are growing between the complexity and destructiveness of major public security emergencies and the limitation of government’s governing ability. In order to create a stable and orderly urban operating environment, enhancing the comprehensive risk prevention and control ability has become an important goal and requirement of urban governance capacity building. In the early process of urban safety management, the urban safety prevention and control system came into being from scratch. From single subjects, sub-disasters, sub-departments, piecemeal risk prevention and control system, to the gradual realization of a government-led, multi-participatory governance model, the systematic construction of integrated risk prevention and control in modern cities is advancing steadily. In this process, various forces have exerted influence on the management of urban safety risks, which help to push forward the gradual improvement of the risk prevention and control system. This chapter aims to study the sources of impetus for urban risk prevention and control construction from several important aspects, sum up experience, grasp the law, and explore a better path for the further development of future urban safety risk prevention and control system.

4.1 The Power Mechanism Within the Government In China, the pattern of “Big government, small society” has been maintained for a long time. The solution of virtually all problems is unachievable without the government. As a matter of fact, the government does play a very important role in the handling of many social problems. Especially in the area of public security, the government takes full control rightfully and acts as a “mainstay” in all kinds of

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public crisis events. Relying on the administrative power in its hand, the government can mobilize the resources and forces of all social parties to participate in risk prevention and crisis management. Therefore, to explore the power behind the development and evolution of urban safety risk prevention and control system, we should start from inside the government.

4.1.1 Accountability Pressure Accountability is a common practice within administrative systems, it is also the pressure mechanism that has the most direct influence on government officials. Under the restrictions of administrative hierarchy, the accountability of the superior to the subordinate can directly affect the promotion, appraisal and other related indirect benefits of the subordinate officials. In China’s administrative system, accountability includes two of the most important forms of accountability: administrative accountability and political accountability. The so-called administrative accountability refers to a system of internal oversight and accountability on the part of the current principal responsible person at all levels of administration. By design or negligence, his/her failure to perform or incorrect performance of statutory duties in the department under his/her jurisdiction and within his/her scope of work affects administrative order and efficiency, delays administrative work, thus bringing adverse effects and consequences on the executive branch. The construction of the public safety management system not only depends on the government for issuing instructions and social responses, but more on whether officials at all levels take their responsibilities seriously and act proactively. Public safety incidents, especially major public safety incidents, may cause heavy casualties and property losses, damage to the ecological environment and serious social harm. Therefore, the government has the responsibility to forecast, prevent, control and eliminate all kinds of public security incidents. Once a certain link in the management fails, resulting in the outbreak of the crisis and causing losses, the responsible government and the responsible person should bear the political responsibility, social responsibility and even legal responsibility.1 The administrative accountability system started rather late in China. Since the reform and opening up, the system of government responsibility in China has been continuously strengthened, with the gradual introduction within the system of government of the system of accountability of executive heads, which was clearly defined in the 1982 Constitution. After that, with the rapid development of the domestic economy, the administrative system reform has continued to deepen, the responsibility system has gradually become a core reform issue of concern to the central leadership. The successive rules and regulations have laid the foundation for the future

1

Zeng, Y. W. The construction of administrative accountability system in the perspective of public security [J]. Management Observation, 2008 (22):9–10.

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direction of basic reform, such as Provisions on the Implementation of the Responsibility System for Building a Clean and Honest Party (revised in 2010) jointly issued in 1998 by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and Provisions of the State Council on the Investigation of Administrative Liability for Major Safety Accidents officially implemented on Apr. 21, 2001. Since 2003, China’s accountability system for major safety accidents has taken initial shape, and administrative accountability has gradually come into public sight. Since then, China has accelerated the institutionalization and procedural construction of accountability from the central to the local level. During the “SARS” epidemic, Meng Xuenong, the then Mayor of Beijing, and Zhang Wenkang, Minister of Health of the People’s Republic of China, were removed from their posts for deliberately covering up the outbreak. With this opportunity, a storm of government accountability began to sweep across the country. The government began to frequently hold to account those responsible for some major public safety incidents. A large number of officials, including senior officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, have been punished one after another. They either resigned or went to jail, causing widespread public concern. For example, in the case of fake milk powder in Fuyang in 2004, Liu Qingqiang, the then Mayor of Fuyang, was given a major demerit by the administration. In the Songhua River Water Pollution Incident in 2005, Xie Zhenhua, the then director of State Environmental Protection Administration, took the blame and resigned. These officials were disciplined or removed from office, which shows indirectly that China’s government accountability system is playing a practical role. It also bears witness to China’s achievements in government accountability.2 With the introduction of accountability at the national level, the practical exploration of the administrative accountability system at the local level across the country has also been carried out in an all-round way since 2003. Tianjin, Chongqing, Hainan, Changsha, Dalian, Xiangtan, Guangzhou and other local governments introduced administrative accountability rules and regulations for different accountability targets. Since 2008, Party and government departments at all levels have continued to actively promote the accountability system. On Mar. 25, 2008, when Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council presided over the first incorrupt government work conference of the new government, he pointed out that the implementation of an administrative accountability and performance management system focusing on executive heads would be expedited. In May 2008, Decisions of the State Council on Strengthening the Law-based Administration of Municipal and County Governments emphasized accelerating the implementation of the accountability system. In the case of Sanlu poisonous milk scandal, on Sep. 20, 2008, Wen Jiabao stressed that enterprise development and economic growth must not be achieved at the expense of people’s lives and health, and pointed out that administrative accountability system should

2

He, Y. Research on government accountability in public safety accidents [D]. Qingdao: Ocean University of China, 2014.

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be strengthened. This highlights the role of administrative accountability in public security management.3 There has been insufficient formal academic discussion on political accountability. Much of the discussion is based on the political-administrative dichotomy, but the conclusions are ambiguous. In Western scholars’ views, political responsibility is the key to exerting democratic pressure on the government. It is based on a representative’s accountability to his constituents, and calls for a more open, transparent and representative government, making government responsiveness a central part of managing multiple goals.4 In Chinese scholars’ views, however, the fundamental aim of political responsibility is to serve the people. In addition to requiring political officials to formulate and implement public policies in line with public opinion, it is more about the censure and sanctions that officials will face for failing to perform their duties effectively. The political responsibility of the Chinese government comes in two parts. They are respectively the responsibility requirements of the ruling Party to the government and the responsibility requirements of the People’s Congress to the government. From the practical perspective, because China is implementing the Partygovernment integrated governance model, in many cases, political accountability goes hand in hand with administrative accountability. Usually, high-level administrative leaders within the Chinese government also hold high-level positions within the Party, in the process of accountability, administrative accountability and intraParty accountability are implemented simultaneously. This has further increased the punishment of accountability and the warning effect. Even if the actions of some officials have not yet triggered administrative accountability, from the perspective of Party discipline, they will still be held correspondingly responsible, thus forming a more effective responsibility supervision mechanism. With the continuous improvement and maturity of the accountability system, its application in practice has been strengthened. According to statistics, from the 18th Party congress to the end of May, 2016, more than 45,000 leading cadres of Party members were held accountable. Between 2014 and 2016, there were 238 typical problems of accountability due to negligence of responsibility in the overall strict governance of the Party notified by the discipline inspection and supervision organs at all levels issued on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, a total of 397 people were held accountable. Among them, there were 83 person-times in 2014, 85 person-times in 2015, 229 person-times in 2016, demonstrating an increase year by year. Of the 397 persontimes that were held to account, 249 person-times were chiefs, accounting for 62.7% of the total person-times, which embodies the characteristics of holding “a few key people” to account. Practice has proved that if a region or department has a leadership team that adheres to the correct political direction and dares to take responsibility, 3

Zeng, Y. W. The construction of administrative accountability system in the perspective of public security [J]. Management Observation, 2008 (22):9–10. 4 William T. Gormley Jr., Steven J. Balla. Bureaucracy and democracy-responsibility and performance [M]. Trans. Yu Y. X. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 2007.

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particularly the chief, the local leaders are strong and powerful and can put the Party’s lines, principles and policies into practice in light of the actual situation. To firmly grasp the main responsibility, the “Ox’s nose” so to speak, when dereliction of duty occurs, we should not only call to account the direct responsibility, main responsibility, supervision responsibility, but also the leadership responsibility and the Party organization’s responsibility.5 This can effectively ensure the effective implementation of all reform policies. Objectively speaking, the pressure of accountability can truly mobilize the administrative enthusiasm and initiative of government officials. In order to further improve the accountability system, in Jul. 2016, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued Regulations on the Accountability of the Communist Party of China, to promote the effective implementation of government work from the management within the Party. Some studies summarize the achievements made in the accountability work since the 18th Party Congress, sorting out many aspects of the innovation of accountability mechanism: The concept and spirit of accountability emphasize the reciprocity of power and responsibility; The orientation of accountability focuses on political accountability; The subject and object of accountability cover Party organizations at all levels, highlighting the few key people; The type of accountability focuses on the main responsibility, supervision responsibility and leadership responsibility; Responsibility is divided into overall leadership, main leadership and important leadership responsibility; The way of accountability adheres to separation of discipline and law, and the use of “Four forms”, to implement lifelong accountability and disclosure of typical problems; The procedure of accountability guarantees standardization and orderliness and enhances operability; and the system of accountability maintains matching connection to form synergy.6 At present, among the working mechanisms from the central government to the local governments, the institutionalization, normalization and standardization of accountability have reached a certain level. The Party and the government, in combination with their own political traditions and current system, under the premise of ensuring political and social stability, through political and administrative accountability of officials, force the implementation of urban risk prevention and control, to become the most effective motivation in pushing forward the continuous optimization and perfection of the urban risk prevention and control system.

5

Central Commission for Discipline Inspection: By the end of May this year, more than 45,000 leading cadres of Party members have been held accountable [EB/OL]. (2016-11-7) [2019–10-28]. http://fanfu.people.com.cn/n1/2016/1107/c6437128839427.html. 6 The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Research Center for Chinese integrity. Report on China’s anti-corruption drive (No.7) [M]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House, 2017.

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4.1.2 The Impulse Effect of “Special Regulation” “Special regulation” has been used to this day, it is now a very familiar term in the means of government administration. From the State Council to the grass-roots governance of community villages, “Special regulation” is everywhere whether in food safety concerning national economy and people’s livelihood or in illegal server problem of online games. Special regulation is also known as special treatment, special action, and centralized regulation. It is a massive administrative inspection, law enforcement and punishment action carried out seriously and quickly in a relatively short period of time by a competent department combining multiple departments, and concentrating manpower, equipment, resources in light of the government’s need to regulate certain market practices and certain industries or to highlight social problems. Words such as “Strike hard”, “Crack down”, “Concentrated rectification” and “Net-like investigation” often go hand in hand with “Special regulation”. It is not difficult to see from these words that the emergence of special governance in urban risk prevention and control stems from prominent social security issues, and problem orientation is an essential attribute of all special governance. In terms of urban risk prevention and control, as a form of government management, special regulation appeared before the formal construction of public safety management system, and shows a relatively dense characteristics. The government launched a series of special campaigns to crack down on organised crime and drugs in 1999 and 2000. Special security crackdowns usually follow major events. For example, after the Port of Tianjin bombing, the Work Safety Committee of the State Council issued Circular of the Work Safety Committee of the State Council on Learning the Lessons of Port of Tianjin’s “8·12”Major Accident and Carrying out Special Regulation on the Safety Problems of Hazardous Chemicals (Work Safety Committee (2016) Circular 4). More than half a year later, to promote the precipitation of special treatment effect, the State Council General Office issued Circular of the State Council General Office on Issuing the Integrated Management Plan for the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (State Council General Office (2016) No. 88). It emphasized on drawing lessons from the Port of Tianjin bombing incident and consolidating the progress made in recent years of special actions and results of special regulation to improve the intrinsic safety level of hazardous chemicals, to strengthen the comprehensive safety control of hazardous chemicals, and effectively prevent and contain major accidents involving dangerous chemicals.7 Special regulation work can take effect because it is launched in order to achieve certain specific goals. In the course of special rectification, the competent authorities generally hope to quickly solve existing difficult problems or unexpected events in the shortest time possible. In order to achieve the goal of governance as far as possible, the subject of governance will call on all the political power resources with 7

Circular of the State Council General Office on Issuing the Integrated Management Plan for the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals [EB/OL]. (2016-12-6) [2019-10- 27]. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/ content/201612/06/content_5143965.htm.

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law enforcement function in the society to impose a heavy hand on the object of governance. Special regulation has the advantage of hard strike and quick results, it can obtain short-term profits in maintaining social and economic order and cracking down on illegal acts. It also contains the scale effect of administrative punishment and caters to the realistic demand of public governance. There is no doubt that, under this circumstance, the progress of special rectification is much faster than other forms of governance and the effect of governance is obvious. From the practical work of special regulation, its content is by no means the expansion of daily work. The measures used are all conventional administrative ones, and there is no use of non-conventional coercive measures. However, the obvious short-term effect of special regulation can be achieved because of the centralized use of administrative resources. There is a clear time limit for the goal of governance, the accountability is relatively strict. Its power comes exactly from its unconventional nature. In special regulation activities, the government deploys in the short term its administrative resources to the maximum extent possible, and adopts a stormy approach to law enforcement. “Big on promises and big on actions”, the related propaganda is overwhelming and related actions are vigorous, featuring “campaignstyle” governance. Such a method of governance, which was originally intended as a means of emergency response, has become a near-normal form of governance, and one of the important motive mechanisms to promote urban risk prevention and control. The negative effect of special regulation is that the short-term effectiveness of the special regulation may prompt officials to resort to such methods of governance repeatedly. In some places, the number of times special regulation has been carried out has become an important part of the work performance. For the object of governance, after a special treatment, there may also be a rebound. The rebound of the results of special regulation means that after the regulation, there appears again the object of special regulation or even a phenomenon with more severe or acute symptoms, thereby creating a vicious cycle. Therefore, the short-term nature of time has decided that special regulation is a kind of governance method that treats the symptoms rather than the root causes. Without eliminating from the source the root of regeneration, the object of governance regenerates as soon as it has a chance, resulting in the repeated appearance of the object of governance. This is also why the emphasis is placed on linking it to the establishment of long-term mechanisms in the general work deployment of special regulation.8 There is hardly an area that can not be included in the scope of special regulation of the government. The policy of “Special regulation” is a rational choice under the condition of poor resources in national governance, it is an important means to improve the efficiency of integrated management. To dae, China’s safety management is still inseparable from special crackdown. After the official establishment of The Ministry of Emergency Management, the special clean-up of emergency

8

Wang, D. P. Reflection on normalization of special regulation [EB/OL]. (2007-9-28) [2019-10-27]. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/20070928/104213993023.shtml

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management regulations was immediately launched.9 Therefore, in the future, the government can continue to make use of the advantages of special rectification aimed at solving specific problems. At the same time, more attention should be paid to the transformation of experience into a daily management system, to enhance normal security maintenance capabilities.

4.1.3 Crisis Consciousness and Self-revolution Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China has always played a vital leading role in national development and social governance. The current state governance system that integrates the Party and the government has further strengthened the Party’s leadership over all undertakings. In urban safety risk management, the Communist Party of China is playing an important role in the direction of leadership. Since the birth of the Communist Party of China, it has always maintained a sense of crisis necessary for the long-term survival and development of an organization. Mao Zedong has warned the whole Party: “The Chinese revolution is great, but the road after the revolution is longer, the work is greater and harder. This must now be made clear to the Party, to ensure that our comrades continue to maintain a modest, prudent, unconceited and unimpetuous style of work. We must see to it that our comrades continue their style of hard work.” At a critical time when China was facing a major turning point, Deng Xiaoping uttered the words of the age: “ For a Party, a country, and a nation, if everything starts from the dogma with rigid ideology and prevailing superstition, then it can not advance, its vitality ceases, and the country will perish.” “Without timely reform, the cause of our modernization and socialism will be destroyed.” Faced with sustained economic development in the long-term peace period, the Party Central Committee has also issued a warning that “The whole Party must be alert to dangers in times of peace, strengthen the sense of hardship, always worry about the Party and fulfill the Party’s responsibilities, have the courage to reform and innovate, to never be rigid and stagnated.” In face of the risk of corruption, the Party is keenly aware that “In recent years, in some countries, the long-accumulated conflicts have led to widespread public resentment, social unrest, and the collapse of political power. Corruption is one of the most important reasons. A lot of facts tell us that the problem of corruption is getting worse and worse, and the Party and the country will inevitably perish in the end!”10 So, from the perspective of the ruling Party, in order to deal with the principal contradictions and potential risks and threats of each period and stage, the Central Committee of the Party has 9

The vice minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management deploys special clean-up work of emergency management laws and regulations [EB/OL]. (2018-4-22) [2019-10-27]. http://www.gov. cn/xinwen/201804/22/content_5284901.htm. 10 Study, propagate and implement the Party’s 18th National Congress Spirit by closely adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics [EB/OL]. (2012-11-19) [2019-10-27]. http:// cpc.people.com.cn/n/2012/1119/c64094196159983.html.

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always maintained a clear awareness and has the courage to take proactive measures in defusing risks. It is the basic law of the vicissitudes of history to “be born in sorrow and die in comfort”. It is an important magic weapon for the Communist Party of China to thrive by adhering to the bottom-line thinking and making the fullest preparation. Since the 18th Party congress, Xi Jinping has repeatedly urged and requested the whole Party to adhere to the bottom-line thinking and enhance the sense of potential danger. In the report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping called on the whole Party to “Look far and high and think of danger in peace”, and to “Prevent and defuse major risks” as the first of the three major battles at the decisive period for building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. At the opening ceremony of the seminar on studying and implementing the spirit of the 19th Party congress, Xi stressed on “consistency in strengthening the sense of potential danger and guarding against risks and challenges”. On Jan. 21, 2019, at the special seminar for leading cadres at the provincial and ministerial levels, he emphasized once again that we should deeply understand and accurately grasp the profound changes in the external environment and new situations, new problems and new challenges that China’s reform, development and stability are facing. We must adhere to the bottom-line thinking, enhance the awareness of potential danger, improve the ability of prevention and control, focus on preventing and defusing major risks, to maintain sustained and sound economic development and social stability.11 As the top leader of the country, Xi Jinping has focused on strengthening the awareness of potential danger and highlighted the prevention and control of risks in a short period of time. It is of outstanding importance for comprehensively promoting the prevention and control of security risks in all fields, including cities. With a sense of risk, we also need the courage and resolution to correct mistakes, so as to realize “Self-revolution”. The inner motive force of “Self-revolution” comes from the advanced nature of the Communist Party of China. The General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that “The courage to carry out self-revolution is the most distinctive character of our Party as well as its biggest advantage. The greatness of the Communist Party of China lies not in not making mistakes, but in never avoiding medical treatment. The Party has the courage to face up to problems, to execute selfrevolution, and has a strong ability for self-repair.” Because of this, we have been able to overcome serious crises and challenges time and time again, deeply reflect and then put forward plans for adjustment and even profound reform, to promote the establishment of a more complete public safety management system in China in a short period of time. The construction of China’s public security management system has started from scratch, it has gone through the process of shifting from the emphasis on postemergency treatment to treatment from the source and from non-regular treatment to regular treatment. While quickly achieving great success, there are also institutional 11

Xi, Jinping. Improve the ability to prevent and control major risks, and work to maintain sustained, sound and stable economic development [EB/OL]. (2019-1-21) [2019-10-27]. http://www.xinhua net.com/politics/leaders/201901/21/c_1124021712.htm.

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constraints, systemic imperfections, legal deficiencies and weaknesses in contingency plans. Now, at the threshold of a new era, the establishment of The Ministry of Emergency Management is a new starting point for reform.

4.1.4 Internal Competition within the Administrative System There is a hidden competition within the administrative system, which is rooted in the need for promotion among officials. Many scholars have fully demonstrated the political tournament system.12 Although the theory itself points to local economic development, with the economic and social transformation and the decline in economic growth, social governance problems have increased, particularly the emergence of various security risk factors poses a serious threat to economic and social stability and development, the central government began to pay high attention to security and stability issues, and the internal competition within the administrative system began to diversify, and is obviously moving towards the effect of security governance. The tournament around public safety governance is embodied in two aspects: First, innovation and shaping of a model; Second, when a model is valued by the central government and highly recommended, all places race to emulate and implement it. In fact, these two aspects are intrinsically linked. When a city makes some kind of innovation or is held up as a model, often times what follows is the emulation and diffusion effect within the administrative system. Local governments would compete to learn from the experience and either directly imitate it or make further innovation in light of local conditions upon retuning to their local place. This process constitutes an important form of the development of urban safety risk prevention and control system in China. Model 1: Nanning City emergency response center. In 2001, the city of Nanning drew upon the model of the 911 Emergency Center in Chicago, US, invested 168 million yuan, and built the first urban emergency linkage system in China. The system takes the lead in bringing emergency relief of public utilities into a unified command and dispatch system, such as 110 alarm desk, 119 fire station, 120 first aid center, 122 traffic accident alarm desk, 12,345 mayor public telephone, flood control, earthquake prevention, air defense, as well as water, electricity and gas, establishing the system and mechanism of emergency response and linkage. This is the first of its kind in 12

According to the theory of the political tournament system of official promotion, under China’s political system, higher-level officials mainly evaluate and promote junior officials according to their contribution to economic growth, so junior officials have a strong incentive to develop the economy in order to get political promotions. China’s administrative system consists of several levels of government, including the central, provincial, city (region), county, and township government. Based on the isomorphism of the Chinese government system, political tournaments can play a role in all levels of government below the central government, making political tournaments widely available. Pushing down through the layers, governments at all levels are encouraged by the everexpanding tournament, which can promote local economic development, supply local public goods and strengthen infrastructure development.

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China. In case of emergency, residents only need to dial one of the four numbers to realize the linkage of 110, 119, 120 and 122, which minimizes the response time of urban emergency system. Through connectivity and emergency response, sharing various rescue resources, the system has implemented unified command and coordination between departments, police districts and police types. The practice, known as “The Nanning Model”, is being taken seriously in cities across the country. Various places competed to visit and study it, and in a very short time, cities like Shanghai and Chengdu have modeled themselves after Nanning, setting up their own emergency response systems. Up to now, the emergency linkage center has already been popularized in large, medium and small cities all over the country, and in the course of construction, many local experiences have been incorporated, rapidly raising the level of construction of the national urban emergency management system. Model 2: Urban Grid Management. In Oct. 2004, the city of Dongcheng District reformed its administrative system through the integrated application of more than a dozen information technologies. The first 10,000-m unit grid management method in China and the “Dongcheng District’s grid city management system” got completed. The system divides each street in the precinct into a grid of 10,000 m, each grid is the responsibility of a dedicated grid member, who will be responsible for the various components within the grid, including lamp posts, manhole covers, etc., which are all recorded and kept abreast of the latest changes. According to statistics, the detection rate of urban management problems by this system is up to 90%, the accuracy rate of task dispatch is 98%, the problem-solving rate is 90.34%, the average processing time is 7.5 h (it used to take about a week), the settlement rate of case files is 90.53%, with an average of about 390 cases per week, which is five times higher than in the past, greatly improving the efficiency and level of urban management. The remarkable achievements of “Dongcheng District’s grid city management system” in urban management has been highly praised by various departments, government of Beijing and many senior industry experts, and named by Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development as a “New model of digital urban management” to be promoted in cities across the country. Microsoft’s Bill Gates has also hailed it internationally as a “World-class case” in urban governance. Since then, many cities at home and abroad have come to study it. Up till now, Dongcheng District’s grid management model has been replicated in 950 cities,13 and the application fields have been expanded to include municipal management, public security prevention and control, urban water and electricity, traffic management, Party construction, trade unions and many other fields. Focusing on the main management needs of the specific stage of social development, the competition mechanism within the administrative system will induce the competitive drive among officials in areas of governance on different issues, thus producing a steady stream of innovative governance tools, means or models.

13

Dongcheng District of Beijing: Leading Grid Management to higher standards [EB/OL]. (20196-18) [201-1-27]. https://www.sohu.com/a/321468824_99951576.

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At present, under the guidance of the overall national security concept, public security governance has become an important part of social governance. While maintaining the sustained and stable development of the city’s economy, a large part of the energy needs to be devoted to the city security risk prevention and control work. Security issues already have a veto in many places; no matter how well the local economy is developing, once the security issue is not stepped up and major security incidents occur, causing serious negative social impacts, officials should bear great responsibility judging from the present legal system of the Party and government. As a result, many cities and localities already have internal working principles, treating the safety issue as a baseline and a red line not to be touched. Many cities also refer to safety governance capacity building as “Safety governance performance”, which occupies a higher weight in the year-end government performance appraisal, thus effectively promoting the investment of grass-roots units in the prevention and control of security risks, and transforming the competitive pressure of administrative assessment into an internal motive force to promote the continuous improvement and development of the urban safety prevention and control system.

4.2 The Socialized Mechanism of External Impetus No organization or system can change without the influence of external environment. In addition to the internal impetus for active changes within the administrative system, an organization or system usually needs to depend on changes in external conditions, exert some influence on key internal factors, thereby to achieve a stressful change in an organization or system. As a super-large organizational system, the city faces more complex environmental factors, and there are many social factors outside the government that can affect the changes in the urban risk prevention and control system. This section focuses on a few key elements that can have a direct impact and analyses the dynamic mechanism of its role.

4.2.1 The Push of “Major” Events The urban management system has a certain historical continuity. Usually it will keep a relatively stable model of operation and is difficult to make significant changes, especially as a precautionary change in the risk prevention and control system. If not hit by a particular event, it is often overlooked by policymakers. From the development of urban risk prevention and control system at home and abroad, we can see that a lot of big and obvious changes only happened after major events, which can be taken as a stress reaction after a major event. As is known to all, the “9·11” terrorist attack has profoundly changed the national security control system of the United States. The United States has integrated all the departments and agencies involved in security and established The Department

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of Homeland Security, a giant national security agency, to oversee the prevention and control of security risks in all areas within the United States, security systems in American cities and rural areas have also been adjusted accordingly. On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina lashed the Louisiana coast, 80% of New Orleans was soon under water. The city’s “Super Dome”, usually used for noisy football games, was filled with refugees. Some families left the city on foot, while others who could not escape waved from rooftops for help. More than 1800 people were estimated to have died in the disaster, with associated losses of more than 100 billion dollars. The New Orleans disaster made it clear to the United States that there were huge problems in its security risk prevention and control system at that time, the subsequent reforms were also pushed forward quickly. In this reform, the U.S. government has readjusted the operational model of domestic disaster prevention and control system under the Department of Homeland Security, so that FEMA regained the effective capacity to organize and carry out risk control and emergency management. Almost the same thing happened to China. In 2003, a sudden “SARS” epidemic swept across the country, spreading crisis and panic, the problem was particularly acute in densely populated cities. In the face of an unknown and menacing epidemic, government officials realized that many of the administrative measures used to control the spread of an epidemic lacked a legal basis. The only law that could guide epidemic prevention and control is Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases adopted in 1989. It is clear that the social environment in which the law was enacted was already very different from that of 2003. It was difficult for the old law to respond effectively to the management needs in the new environment formed after the comprehensive reform and opening-up whereby the market economy was highly developed, the population moved freely, and the transportation network was widely accessible and highly convenient. Therefore, under the pressure of the government to put the “SARS” epidemic under effective control as soon as possible, a multi-agency, multi-sector and multi-industry comprehensive action ensued. In a short period of time, a series of new laws and regulations were introduced intensively (see Table 4.1) from the point of view of improving the legal system alone, effectively closing the loopholes in the management of the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Without the “SARS” outbreak, China’s legal system for the prevention and control of infectious diseases may have been difficult to actively identify its weaknesses and fix them in a short period of time. The “SARS” epidemic has also pushed forward the construction of China’s emergency management system at the national level. By reflecting on the lessons learned from the response to the “SARS” epidemic while drawing on the experience of the United States and other developed countries in the construction of security management systems, the Chinese government has begun to comprehensively build up its national emergency management system. The State Council Emergency Management Office was established at the national level, and local emergency management offices have also been set up in all Provinces, cities and districts (counties) one after another, the basic structure of the national emergency management system has been fully rolled out. After the “SARS” epidemic, various crisis events have continued to occur, such as the bird flu epidemic (2004–2005), Jilin petrochemical explosion

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Table 4.1 Improvement of the system of laws and regulations promoted by the “SARS” epidemic Time

Laws, regulations, notices and other documents

Issuing agency and department

Nature

Feb. 21, 1989

Law of the People’s Republic Standing Committee of the of China on the Prevention National People’s Congress and Control of Infectious Diseases

Pre-crisis formulation

Apr. 11, 2003

Guidelines on Admission of Guangdong Provincial Atypical Pneumonia Patients Department of Health in Guangdong Provincial Hospitals

In-crisis formulation

Guidelines on Prevention and Control of Atypical Pneumonia in Kindergartens and Schools in Guangdong Province Guidelines on Prevention and Control of Atypical Pneumonia in Public Places in Guangdong Province Apr. 12, 2003

Circular by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation Administration on Strict Prevention of the Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome via Transport

Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Railways of the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China, Civil Aviation Administration of China

In-crisis formulation

Apr. 14, 2003

Circular on Transshipment of The General Office of Severe Acute Respiratory Ministry of Health of the Syndrome Patients and People’s Republic of China Suspected Patients by The General Office of Ministry of Health

In-crisis formulation

Before Apr. 15, 2003

Work Plan on the Prevention Civil Aviation and Control of Atypical Administration of China Pneumonia for Civil Aviation Systems

In-crisis formulation

Apr. 16, 2003

Contingency Plan for Tourism Operators on the Prevention and Control of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

In-crisis formulation

China National Tourism Administration, Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China

(continued)

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Table 4.1 (continued) Time

Laws, regulations, notices and other documents

Issuing agency and department

Nature

Notice by Beijing Municipal Beijing Municipal Bureau of In-crisis Bureau of Labor and Social Labor and Social Security formulation Security on the Settlement of Atypical Pneumonia Medical Expenses for Insured Persons and Urban Registered Unemployed Persons Apr. 18, 2003

Urgent Notice of the General Ministry of Health of the Office of Ministry of Health People’s Republic of China on Strengthening the office Prevention and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia in the Community

Apr. 22, 2003

Notice from Beijing Beijing Municipal Bureau of In-crisis Municipal Bureau of Labor Labor and Social Security formulation and Social Security on Issues Relating to the Audit and Settlement of Medical Expenses of Insured Persons Suffering from Atypical Pneumonia Diseases

Apr. 23, 2003

Urgent Notice from Ministry of Health on Standardizing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Reporting

Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China

In-crisis formulation

Apr. 24, 2003

Administrative Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Appearance and Environmental Hygiene

The 12th People’s Congress of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress

Review and revision

Apr. 25, 2003

Urgent Notice of General General Office of the State Office of the State Council on Council Mobilizing Students of Higher Education Institutions in Beijing and other Places and Migrant Workers to Study and Work Locally

In-crisis formulation

Apr. 27, 2003

Urgent notice from the General Office of the Ministry of Health on Improving the Prevention of Cross-infection in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia in Hospitals

In-crisis formulation

Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China office

In-crisis formulation

(continued)

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Table 4.1 (continued) Time

Laws, regulations, notices and other documents

Issuing agency and department

Nature

Apr. 27, 2003

Basic Knowledge of Studying and Implementing (Law of Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases) for the Prevention and Control of Atypical Pneumonia according to Law

Department of Publicity and education, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Ministry of Justice of the People’s Republic of China, and Department of Health Law and supervision, Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China

In-crisis formulation

Apr. 29, 2003

Technical Requirements for Disposable Protective Clothing for Medical Use (GB 19,082—2003)

State Administration for Standardization

In-crisis formulation

Technical Requirements for Medical Protective Masks (GB 19,083—2003) Ordinary Nonfat Gauze Masks (GB 19,084—2003) Preventive Measures for Infectious Disease Places of in Business and service establishments (GB 19,085—2003) May 7, 2003 Regulations on Emergency Response to Public Health Emergencies

Meeting of the State Council Discussion and deliberation

May 8, 2003 Criteria and Principles of Handling Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Close Contacts (trial)

Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China

May 14, 2003

The Supreme People’s Court Going into effect and the Supreme People’s on May 15, 2003 Procuratorate

Explanation by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of Some Problems in Specific Applications of Law in Handling Criminal Cases that Hinder the Prevention and Control of Disasters such as Outbreaks of infectious Diseases

In-crisis formulation

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which led to a series of crises (2005), “Qi Er yao” (Qiqihar No.2 Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) and “Xin Fu” (Clindamycin Phosphate Glucose Injection) drug incidents (2006), Tai Lake cyanobacteria outbreak (2007), the rain, snow and freezing rain disaster, earthquake in Wenchuan County, toxic milk powder (2008), etc. Without exception, these major events have become a constant source of motive force to push the government to continuously improve and strengthen the safety risk management and control system.14 While the government is engaged in solving a series of major incidents, loopholes in management have been found all over the country, which helps improve and upgrade continuously the safety prevention and control management system, and promotes the effective enhancement of China’s risk prevention and control capabilities.

4.2.2 Role of International Demonstration With increasingly frequent global exchanges and interactions, China is highly integrated into the international community, many advanced international ideas and experiences have more or less exerted some influence on China. In the field of urban safety construction, because the urbanization process of Western countries is earlier than that of China, some advanced practices have been copied by cities in China, for example, the Nanning Model already mentioned is an emulation of Chicago experience. In addition, there is a very typical case of an international model being introduced into China, which is called “Safe community” building. “Safe community” building first started in northern Europe. In 1975, Falköping, the Swedish “Slow city”, launched a community safety programme including safety education, to strengthen the day-to-day management supervision and other issues. After more than two years of trying, traffic accident injuries in the community, home injuries and work accidents were reduced by nearly 30% and unintentional injuries among community preschoolers was reduced by nearly 50%. On Sep. 20, 1989, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened the First World Conference on Accident and Injury Prevention in Stockholm, more than 500 representatives from over 50 countries around the world unanimously adopted and issued The Declaration of Safe Communities to the world. The Declaration of Safe Communities proclaims that everyone has equal rights to health and safety. This is the basic principle by which WHO promotes the plan for human health and global accident prevention and injury control. The conference produced the world’s first international security community, and proposed the concept of “Safety, health and culture” in the construction of safe community, calling on various organizations in the community 14

The series of crisis events have affected cities across the country to varying degrees. Cities will usually decide what actions to take depending on how relevant or similar they are to a major event. For example, after the Wenchuan County earthquake, many large cities have launched a series of urban earthquake prevention and disaster reduction work. Under the leadership of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress legal work committee, Shanghai and Beijing started the research and formulation of urban earthquake prevention and disaster reduction laws.

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to play their role, integrating all available resources in the community, mobilizing the community people to actively participate in community safety promotion activities, creating a safe and comfortable community living environment to improve the safety and health quality of residents.15 To promote the concept of “Safe community”, WHO has set up Center for Community Safety Cooperation to promote the program globally, and to create “Safe community support centers” around the world to assist and strengthen the promotion of the program. At the same time, WHO has developed a “Safe community” standard and classified indicators, and is responsible for the inspection and verification of the community applying to become a “Safe community” and its application materials. Since then, promoting the concept of “Safe community” has become a priority of WHO in the field of injury prevention and safety promotion. In 1991, WHO held the first international safe community conference in Sweden, and confirmed to convene an International Safety Community Congress every year thereafter, to promote the construction of safe communities. The “Safe community” program is widely recognized and rapidly developed in Europe, Asia and America, both developed and developing countries. It is against this background that many cities in China have carried out the construction of international safe communities. China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan successfully introduced the safe community building program in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan and other cities also carried out pilot work of international safety community construction in 2004. Driven by international demonstration, Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Safe Production and Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Safety Culture Construction released in 2006 both included building a safe community. In 2006, Office of Central Comprehensive Social Management Commission of the Communist Party of China and the former State Administration of Work Safety (now The Ministry of Emergency Management) jointly issued Opinions on Carrying out Indepth Activities to Build Safety in the Field of Work Safety, to initiate the domestic version of safe community construction. In 2007, the first 21 national safe communities were born. In Dec. 2008, WHO recognized China Association for Occupational Safety and Health as the WHO Community Safety Promotion Cooperation Center and the Safe Community Support Center. In 2009, the former State Administration of Work Safety issued Work Safety Guidelines by the State Administration on Deepening the Work of Building Safe Communities, to continue promoting the standardization of safe communities. In line with the principle of “developing a batch once the time is ripe”, and with the promotion of the state, the construction of safe urban communities has been promoted in batches throughout the country, the first safe community to meet the standards is recommended to participate in the International Safety Community selection. In 2009, Huaiyin District of Jinan, Shandong Province was named by the WHO Center for Community Safety Promotion and Cooperation as the first “International safe community” in urban areas in China’s 15

Lu J. F., Zhang, C. L. & Xi, Y. S. The history of safe community construction and its reference to urban community public security governance [J]. Journal of Sichuan Police College, 2016 (5): 97–104.

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mainland. By Dec. 2017,103 international safe communities and 575 national safe communities had been established throughout the country. Shanghai had built 78 local safe communities, 47 national safe communities, and 30 international safe communities.16 A large number of urban communities have joined the safe community construction program, which has promoted to a great extent the improvement of the city’s overall anti-risk and emergency management capabilities. It is clear from the path of building safe communities in China’s cities that the demonstration and promotion of international advanced experience can arouse the high attention of domestic governments and effectively encourage many urban communities with inherent needs to actively participate in the practice. Under the guidance of such external advantages, the capacity building of urban safety risk management constitutes one of the important driving forces for the development of urban risk prevention and control system in China now and for some time to come.

4.2.3 Participation and Promotion of Organizations outside the Government The forces that exist in an organised pattern outside the government take many forms and can be broadly divided into two categories: one is For-Profit Organization, the other is Non-Government Organization (NGO) or Non-Profit Organization (NPO). Sometimes, government is also called the first sector, for-profit organization is called the second sector, and the non-governmental organization or non-profit organization is called the third sector. In an environment that promotes pluralistic participation in social governance and free market competition, both the second and third sectors are highly enthusiastic to participate in activities in the field of public security, which will have a significant impact on the government’s investment and construction in the field of safety.

4.2.3.1

Market-Oriented Multi-penetration of For-Profit Organizations

For-profit organizations aim at profit and have a strong motive to expand the market. The government needs to make use of various tools or means in the process of public security governance, a lot of which have to be acquired through the market. Therefore, for all kinds of for-profit organizations, government demand is a huge “cake”, so to speak. All kinds of for-profit organizations are constantly lobbying and encouraging the government to open its markets to them, the main form is for the government to buy services or engage for-profit organizations in public security governance. 16

Zhangmiao Street becomes the world’s 389th “International safe community” [EB/OL]. (201712-12) [2019-10-27]. http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw2/nw2314/nw2315/nw15343/u2law1274619. html.

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First of all, urban public safety management requires huge investment in human resources. Especially since the introduction of grid management in cities across the country, there has been a sharp increase in the number of street-level personnel responsible for city safety and environmental inspections. As a result, an objective dilemma that generally arises at the grass-roots level is that, in the grid management system with the street as the basic management unit, on one hand, there should be personnel in the streets and neighborhood committees to handle complicated grassroots issues in the office; on the other hand, devoted manpower is needed for the daily patrol of the street grid. The grass roots are generally unable to bear the workload. In this case, the model emerged for the street to purchase labor services for service outsourcing from security companies. According to the survey in Shanghai, Hangzhou and other cities, a large number of security companies of different sizes provide outsourced services to the grass-roots towns, their numbers ranging from more than 10 to more than 100. In accordance with their actual needs and combined with their financial situation, all streets choose different companies to purchase services. For example, a street in Shanghai bought services from a security company with more than ten people in 2018.The company sent security personnel to work from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with two teams taking turns to patrol several roads on the same day. A district in Hangzhou signed an agreement with a security company with more than 100 people in 2019. The company sent personnel to assist the district in carrying out the maintenance of urban appearance and order. According to the grid management model, it carried on daily management to the designated road periphery and back streets and alleys, implemented the service mode of “City management + Security”, which strengthened the urban management team and improved the refined level of urban management. Secondly, as a form of upgrading, the technical means are also integrated into urban safety management. The combination of video surveillance technology with Artificial intelligence and Big data has created a powerful market momentum. Stimulated and boosted by intelligent transportation, safe city, smart city construction, Beijing Olympic Games, Expo 2010 Shanghai China (hereinafter referred to as “World Expo”), Guangzhou 16th Asian Games, Shenzhen 26th World University Summer Games and other security projects, as well as the rapid growth of video monitoring demand in various industries and other factors, China’s urban security market is expanding rapidly. According to the survey data, the total output value of China’s security industry has increased rapidly from 140 billion yuan in 2007 to 540 billion yuan in 2016 (Fig. 4.1). The market is the largest in the world, with the compound growth rate between 2007 and 2016 reaching 16.18%, the industry growth rate 11.11%, significantly higher than the global growth rate.17 In the city security construction, video surveillance undoubtedly occupies the main market at the present stage. Public-space image surveillance systems have been proven to help increase detection rates. According to publicly available data from Shanghai Police, surveillance cameras helped apprehend 6,000 suspects in 2016. 17

Wu, X. Y. China builds the world’s largest Skynet with 20 million surveillance cameras [EB/OL]. (2017-10-2) [2019-10-27]. https://www.qianzhan.com/analyst/detail/220/170930cc300c10.html.

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Year Fig. 4.1 China’s security industry output value and its growth between 2007 and 2016

Changsha Police said between 2014 and 2017, cameras helped them solve more than 1200 cases. During the Champions League in 2017, Cardiff of Wales, UK specially deployed a facial recognition system in the subway stations and the main railway stations around the stadium, monitoring and scanning every face of 170,000 tourists, and made a real-time comparison with 500,000 “Closely watched objects” in the police database.18 At present, mega-cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have more than one million surveillance cameras installed in public spaces. More than 200,000 cities across the country have installed surveillance cameras, and the number is in the double digits. The domestic video surveillance market is expanding (Fig. 4.2). According to the relevant data, during the 13th Five-year Plan period, the annual growth rate of China’s video surveillance market is expected to reach around 15%, that is, the Chinese video surveillance market is expected to reach 1.683 billion yuan by 2020.19 While the market space continues to expand, enterprises in the relevant fields, in order to seize market share, are all working with the government by various means to help the government upgrade its technology on their own accord. For example, in Shanghai, a number of mainstream video surveillance companies have cooperated with different districts. They have established contact with the public security and transportation departments through their respective channels, providing free equipment in the early stage to offer advanced security monitoring solutions for the government, to take the initiative in seizing the opportunity of further cooperation with the region in the future. After the government authorities have approved the technology, more equipment and services can be added to the government’s followup procurement list. In this invisible “battlefield”, the competition between similar 18

The number of public surveillance cameras in China will increase to 626 million in the next three years [EB/OL]. (2017-11-23) [2019-10-27]. http://www.afzhan.com/news/detail/62302.html. 19 Chinese video surveillance market analysis and forecast in 2018: the market size will reach 119.2 billion yuan [EB/OL]. (2018-1-31) [2019-10-27]. http://www.askci.com/news/chanye/20180131/ 163708117347_2.shtml.

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Market size per billion

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Year Fig. 4.2 Trend chart of China’s domestic video surveillance market scale

enterprises is highly fierce, which has also induced the continuous improvement of urban security prevention and control technology. Finally, the market-oriented insurance mechanism promotes the city’s anti-risk ability. After more than a decade’s advancement of the insurance industry in China, the development of insurance products related to urban public safety risk management is constantly adapting to the actual needs of the market, and has gradually established a more systematic product security system. The commercial insurance support system of urban public safety risk management has been initially formed. In urban safety management, commercial insurance can effectively relieve the pressure on the government and enhance the level of risk resistance in cities. In 2005, the Shanghai Regulatory Bureau of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) communicated and coordinated with the Shanghai Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau and the Municipal Office of financial services to jointly promote the development of community comprehensive insurance business, and guide insurance companies to start the pilot project. In 2009, Community Comprehensive Insurance was included in one of the top ten practical projects in Shanghai that year.20 On Nov. 15, 2010, a huge fire broke out in a high-rise apartment building in Jing’an District of Shanghai. As a result of the community comprehensive insurance policy, it received an insurance settlement of over five million yuan. After that, the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government insurance industry promoted community comprehensive insurance. There were 4.83 million insured households and 51,000 community workers in 2013, with a risk coverage of 1.146 billion yuan. On New Year’s Eve of 2015, a stampede happened on the Bund in Shanghai, the insurance company paid out 3.856 million yuan.21 The community comprehensive insurance combines the nature of property insurance, liability insurance and accident insurance, it is a combination of insurance products between commercial insurance and policy insurance. Shanghai started the pilot 20

Shanghai Bureau of Civil Administration. Shanghai community comprehensive insurance: a safety “Umbrella” for the community [J]. Civil Affairs in China, 2016 (10): 18–19. 21 Hu, W. Insurance support for urban public safety risk management [EB/OL]. (2016-4-25) [201910-27]. http://www.ahbaoxian.com/xsll/xshd/20160425/615.html.

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program of “Community Comprehensive Insurance” relatively early, the specific subcategories include community public liability insurance, community fixed property insurance, community property fire liability insurance, community property natural disaster insurance and group personal accident insurance, etc. Compared with general commercial insurance, the aim of community comprehensive insurance is mainly to enhance the management capacity and risk resistance of the street community, improve the level of social governance, and then effectively safeguard community public security and public interests.22 In order to keep up with the new needs of urban development, insurance products and services have been continuously enriched and improved. At present, Shanghai has also introduced comprehensive insurance for community public management to help with comprehensive social management. Shanghai insurance industry adapts to the needs of the government’s public management through the community comprehensive insurance mechanism, and launched pilot projects on comprehensive insurance for community public management. First, focus on special groups, provide multiple guarantees, provide individual and family integration protection for imported talents and overseas returnees, etc., increase the attraction to the talents in short supply, while including in the scope of protection law enforcement personnel, public officers, volunteers and accidents of bravery. Second, expand the scope of security and give prominence to social governance. On the basis of the original community comprehensive insurance, more than 30 insurance liabilities have been expanded. All the guarantees related to public safety have been brought into the scope of protection such as road manhole cover damage or loss, hit-and-run traffic, home care services for the elderly, liabilities for food safety at school and corporate canteens and senior meals, and liabilities for enterprise safety production. Third, provide risk protection for unexpected events. Government’s emergencies such as major event emergencies, convention and exhibition and business activities safety, accidents at public sports and cultural venues, etc. have all been brought into the scope of protection. Rapid and adequate financial security is provided to relieve the burden of financial expenditure through the insurance mechanism.23 In addition to the main forms mentioned above, for-profit organizations are also actively involved in urban safety risk management in many specific industries and fields. While seeking market space and survival and development opportunities for themselves, they are also constantly improving the level of urban safety management to become an important force to promote the city’s capability in safety risk prevention and control.

22

Community Comprehensive Insurance [EB/OL]. (2018-5-29) [2019-10-27]. http://www.cpic. com.cn/c/20180529/1489095.shtml. 23 Shanghai launched community-based public management insurance to help promote comprehensive social governance [EB/OL]. (2017-5-18) [2019-10-21]. http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw2/ nw2314/nw2315/nw4411/u21aw1230566.html.

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Voluntary Contributions from Non-governmental Organizations or Non-profit Organizations

On a global scale, the participation of non-governmental organizations or non-profit organizations in urban safety management has become very common, such as the International Red Cross, Save the Children, etc. Chinese non-governmental organizations have been widely involved in rescue-related activities, which has gained momentum after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. A large number of folk nongovernmental organizations or nonprofit organizations have been established, and carried out extensive safety rescue and safety public welfare training activities in specific regions or throughout the country. One of the most influential representative organizations is the Blue Sky Rescue Team. The Blue Sky Rescue Team is a Chinese non-governmental professional and independent pure public welfare emergency rescue organization established in 2007. Blue Sky Rescue has set up brandauthorized rescue teams in 31 Provinces, cities and autonomous regions all over the country. More than 50,000 volunteers have been registered nationwide, among whom more than 10,000 volunteers have received professional rescue training and certification, ready for any kind of emergency. The Blue Sky Rescue Team is based on the principle of voluntary service. Its aim is to establish and promote the development of domestic civilian relief system, provide free emergency services for every citizen, with the goal of building a professional and international rescue organization. Its mission is to assist the government emergency response system to carry out disaster prevention and mitigation education and training, participate in all kinds of disaster and accident rescue operations to reduce the loss of property and life caused by disasters and accidents. After years of development and actual rescue, the Blue Sky Rescue Team has formed a comprehensive emergency management system based on risk management and prevention, and has become a specialized and international humanitarian relief agency in various fields such as life rescue, humanitarian assistance, disaster prevention, emergency response capacity, disaster recovery and reduction. Since its establishment, the Blue Sky Rescue Team has participated in the rescue work of all large-scale disasters in the country since 2007, and there are over 1000 rescues a year.24 In addition to the typical professional relief organizations, there are also a large number of civil registration organizations devoting themselves to voluntary public welfare undertakings such as eliminating gambling in cities and helping the disadvantaged. These are all important auxiliary forces in building a city’s security system. City governments rely on these public or semi-public organizations to participate in social governance at the grass-roots level and build a safe “fence” for the disadvantaged in the form of services outsourced from street communities in a decentralized manner each year. In addition, a very special kind of organizations serves urban safety management in a public or semi-public way. They are part of the non-governmental think tanks and

24

Blue Sky Rescue [EB/OL]. [2019-10-21]. http://www.4006009958.org/.

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think tanks or professional research institutes attached to the scientific research institutes of universities. In the form of intellectual output, they identify potential safety risks in corners that city managers ignore, and put forward valuable countermeasures and suggestions for the safety risk faced by the city.

4.2.4 Pressure of Public Opinion The pressure of public opinion plays an equally important role in urban safety management that can not be ignored. It is the responsibility of city managers to respond effectively to the issues raised by the common voice of the public. Because of the electoral pressure, countries such as Europe and the United States must serve the needs of the majority in cities. Based on a similar demand for ruling legitimacy, China also has a need for effective responses to hot-button issues of public concern. The city government did make a lot of changes under the pressure of public opinion. The earliest typical case is “Smiling gate” incident. On Aug. 26, 2012, at the scene of the huge traffic accident in Yan’an where 36 people died, Yang Dacai, the then director of the Shaanxi Provincial Work Safety Administration, was revealed to have a “smile” on his face. This triggered a strong outcry and suspicion from netizens, and subsequently Yang Dacai’s corruption case was peeled off layer by layer. The incident was called “The smiling gate”. This incident and the series of incidents surrounding the behavior of officials, for example, “Suspension inspection”, posing for photos at the disaster relief site and so on exposed the improper attitude and behaviour of government officials in dealing with public security incidents, setting off a widespread public outcry. The reaction from the government was swift. In the face of new emergencies, officials were generally capable of quick reaction in form and serious treatment in attitude. Most fundamental security risks in cities are paid attention to and solved by the leaders under the general concern of the citizens. For a certain area of security issues, the typical case for pressure of public opinion to promote government security reform is environmental pollution control. On Feb. 28, 2015, an in-depth public interest documentary on air pollution, Under the Dome, produced by former CCTV host Chai Jing, was released on the Internet. In a short period of time, it triggered a wideranging discussion across the country. Voices calling for attention to environmental safety and reducing air pollution are echoing in major cities across the country. Shortly after, an air pollution campaign kicked off across the country initiated by the central government and participated fully by all major cities. So far, environmental governance has become an important content and indicator for the creation of sanitary and civilized cities across the country. Environmental safety has also become an important aspect to examine the leadership and management ability of cities. In addition, in many aspects of urban safety management, there are traces of public opinion pressure pushing government safety governance reform. For example, the community is dirty and disorderly and the sanitation is undesirable; the public security is poor and the crime rate is rising; the construction management is chaotic

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and the security risk is obvious; the road traffic management is weak and accidents happen frequently, etc. These problems are common in urban spaces, many of which are under the intense attention of surrounding citizens, and the local government is trying to find a way to coordinate the solution. Under the conditions of a new era in which the quality of citizens is generally rising, the media is highly developed, the construction of democracy and rule of law is becoming more and more perfect, and the channels of democratic participation are becoming more and more diversified, urban safety risk management relies on the strength of the general public to a large extent. It tries to grasp security risk issues from the public’s voice, proactively respond, adjust and reform, and constantly improve and enhance the system and capability of urban security risk prevention and control.

4.3 Structure and Optimization of Multiple Impetus The system of urban safety risk prevention and control is constantly optimized and perfected under the impetus of various forces, and the capability of urban security risk prevention and control is steadily improving. At the same time, we must see while various sources of motive forces play their role, their internal structure is not balanced and reasonable. Each kind of motive forces has intrinsic structural relations varying in strength and sequence. The resulting internal operation and consumption impacts and even determines the cost and development efficiency of the improvement of urban safety management capability.

4.3.1 The Internal Structure of Multiple Impetus In the multi-dynamic structure of urban risk prevention and control system construction, external sources of motive forces often need to act on internal forces in order to be translated into actual government action, and the strength of this kind of action has a close relationship with the strength of external dynamic influence as well as the conduction of internal forces. Judging from the motive force of construction within the government, pressure for administrative or political accountability from the top and inter-regional or inter-departmental competition within the government is a strong force to promote the construction of urban risk prevention and control system. Relatively speaking, neither campaign-style special rectification nor government officials’ sense of crisis is of a long-term and universal nature. Its driving effect is often phased or intermittent, and does not have a long-term sustainability. Besides, it often requires the triggering of other strong forces to produce or play a significant role, it is therefore less powerful than accountability pressures and internal competition. Of course, external sources of forces also vary in strength. Usually, the government pays more attention to major events and public opinion, because these two factors

4.3 Structure and Optimization of Multiple Impetus

Strong

Weak

103

Accountability pressure

Major events

Internal competition

Public pressure

Special rectification

International demonstration

Sense of crisis

Driven by external organizations

Internal

External

Fig. 4.3 Multi-dynamic structure and its internal conduction

have a significant effect on the construction of urban risk prevention and control system. The driving force of international demonstration and external organizations is relatively moderate, unable to achieve the immediate impact of major events and public opinion pressure, so their forces are relatively weak. From many real-life cases we can find that in the multi-dynamic structure composed of multiple forces where internal forces are strong while external forces are weak, the conduction presents a specific inherent law (Fig. 4.3). In urban safety management, the government undoubtedly plays a leading role. Through the policy resources and public financial resources at its disposal, the government can plan the infrastructure of the city, launch a major transformation of the existing face of the city, while for any form of organization other than government, these are simply unattainable abilities. It is because of this ability that the government has achieved the leading role in the construction and development of city safety risk prevention and control system. Thus, external forces must act or influence what is within the government in some way to reflect their existence by transforming them into internal ones. It turns out that the impact of a major event on the government is crucial. Whenever something serious happens, the chief high-level leaders of the government will personally make inquiries, which can work exceptionally well in hierarchical bureaucracies. This process has more complex internal motivation mechanisms, some officials try to claim credit while others try to avoid responsibility. This can be summed up as a kind of thinking of officials in general, that is, when a leader personally asked about this issue, it implies that he/she attached great importance to this issue. At some point in the future he/she may again personally ask about how it is progressing or being handled, so it needs to be done as soon as possible and as well as possible. This is a typical conduction process of the internal forces of the government. Related with and similar to this is the pressure of public opinion. Whenever a major event occurs, it will always attract public attention and generate public pressure. In other words, public opinion is always accompanied by certain events, while major events are the catalyst that can easily cause the effect of public opinion. In the face of strong public opinion, the government often responds positively, and related accountability actions are often triggered. Thus, the pressure for accountability within the government is transmitted down the hierarchy, eventually giving

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rise to a positive government response. It is precisely because of the importance attached to the pressure of public opinion that in the past when the media was not sufficiently developed, some local governments would want to “suppress” the news after a major event to avoid possible repercussions of drawing public attention. In contrast, although the international model and the promotion of external organizations can influence in various ways the importance attached to major events by certain departments or key officials within the government, on the whole, the impact of this kind of influence is in a weak position, the point is to rely on the government’s own needs. That is to say, such external conditions are optional, the government can “order dishes” according to actual needs, so it has great operational flexibility. Within the government there also exists the direction of force conduction. When external forces work, they often enter the high-level or decision-making level of the government first, forming accountability pressure. This is an important form of internal forces of the government. The byproduct of accountability pressure is often special rectification of specific problems. The aim is to solve the problem and at the same time make government officials build up a sense of crisis generally, in order to alert them and prevent similar events from happening again. The multiple Impetus of the construction of urban risk prevention and control system rely fully on the established government administrative system and traditional administrative culture. They work in different ways of combination at different times and to different degrees in the process of urban operation and development.

4.3.2 Practical Operation of Security Supply As a kind of city public goods, the quantity and quality of public security supply depends on the operation efficiency of government administration system to a large extent. At present, cities generally implement a governance structure of “Two levels of government, three levels of management and four levels of networks”. In the process of implementing the construction of the risk prevention and control system, the municipal government is mainly responsible for the relevant content of policymaking, favoring the decision-making level. The street (town) government is mainly responsible for the specific landing of relevant decisions made by the governments at the municipal and district levels. Through its own direct actions, as well as by organizing and mobilizing the organizational strength at the level of resident (village) committees, the street (town) government completes the tasks assigned by the municipal government. Although there is some room for autonomous decision-making at the street (town) level, more attention is paid to the specific implementation of policies from the upper level. The district (county) level government is relatively in between, there is a certain room for autonomous decision-making in the process of urban governance and at the same time, it must complete the task deployment of the municipal government departments. Whether it is decision-making at two levels of government or implementation at three levels of management, the most prominent feature in the weaving process of

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city safety risk prevention and control network is that it is full of pressure transmission characteristics of hierarchical layers. At present, the system of “Chief executive” taking overall responsibility is widely practiced in governments at all levels. Responsibilities are carried out thoroughly leaving no blind spots. Work tasks and pressure transmission are fulfilled through the layer-by-layer implementation model. The government at all levels can not shirk its responsibility if the responsibility falls on the core leadership, and will advance the task as a priority. For example, on Mar. 23, 2016, the General Office of the Communist Party of China and the State Council General Office issued Provisions on the Leader Responsibility System for the Sound implementation of Comprehensive Administration of Social Security, which clearly defined the sound implementation of the leader responsibility system for comprehensive management of public security. It proposed that we should hold “A few key people” accountable, strengthen the sense of responsibility, and carry out the leadership responsibility. We should scientifically apply measures such as assessment, supervision, assessment, encouragement and punishment to form correct guidance, the upper level holds the lower level accountable, so that leading groups and cadres at all levels can effectively shoulder the major political responsibility of maintaining the stability and ensuring the peace of the public, to guarantee the implementation of the decisions and arrangements made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council on the comprehensive management of public security. With regard to the provisions on liability, the leading comrades in charge of the Party and government in all localities are the first responsible person for the comprehensive administration of social security, and the comrades in charge of the comprehensive administration of public security are the persons directly responsible. Other members of the leading group shall be responsible for the comprehensive administration of public security within the scope of their respective responsibilities. Also, in Feb. 2019, General Office of the Communist Party of China and the State Council General Office issued Regulations on the Responsibility System of Local Party and Government Leaders for Food Safety, which put forward strengthening the responsibility of food safety territorial administration, improving the responsibility system for food safety work, and made clear that local Party committees and governments at all levels shall take overall responsibility for food safety work in their respective regions. The main person in charge is the first person responsible for food safety work in this region. The other members of the leading group shall be responsible for the food safety in their respective (including co-coordinating and contacting) industries or fields, adhere to the comprehensive application of assessment, reward, punishment and other measures, urge local Party and government leaders to fulfill their duties in food safety work, to ensure that the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on food safety are carried out. At present, from the central to the local level, almost every industry and field is involved in security issues. The responsibility system of territorial leaders has been strengthened and pressure has been transmitted level by level to promote the prevention and control of security risks. In the process, as the pressure is transmitted layer by layer, government departments and management levels at different layers

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dare not relax at all, but they are also trying to avoid possible risks in the process of decision-making and execution. In terms of the sense of pressure, due to the strengthening of local leadership responsibility and the layer-by-layer implementation, the feeling is strong at all levels of leadership. Also, as the pressure is transmitted layer by layer, in the grass-roots networks at street (town) and neighborhood (village) committees, people in the relevant leadership positions are particularly under pressure. “A thousand lines above but one needle below”, as the main body to promote the implementation of grassroots work, city street (town) and neighborhood (village) committee cadres are on the front line almost every day. Various “Key” and “Special” work tasks are passed down from all lines, and eventually onto a limited number of people on the ground. A large number of neighborhood committee cadres say they are under very great pressure of work. “In the middle of the night I heard the siren of an ambulance or a fire engine, and I jumped right out of bed running to the window to see if there was an accident in my precinct. For twenty-four hours a day, my nerves are in a state of high tension at all times.” These are the words of the secretary of a neighborhood committee. Many other neighborhood committee secretaries or directors have also expressed similar feelings. One director even sighed emotionally: “Somebody committed suicide because of mental problems. How can we prevent and manage this? But as long as it happens in your precinct, it’s your job anyways, and it won’t do if something goes wrong.” In terms of the implementation of security responsibilities, the city security risk prevention work transmits the responsibility and pressure clearly layer by layer. It falls very effectively on specific people at each level of management, only showing a unilateral mode of pressure transmission in the ways and means. To what extent can all levels continue to take on the ever-increasing pressure of security management tasks? And how to properly relieve or reduce the feeling of pressure? These questions have not yet attracted enough attention and in-depth study. As a result of the joint action of many forces, much of the work of urban safety management has also undergone task transfer and pressure release by governments and departments at all levels in a project-based manner. Due to the limited number and capability of its own personnel, the sum of the various tasks is often beyond the actual capacity of the government. To accomplish its tasks, the government usually relies on outside expertise. This has led to a tendency to pursue various objectives through various projects, and even triggered a vigorous “Project movement”.25 Projects in the area of urban safety governance generally fall into two categories. One is researchtype projects with the nature of strategic planning, the main objective is to provide the government with directional policy recommendations on security development. Sometimes it can also serve as a phased summary of successful experiences of government practice, which needs to have a relatively high theoretical standard, and can even help the government refine or sublimate the project, thus expanding the scope of publicity. As a result, such projects are often entrusted to university research 25 Qu, J. D. Project system: A new system of national governance [J]. Social Sciences in China, 2012 (5): 113–130, 207.

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institutes. The other is projects that need to be implemented through practice, and often need to rely on professional social organizations or commercial companies to complete, such as community security projects, programs for disadvantaged groups, etc. In the process of urban safety management, the number of projects at the district (county) and street (town) levels is relatively large. This is related to the various tasks that are ultimately transferred to the grass-roots level, and the limited number and capacity of people at the grass-roots level. Through the promotion of the project system, with the help of reasonable and compliant procedures, the task and some of the risks are shifted outside the government. It also ensures that the government has more energy for decision-making which is more closely linked to direction and strategy. Of course, in addition to the internal structural needs of the government, there are external forces at work in the promotion of the project system. The various parties involved in the project are also constantly “selling” themselves and “lobbying” the government to buy some new projects using various opportunities. While satisfying their own needs, they do help to a certain extent promote the perfection of the system network of urban safety risk prevention and control, and make up for any gaps or inadequacies that may exist in the government’s unilateral decision-making. Therefore, although the city government is in a leading position in the practice of building an urban safety risk prevention and control system, the real process of construction and development can not be completed without the effective participation and role of multiple external forces.

4.3.3 Structural Optimization of Multiple Impetus In the face of increasingly complex urban public safety issues, and in the context of a certain degree of failure on the part of the government, the market and the volunteers, no single subject can realize the optimization of urban public security governance. At the same time, the governance of urban public safety is not only to build a multisubject interactive network, but to make the network structure work in an orderly and smooth manner, giving full play to its synergy effect in urban security governance, and to realize the order and stability of network structure. In the past, we have focused on shaping the structure of the governance network. But that does not necessarily lead to the kind of synergy we expect. The network organization does not have the natural ability to produce the synergy effect, and network formation alone does not produce significant performance. It is necessary to build multi-agent cooperation mechanism, realize multi-agent interaction, and promote the goal synergy, information synergy, resource synergy and organization synergy of the main subject of governance on the basis of strengthening the coordination of the subjects of urban public security governance and shaping the network structure of urban public security governance.

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Strengthen the Subject’s Sense of Crisis

To promote the construction of urban risk prevention and control system, first of all, we must have a good sense of crisis. Consciousness and ideas guide action, individuals and organizations without crisis awareness can not be said to do a good job of crisis prevention. Good security governance must be based on a correct and full understanding of the crisis, and scientific knowledge of the crisis. Only with a strong sense of crisis can we better deal with sudden crises. Zuo Zhuan (Legend of Spring and Autumn Century by Zuo Qiuming) makes such a remark: “One should think of danger in times of peace. To think so can lead to preparation and preparation averts calamities.” in recent years, with the outbreak of “SARS” epidemic, Songhua River water pollution, Wenchuan earthquake and other public safety emergencies, people already feel that crises will appear around us at any time, posing a great threat to our lives. But their concern about the degree of emergencies, risk awareness, responsibility awareness, prevention awareness and other related security awareness has not been enhanced. China’s practice shows that at present, there is still a kind of subconsciousness among the public, enterprises and non-governmental organizations, that is, it is the job of the government and professionals to deal with emergencies. Therefore, their sense of crisis, awareness of risk prevention, knowledge and ability of self-help and mutual rescue, willingness to participate on their own accord, etc. are still relatively weak. On the whole, the general public’s ability to cope with various crises in the city is generally weak. This situation can be improved by strengthening public safety education. Public safety education can impart knowledge about emergencies to the public and increase public awareness of risks. If a person lacks knowledge related to emergency, he/she will not be aware of it when in danger. One’s behavior is controlled by the consciousness. If one can not form a correct perception of risks, it will be difficult to take effective action to avoid risks. Public safety education can improve one’s risk perception ability. Education can also enhance the critical judgment of the public. An emergency can easily lead to all kinds of rumors. We say, “Rumors end with the wise”, and the so-called “wise” is a social public who has received good public safety education and has certain discrimination ability. In the absence of relevant education, the public is easily misled by all kinds of rumor and information and resorts to all kinds of irrational actions. Take the “Salt rush” in 2011 as an example. With the explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan triggering the spread of “Nuclear leakage” fears, the “Salt rush” began in coastal cities such as Shaoxing, Ningbo and Fuzhou. Many people rushed to supermarkets to buy salt to prepare for the nuclear contamination in Japan. There are two rumors behind the “Salt rush”. One is eating iodized salt can protect against radiation, and the other is nuclear leakage pollutes sea salt. In fact, iodine has a protective effect against radiation, but the level of iodine in edible salt is very low, even if we eat a lot of salt, no significant protection can be achieved against radiation. In an emergency, only by taking iodine tablets can we achieve the proper radiation protection. But it must be taken under the supervision of a public health professional and a doctor. If necessary, the government will issue early warnings and guide the public to take

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iodine tablets. In addition, most of the edible salt on the Chinese market comes from lake salt, and there are very rich reserves of lake salt resources. Sea Salt, on the other hand, is mostly used in industry. Therefore, in the absence of relevant knowledge, the combination of rumors and panic set off a nationwide salt rush. Thus, we should strengthen public safety education and enhance the public’s ability to make scientific judgments and think rationally, which is an effective way to strengthen the coping ability of urban public security. Because of the frequent occurrence of major emergencies, we must carry out effective public safety education, to create a good cultural atmosphere in which “Everyone attaches importance to public safety”, to enhance public awareness of disaster prevention and mitigation and related skills, and to guide the public to observe order, cooperate with each other, behave in a civilized and comity manner and take care of the weak when an emergency occurs. Public safety education must be routinized and institutionalized. By staying persistent, we can then internalize the public security consciousness as a quality of Chinese nation. And we must insist on starting public safety education with children, in order to achieve the effect of “Educating a child, saving a family, influencing the whole society”.26

4.3.3.2

Mobilise and Develop Non-governmental Organizations

In accordance with the social management pattern of “Party Committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination and public participation” proposed by the Central Committee, effective governance of urban public safety should establish effective non-governmental organization mobilization mechanism, to mobilize nongovernmental organizations effectively. However, China has long been affected by the social pattern of “All-round government” and “Big government, small society”, people have got into the habit of resorting to the government for everything. For spontaneous organizations formed by their own power, there is a lack of motivation to actively participate in the response to urban emergencies. In the administration of urban public safety, except charity associations, Red Cross and other organizations which were established rather early and have fairly strong influence that participate more actively, other non-governmental organizations and the public participate rather little. There is a lack of non-governmental foundations that can mobilize a wide variety of social contributions, making it hard to fully cooperate with the government to deal with the public crisis.27 This situation, on one hand, has increased the pressure on the government to deal with emergencies; on the other hand, it restricts the public and social organizations to exert their power and role in public security governance. Mobilizing and developing non-governmental organizations are therefore critical.

26 Wang, Y. The model construction and path exploration of urban public security coordination governance [D]. Xuzhou: China University of Mining and Technology, 2017. 27 Zhou, X. W. Analysis of China’s public crisis management during the transition period [D]. Nanjing: Nanjing University, 2005.

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At present, non-governmental organizations are developing rapidly and on a large scale in the Western developed countries, to assume part of the functions of public services of the government. In the public sphere they have a benign interaction with the government, playing an irreplaceable role. But Chinese non-governmental organizations are relatively slow to develop, spending much of their time dependent on the government, their social autonomy is weak. Non-governmental organizations also have problems with self-management, such as internal management mechanism confusion, insufficient fund-raising capacity, weak service capacity and lack of credibility. The existence of these problems leads to low efficiency and poor problem-solving skills in non-governmental organizations, making it hard to play their proper role in the course of social development. Therefore, the government should enhance the ability of non-governmental organizations to participate in public security management, set up a non-governmental organization cultivation system to mobilize its members, and speed up the integration of non-governmental organizations into urban public safety governance and effective synergy. First, non-governmental organizations should be guided to develop ideas and values that serve society. Second, the ability of non-governmental organizations to raise funds should be enhanced, to provide non-governmental organizations with comprehensive services in terms of funding, equipment, information, legal, etc., and to facilitate the establishment of non-governmental organizations. Third, the emergency rescue capability of non-governmental organizations should be nurtured. Through emergency rescue training and emergency drills, we can enhance the professional response capability of non-governmental organizations in public safety governance, and pay attention to the training of key members and the introduction of outstanding professional personnel, to elevate team building and human resource management. Fourth, a platform should be built for communication and exchange between the public and non-governmental organizations to expand the social base of non-governmental organization development. We should promote the nature of public welfare of non-governmental organizations, encourage public participation in public welfare activities of non-governmental organizations, and enhance public awareness and trust in non-governmental organizations.

4.3.3.3

Improve the Accountability Mechanism of the Main Body

China’s accountability mechanism to promote urban risk prevention and control system is not yet perfect. Some studies point out that there are many problems in China’s administrative accountability system at present. The law is not sound, the main body is absent, the power and responsibility are not specified, the subject of accountability is single, the object of accountability is not clear, accountability becomes a passive ex post procedure, accountability system is imperfect and so on.28 Therefore, the accountability mechanism of urban public safety governance must be 28

Xiao, R. G. Review and reflection on the accountability system of government officials in China in recent years [J]. Research in political science, 2007(3): 61–69.

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improved so that the responsibility of the government in the management of urban public security can be put into practice. First, strengthen the performance evaluation of urban government public safety governance. To strengthen performance evaluation of urban government public safety governance is to make the performance system of urban government public security governance more standard and accurate. At present, China’s urban governments have not yet established a comprehensive system of public safety governance evaluation and judgment. Some countermeasure studies are difficult to evaluate and judge the nature and development trend of the event correctly. Therefore, we must establish a set of scientific government performance systems of public security governance. Through the establishment of an analysis model with various parameters, we can release the real and scientific evaluation index of urban public security governance to the decision-makers and the public.29 Second, improve the administrative accountability system. Administrative accountability system refers to the system of supervision and accountability on the government and its officials failing to perform properly or failing to perform at all legal duties within the scope of duties, affecting the efficiency of work, and infringing upon the rights and interests of its counterparts. Its essence is to regulate the power of the government and the behavior of officials, thereby fulfilling the goal that the government serves the public interest.30 One of the basic principles of administrative accountability is the equivalence of power and responsibility, that is, while the government and its officials have the power, they also have the corresponding responsibilities. The administrative responsibility is mainly implemented in the following ways: The judiciary strictly holds civil servants or the executive branch accountable; The Party committees at all levels shall be responsible for strictly investigating the leading responsibilities of the executive heads; The executive branch strictly holds civil servants accountable; The administrative counterpart strictly holds civil servants or the executive branch accountable. Among them, the administrative counterpart holding the subject of governance accountable is an important way to promote the Chinese government’s public security governance responsibility.31 At present, China places more emphasis on political accountability in the process of political and administrative accountability, while the administrative accountability needs further improvement. Third, advocate the system of blame-taking and resigning. To deal with the city government’s decision-making errors in public safety governance should be based on the loss caused by its fault to determine the responsibility to be borne by the subject. In addition to investigating the economic and legal responsibilities of those

29

Yang, X. Q. A study on the crisis management model of the Chinese government [D]. Dalian: Dalian University of Technology, 2007. 30 Liu, D. F. Countermeasures to the multidimensional problems of administrative accountability system in China [J]. Administration and Law, 2012 (6): 21–24. 31 Zou, T. T. A study on the construction of early-warning mechanism of government disaster crisis management [D]. Chongqing: Chongqing Normal University, 2011.

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who derelict duty in decision-making, we should also advocate a system of blametaking and resigning, to promote the construction of the administrative self-discipline mechanism whereby leaders of government departments shall take the responsibility on their own initiative when the decision of urban public security administration is wrong.

4.3.3.4

Strengthen the Consciousness and Ability of Citizen Participation

Restricted by traditional thinking, the idea of “Official standard” still exists within a certain range. Despite the strong participation enthusiasm, some people are unaware of their obligations and rights for lack of expertise or ability in this area, resulting in the actual situation of weak enthusiasm of the general public for participation and the lack of strength in the whole process of urban public safety administration at present. To achieve multi-agent coordination in urban public security governance, the priority is to raise public awareness and capacity for participation. First, the government should change the traditional management mode of issuing orders, strengthen interaction and contact with the people, and maintain a cooperative attitude to involve the general public in the whole work of public safety governance. Second, the government should strengthen the training and ability teaching of relevant knowledge, using a variety of exercises and training activities to enhance the public’s ability to participate in them. At the same time, it will focus efforts on promoting the further development of science, education, culture and health in China, to enhance the cultural literacy of the whole society, slowly awaken and train the masses to form a high sense of master spirit.32 Once the public has acquired the basic ideas and relevant capabilities to participate in the work of urban public safety administration, it can promote collaboration between the government and the public to deal with all kinds of public safety incidents together, maintain and consolidate the public safety of the whole city.

4.3.3.5

Enhance the Corporate Sense of Social Responsibility

Enterprises are one of the important subjects to promote the construction of urban risk prevention and control system, the social responsibility of enterprises has an important influence on the multi-agent interaction of urban public safety governance. Enterprises have huge economic strength, and many of them also produce emergency relief materials, have their own emergency management and rescue teams and equipment. In addition, enterprises have formidable innovation ability, their participation in urban public safety governance can increase the flexibility of governance. While creating profits and being responsible for the interests of shareholders, it is also 32

Wang, Y., Wang, Y.B. Urban emergency management model innovation based on the perspective of collaborative governance theory [J]. Theory and Modernization, 2016 (3): 121–125.

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necessary for enterprises to observe business ethics, ensure production safety and occupational health, protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers and save resources, etc., which are all signs of corporate social responsibility. Enterprises should assume social responsibility because their activities will have a great impact on the society in which they operate, and social development in turn also affects the success or failure of enterprises. By enhancing their sense of social responsibility, not only can enterprises ensure their own normal operation and improve their own reputation, but they can benefit the community in the area where the enterprises are located. The enhancement of corporate social responsibility can promote its maximum social benefits, and boost social harmony and stability. Socially responsible enterprises are better able to communicate with the government, assisting the government in public security governance, to achieve a benign cooperation with the government. Corporate social responsibility, in a sense, can provide spiritual support for their participation in urban public safety governance. Therefore, the government needs to guide enterprises to enhance their sense of social responsibility. First of all, strengthen the education of enterprises in fulfilling their social responsibilities. The government should educate enterprises to establish the value concept of benefiting the society, to guide the leaders of enterprises to strengthen the construction of social responsibility, to include social responsibility in the long-term development strategy of enterprises, and strive to live up to their own safety responsibilities in production activities. Secondly, the government should urge enterprises to increase investment in safety facilities and management, including the prevention of work safety accidents before the investment, capital investment in handling work safety accidents and learning investment after work safety accidents. This kind of investment is consistent with the long-term interests of enterprises, which can better prevent and handle unexpected public safety incidents, protect the life and property of enterprises and employees. Third, regulate corporate social responsibility and increase the cost of its breach of social responsibility. The government can formulate policies to guide enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities, for example, establishing green finance policy and green tax policy, introducing incentives for corporate social responsibility, rewarding enterprises that actively fulfill their social responsibilities, providing relevant preferential policies for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities such as charitable donations, evaluating regularly corporate social responsibility (CSR) and issuing it to the society.33 In addition, Corporate Social Responsibility Law or Corporate Social Responsibility Ordinance can be enacted stipulating enterprises’ salary standards, work environment, safety and security, and other investment ratios, so that corporate social responsibility can be enforced by law. At the same time, we must strictly enforce the law, severely punish enterprises that fail to fulfill their social responsibilities, to address the current problem of underenforcement of penalties. Finally, the government must promote active participation of the employees of enterprises in social services by means of publicity, training, etc., to enhance the sense of citizenship and social responsibility of employees, and 33

Cao, X. Q., Zhao, N. Analysis of power and responsibility mechanism of multi-participants in crisis management [J]. Chinese Public Administration, 2004 (7): 85–89.

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then promote the whole enterprise to fulfill the social responsibility awareness and ability.

4.3.3.6

Strengthen the Building of Information Platforms and the Like

The key of multi-agent interaction in urban public security governance is to obtain emergency information. Therefore, a good information platform plays an important role in the process of urban public security governance. After a long period of experience accumulation and research, the United States has built a relatively complete information platform system. Taking as an example the public health information platform system of the United States, there are more than 100 public health information platforms in the United States, mainly including the National Emergency Action Center, the National Hospital Infectious Disease Monitoring and Reporting System, Global Emerging Infectious Diseases Monitoring Network, etc. It is the cornerstone of decision-making and the formulation of concrete measures for the public health system in the United States, which provides an important basis for identifying public health problems and formulating specific actions and effect evaluation to prevent diseases. Taking Lushan earthquake in 2013 as another example, after the earthquake, the disaster information related to the earthquake was quickly spread on the network. Netizens published and disseminated disaster information through posts, microblogs, we Chat and other information platforms, to form a comprehensive report that is faster and more accurate than information published by government departments. Therefore, the construction of information platform system is an important influencing factor of multi-agent interaction in urban public security governance.34 Information is the link between organizations so that they can communicate with each other. The city public safety information platform helps to improve the channels and capabilities for communication and exchange of city public safety information. Urban public security management needs information from different regions, spaces, units and departments. The establishment of information sharing platforms can fully exchange data and realize the cooperative sharing of information, to provide effective support for urban public safety governance activities. When unexpected public safety incidents happen in the city, there is need for rapid release of information, organization of manpower and resources for rescue, and the support of other cities and non-governmental organizations if necessary. Only by quickly acquiring a large amount of reliable information can we make better emergency decisions, resource allocation and so on. The construction of information sharing platform includes the following aspects. First, incorporate the scope, process, subject and responsibility of sharing information into the corresponding legal norms; Develop relevant standards for the exchange of information on economic data; Design a standardized and unified database system to facilitate access to all units, set the relevant authority, and establish the relevant 34

Yu, Y. C. Communication mechanism in public crisis management in China [D]. Dalian: Dalian University of Technology, 2014.

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database update specifications. Second, collect all the security information from all the departments and units in the city. Through the establishment of urban public security governance platform, security information networking can be realized. On-site information can be quickly collected and emergency decisions quickly made when an emergency occurs. At the same time, information synergy can be achieved through the information channel and the subject of urban public security management. Third, strengthen the communication, exchange and coordination of safety work among the subjects of urban public safety administration. Successful communication and coordination is a guarantee of access to information and resources. It can be done by regular exchange, regular meeting, expert consultation, project cooperation, etc. 35 Now, driven by the Internet, Big data, Artificial Intelligence, etc., many cities have started the construction of urban Big data operation center and integrated management center for urban operation, in an attempt to explore how to improve the ability of urban security governance by building information sharing platform.

4.3.3.7

Supervision Mechanism

In recent years, the government has stepped up efforts to promote the power list and responsibility list construction. After clarifying the rights and responsibilities of the various departments of the city government, it is necessary to establish a corresponding supervision system of urban public security governance. This kind of supervision system includes the internal supervision system and external supervision system of the urban public security administration system. The implementation of the internal supervision system is as follows: To supervise the city government and its constituent departments through independent information feedback systems; to achieve mutual independence between the urban public safety information feedback system and urban public safety management system. The information feedback system forms an independent system from the top down. It is directly managed by the highest safety decision-making system of the city government and is not responsible to the leaders of other departments. It has no affiliation with other departments in terms of personnel and finance, and is only responsible to the highest security decision-making system. This kind of independent information feedback system facilitates the acquisition of specific information related to urban public safety incidents to facilitate internal supervision. The realization of external supervision system can be accomplished through the following three aspects. First, judicial oversight. By severe sanctions on dereliction of duty and illegal acts such as concealing the truth or evading responsibility in response to urban public safety incidents, judicial organs supervise all departments of the municipal government and their staff. However, the abstract administrative behavior of the current Chinese government is not included in the scope of acceptance of The Administrative Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China. As 35

Zhao, L. D. Intercity Network for Emergency Management and Response [M]. Beijing: Science Press, 2010.

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a result, citizens can not be brought to justice for all decisions that infringe on their legitimate rights and interests.36 When a public safety emergency occurs in a city, the city government’s decision-making mistakes often cost citizens more than usual. Therefore, the abstract administrative acts of the government in response to urban public safety incidents must be strictly examined to correct the mistakes and avoid losses. Second, media oversight. When a public safety incident occurs, the news media can release real information to the public at the first opportunity, promoting openness and transparency of information on government actions and public safety incidents, thereby playing a supervisory role in the government’s response to public security emergencies. Third, public oversight. Citizens are often at the first scene of public safety emergencies in cities, and are able to personally understand all the information about the occurrence and development of public safety incidents. When citizens discover that the city government has failed to remedy the incident, they will usually go beyond that level of city government and report the information to the next level of government. Therefore, we must deepen the communication between the government and citizens by strengthening the system of letters and visits, etc. to promote citizens’ supervision over the exercise of the government’s power to govern public security.37 In short, governments, enterprises, non-governmental organizations and citizens have different responsibilities in the construction of urban risk prevention and control system, and play their irreplaceable role. On the basis of resolving their own problems, they can strengthen communication and participation with each other, to unleash the synergy that a single agent can not achieve, and eventually realize the optimization of dynamic mechanism for the construction of urban risk prevention and control system.

36

Tang, J., Hou, Y. S. On the accountability of government decision-making [J]. Journal of Guangdong Administration College, 2003 (1):46–49. 37 Liu, X., Zhang, X.J. On the game and system choice of multi-participant in public crisis management [J]. Academic Forum, 2005 (3): 71–73.

Chapter 5

Effective Operation of Urban Risk Prevention and Control System

In the practice of urban safety risk prevention and control, there are two kinds of risk prevention and control models: One is the normal model of risk prevention and control used in most cases, the other is the operation model of abnormal risk management used under relatively special conditions. There are significant differences between the running scenarios of the two models; their participants, operating modes, cost consumption, output effect and so on show a completely different situation. With the increasing frequency of abnormal security risk management measures, and since there are many loopholes in the normal security risk management system, serious crisis events occur frequently. Theoretical and practical workers in modern urban management began to introduce some abnormal management elements into normal management work. Whether this transformation is a result of intentional or unintentional action, in terms of objective effects, the city has continuously strengthened the normal management and control of its security risk.

5.1 Normal Operation Model of Risk Prevention and Control in Cities 5.1.1 Understanding of Normality Normality is a relatively fixed or stable state of normal operation, a state of daily routine in city management operation. Both city managers and ordinary citizens regard this state as a daily pattern. Strictly speaking, normality is not a state of absolute stability. To some extent, it is a process of “Normalization”, the goal is to achieve optimal normal risk control. After the “SARS” epidemic in China in 2003, some scholars put forward the slogan of

© East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_5

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normalizing crisis management. Later, as the central government readjusted its institutions, the State Council established the Emergency Response Office, all Provinces and cities have followed up, thus achieving a professional normal organization responsible for security management in the administrative system. Although at this time the emergency response office at all levels is more of an emergency coordination function, and does not directly have the “real power” of emergency disposal, the emergence of this system has created a professional emergency management system for the first time in Chinese history. When the term “Risk Society” was proposed, Beck tried to explain the normal state of risk in which human beings live. Beck used the theory of Risk Society to explain the reality of the normalisation of public crises. He summed up the idea in very vivid language, “If the driving force of the social stratification can be summed up in one sentence–I’m hungry! Then the driving force of the risk society can be summed up in another phrase–I’m afraid!”1 At the same time, he pointed out, “The risk society is a disaster society, among which there is a danger that unusual conditions will become commonplace.”2 This is a description of the general state of affairs, and it shows that risk is everywhere, crisis could happen at any moment. Giddens also used his reflections on modernity to point out that while the industrial society has brought about modernization, it has also hidden huge risks. Evidently, this kind of risk is accompanied by the daily operation of industrialization, and also points to the normalization of risk. When the human environment teems with normalized risks, the corresponding normalisation of risk prevention and control has become a matter of course. It goes without saying that this understanding and adjustment of action in reality can not be achieved overnight. Instead, it is a process of gradual evolution. After the emergency response office was set up, centering around it, the state has gradually introduced and improved the normal emergency management system with “One case, three systems” as the core. In particular, the construction of emergency system and emergency rule of law has their own characteristics and inherent requirements to maintain relative long-term stability once built. But the emergency plan and the emergency mechanism are in the process of continuous adjustment and improvement. On the whole, the early city risk prevention and control system centered on emergency response was formally established step by step some time after the “SARS” epidemic.

5.1.2 Characteristics of Urban Normal Risk Prevention and Control System The normal risk prevention and control of a city is the risk prevention and control management that is completely integrated into the daily running process of the city. 1

Beck, Ulrich. Risk society: towards a new modernity [M]. London: Sage Publications, 1992. Beck, Ulrich. Risk society: towards a new modernity [M]. Trans. He, B. W. Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2004.

2

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As it has been incorporated into the daily administrative duties of the various departments of the city government, it is often not very significant in the real process of operation, put it another way, people have taken this kind of management as a “Daily rule”. For example, traffic management requires to “Stop at the red light, go at the green light”, which is a risk prevention and control measure. At important intersections, there is usually a police force (mostly auxiliary) to maintain order, and to regulate pedestrians or motor vehicles that violate the regulations. These are all normal phenomena in the process of urban operation. Such risk prevention and control measures are numerous, they have long been transformed into the daily work of various government departments, and become the management behavior that citizens take for granted. It is a normal risk prevention and control model that is internalized by the city. Generally speaking, we can describe the characteristics of urban normal risk prevention and control system from four aspects. First of all, the participants of urban normal risk prevention and control system have non-specific orientation but orient to all groups. The city’s normal risk prevention and control work covers all government departments, its relevant tasks are also incorporated into the daily work of various government departments. All departments play their respective roles in normal risk prevention and control in cities, this role constitutes a part of their daily work. The daily work of all government departments is contributing to the prevention and control of urban safety risks. As a direct illustration that the daily work of all government departments is contributing to the prevention and control of urban safety risks, we can find through the statutory duties of the functional departments of the government that the responsibilities of each department include some of the day-to-day responsibilities related to safety management. Table 5.1 summarizes the work responsibilities of major government departments in Shanghai before the establishment of The Ministry of Emergency Management, which lists the items in the statutory duties of each functional department that clearly correspond to the content of safety management in the absence of institutional reorganization. It can be found that all departments are more or less linked to the tasks of safety management in a certain area of the city, and these tasks belong to the normal work scope of the daily administration of each organization. Arguably, that city safety management can not be attained without the efforts of any single government department. As a large and complex system, the normal operation of the city needs to be divided into different areas for management. A sudden change in any element of the system could bring great trouble to the whole city int. Onlywhen all departments perform their respective functions according to their respective areas of responsibility and competence can the city maintain the normal situation of stable operation as a whole. Second, the city’s normal risk prevention and control system operates in a way that is integrated into the daily decentralized and autonomous management. The normal risk prevention and control of the city completely points to the daily work approval, supervision and emergency response within the scope of responsibility. The work of each department usually focuses on arranging and handling all the affairs within the scope of its responsibilities independently. Sometimes it is necessary to take on a line

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Table 5.1 Summary of safety management responsibilities of all government departments3 Name of the organization

Items in the Number of security responsibilities related to management safety management responsibilities

Total number of responsibilities

Office of Shanghai Municipal Emergency Management Committee

Core organization of safety management

–

–

Shanghai Municipal Core organization of Public Security Bureau safety management

–

–

Shanghai Fire Bureau

Core organization of safety management

–

–

Shanghai Civil Defense Office

Core organization of safety management

–

–

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Work Safety

Items 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

7

14

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization

Items 3, 14, 17

3

20

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and urban–rural development

Item 8

1

16

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transportation

Items 8, 10

2

14

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Education

Item17

1

19

Shanghai Municipal Item4 Bureau of Civil Affairs

1

18

Shanghai Municipal Committee of Agriculture

Items 10, 13

2

16

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Health

Items 3, 4, 5, 11

4

15

Shanghai Municipal Water Bureau

Items 5, 8, 11

3

15 (continued)

3

According to official websites of the government, the items of safety management correspond to the responsibilities of the corresponding departments as announced by the authorities.

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Table 5.1 (continued) Name of the organization

Items in the Number of security responsibilities related to management safety management responsibilities

Total number of responsibilities

Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration

Items 5, 6

2

11

East China Sea Branch Items 5, 7 of the State Oceanic Administration

2

10

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection

Items 7, 9, 14

3

16

Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration

Items 3, 7, 9, 10

4

12

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Tourism

Item4

1

13

Shanghai Municipal Office of Financial Services

Item12

1

13

Food Bureau of Item6 Shanghai Municipality

1

10

Shanghai Items 3, 4, 8 Meteorological Bureau

3

9

Shanghai Municipal Administration of Communications

Item4

1

6

Shanghai Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau

Items 2, 3

2

14

Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision

Items 2, 8

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task temporarily or periodically or complete the work assigned by the local government. These are all part of the routine work of various government departments. The so-called “fragmentation” of government departments is to emphasize the relative independence of government departments, serious cases could rise to the level of “independent action”. This is a common state of everyday urban risk management. The day-to-day work of government departments does not result in a long-term close collaboration. Just like the “Water control in Kowloon” often criticized by the media in the past, or the phenomenon of “A few policemen can’t keep an unlicensed vendor in check”, what is revealed is the decentralized multi-headed management situation in which multi-departments manage separately in the daily management of the city and effective synergy is hard to form in response to a difficult problem. And it is

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this set of urban administrative operation systems that maintains the normal management of urban safety risks. So it is not hard to understand why all kinds of major safety incidents are constantly occurring in normal city operations. The investigation results of incidents all show that there is a lack of normalized close coordination among government departments in their daily management, particularly regarding the prevention of major safety risks in cities, a set of stable and effective cooperation mechanisms is lacking. Third, the cost consumption of the urban normal risk prevention and control system is the low consumption mode of the basic normal operation. There is no additional consumption of personnel and material inputs due to the maintenance of a normal operation model, therefore, the operation process of the normal risk prevention and control system does not require significant additional cost consumption. As one of the most economical management models, the normal operation of urban risk prevention and control system is to rely on reasonable and effective institutional design, effectively decompose the task of risk prevention and control into the daily work, refine it to every management link, so as to maximize the prevention and mitigation of potential small risk points, and then avoid getting caught in the risk build-up that leads to serious risk losses. Whether it is the type of risk, the form, location or time of the outbreak, there are countless possibilities in the face of a large and complex city, any city government would like to reduce the possibility of such an outbreak to zero. The only way to achieve the above-mentioned goal is to give full play to the functions of various government departments to the highest level, the most cost-effective way to do this is to strengthen risk management in routine duties. Judging from the efforts made by governments at all levels since the 19th National Congress of the Party, this trend has become very obvious. This also shows that the government should increase the high output of public security through the low input designed by the normal system. Finally, the output effect of urban normal risk prevention and control system is relatively fuzzy and has implicit non-determinacy. Relative to a specific goal that needs to be accomplished, the city’s normal risk prevention and control work is a “race track” without an end. Every department has to work hard on this track every day, but its final effect is difficult to get a reasonable and accurate evaluation, because it is impossible to make accurate assumptions about risk events that do not occur. It is difficult to give a reasonable evaluation on how much effort a department has devoted to security risk prevention in its daily work in the absence of an effective test condition. Sometimes a risk is eliminated before it erupts thanks to the efforts involved, and sometimes a risk event does not happen since there is no risk-causing factor. As a result, it was not until some cities had an outbreak of major security incidents that it was discovered through the post-incident back-check mechanism that there have been serious loopholes in the daily safety risk management of many departments in the city, which are difficult to detect without a risk tipping point.

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5.1.3 Problems with Normal Operation Some problems have already been touched upon in the analysis of the operating characteristics of the city’s normal risk prevention and control system. The following will focus on the problems, which can be roughly divided into two parts: the process and the result.

5.1.3.1

Problems in the Process

Urban normal risk prevention and control is integrated into the daily work of various departments of the city government. This characteristic makes it difficult for the urban normal risk management process to receive effective attention and normal oversight. Small risks are exposed every day in the course of city operation, are these problems due to inadequate supervision by the responsible departments? Or have the relevant departments conducted serious reflection on them and made a good systematic response to achieve effective post-regulatory oversight of such issues? Apparently, when the incident is not significant enough to attract the great attention of higher-level governments, it will be difficult to motivate local governments to attach full importance to the incident, nor can they be prompted to make permanent and systematic repairs to the loopholes in the daily management. The prevention and control of city fire risk can well show the above-mentioned problems in the process. As we all know, fire risk is regarded as one of the most important safety threats in the city. Every year, the number of casualties and property losses caused by urban fires throughout the country has been maintained at a relatively high level. There are many causes of urban fires, including the production process, home life, sudden accidents, human intention, natural cause (such as thunder and lightning), and the principles of physics,4 etc. The corresponding government administrative departments include safety supervision, fire protection, industry and commerce, environmental protection, quality supervision and many other subjects. Although there are so many departments concerned with the prevention and control of urban fire safety risks, in fact, the situation of “More hands produce a stronger flame” has not been formed. The various departments have not established an effective normal coordination mechanism to discuss a systematic plan of fire prevention and control. Before the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, typical fire cases in the city included: the Global Financial Centre under construction in Shanghai caught fire on the afternoon of Aug. 14, 2007; North Annex of CCTV New Building in Beijing caught fire on the evening of Feb. 9, 2009; More than 100 student dormitories in China Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) burned down on the morning of Mar. 16, 2009; A fire broke out in the athletes’ village of Jinan National Games on Apr. 1, 2009; A fire broke out in the new China Science and Technology Museum building on the afternoon of Apr. 6, 2009. 4

For example, modern buildings use a lot of translucent, reflective materials, which, under certain special conditions, form a long-lasting mirror reflection or focusing effect, leading to a fire.

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The above-mentioned urban fire incidents sounded the alarm bell for the China 2010 World Expo. Therefore, during the World Expo, Shanghai took a superconventional urban fire prevention and control strategy to ensure no significant fire incidents occurred more than half a year. However, with the successful conclusion of the World Expo, the departments returned to the normal state of risk control. At this point, the fire incident at Tsinghua University during the maintenance period on Nov. 13, 2010 did not raise vigilance to the required level. Two days after the burning in Tsinghua University, the shocking “11·15” fire incident occurred on Jiaozhou Road in Shanghai, causing 58 deaths, 71 injuries, and a direct economic loss of 158 million yuan. There are many problems behind city fires, which are persistent and recurring, but have not been effectively eradicated. The reason lies in the fact that a strict and perfect system of prevention and control has not been formed in the normal management of cities. The departments have not always been as efficient and close as they should have been in enforcing the law independently and cooperating with each other. Without feeling the pressure, it is easy for departments to be in a state of relative slackness in their daily work, assuming that “It’s none of our business”. And “Outsiders” have a hard time getting to grips with the day-to-day behaviour of government departments, thus it is difficult to form effective external supervision. This state constitutes the most important problem in the operation of normal urban risk management system.

5.1.3.2

Problems in the Result

The good and bad effects of urban normal risk prevention and control can not be presented via a stable results evaluation system. Of course, we can not simply assume that cities do not pay enough attention to normal risk prevention and control. Whether it is in the division of work responsibilities, daily task deployment, or in the year-end summary report, we can always find relevant content that emphasizes safe and stable operation. This has long been a normal form of security management in government work. However, the existing results evaluation mechanism basically takes the absence of public crisis events as a sign that a department’s risk control has reached the standard. At the same time, the “veto” mechanism applied whenever there is a public safety problem has a certain “arbitrary” nature in reality. As long as no problem is exposed and no accident occurs, everyone is doing a good job. But as soon as a problem occurs, the one involved becomes a negative stereotype, and survey results would often uncover the problems that have long been linked together. In the course of contacts and exchanges with many government departments, it is not difficult to find that some department heads even have a “fluke” mentality, indicating whether they will meet an emergency all depends on “luck”. This is another way of showing that at present, there is a lack of a scientific and fair evaluation system for the normal safety risk management and control of the city. The management system of risk prevention and control process is not perfect, so that the measurement standard is a

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“one-size-fits-all”. These can not play a positive role in the normal risk prevention and control of the city. Currently, the response to negative outcomes is usually following up in a shortterm abnormal management and control mode. For example, after the explosion at the Xiangshui County Eco-chemical Park in Mar. 2019, Jiangsu Province carried out comprehensive safety inspection and severe rectification for chemical industrial parks and chemical enterprises. All chemical enterprises were required to stop work until after they passed the inspection. Many enterprises were forced to suspend work for more than three months. As the control standards were raised to a very high level, some enterprises were forced to stop work completely and move to another Province to find a new factory site. This has dealt a fatal blow to many enterprises. This type of handling characterised by lax supervision at ordinary times but mismanagement when things go wrong is a typical case that problems arise in the result. Prof. Chai Junyong, head of Shanghai Expert Group on emergency response to public safety incidents, pointed out at an important national conference that at present, there exists an irrational phenomenon in urban safety risk management that “Dayto-day work is done on a crash basis while crash work is done on a day-to-day basis” and “Everybody is held accountable when someone makes a mistake”. He cited a typical example that on Aug. 12, 2018, affected by the typhoon, “a sign fell down on East Nanjing Road in Shanghai’s Huangpu District, killing a man, and then the city authority announced all signs should be unified. In one district, the signs were all designed with white lettering on a black background. With yellow flowers planted on the roadside, it was said to look like a graveyard. Why is that? That is, ‘everybody is held accountable when someone makes a mistake’. City managers have no idea of the hidden dangers of city management.”5 Apart from Jiangsu and Shanghai, many cases can be found in other cities across the country where management values the result but dismisses the process, everything is oriented towards results and simply relying on results to make management judgments. This is a kind of external performance that ideological understanding is not yet mature and the ways and means are still simple in the city risk prevention and control management.

5.1.3.3

Causes

The causes of the above-mentioned problems can be explored from two aspects: One is the external system, the other is the internal ideological understanding.

5

At the annual meeting of China Committee of The Second China (Shenzhen) International Emergency Industry Forum and International Emergency Management Institute (TIEMS) in 2019, Professor Chai Junyong, former deputy secretary-general of Shanghai Municipal Government, distinguished Professor of National School of Administration, vice-chairman of the China Committee of the International Society for Emergency Management and Head of Shanghai Expert Group on emergency response to public safety incidents, delivered a keynote speech entitled “Questions of the age of urban risk management”.

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The Systems of Urban Normal Risk Prevention and Control Have Not Been Closely Woven and Effectively Implemented Modernized management relies on a set of mature and perfect systems. The global market economy can not function effectively without the construction of a series of international trade rules in a globalised system, like the rules of the World Trade Organization. The governance of a country and a city also needs to follow related institutional rules. The normal safety risk prevention and control is integrated into the daily management work of the city government which also needs to follow relevant systems. However, precisely because the existing system has not formed a rigid and effective binding mechanism for risk control in normal government governance, and under the current system of compartmentalization and division of departments, the ideal work state of full coverage (“Vertically all the way to the bottom and horizontally all the way to the edge”) is not easy to maintain in the daily work. Even in most cases, the phenomenon of departments operating on their own is more prominent. Based on the objective fact that external supervision of departments can only result in inefficiency or even ineffectiveness, the implementation of risk prevention and control work in each department under normal conditions is “too good to be true”. In the past round of actions of clarifying the lists of power and responsibilities by governments at all levels and government departments, uncertainty was reduced by “clarifying”. By relying on institutionalized measures, many government departments found it hard to “Kick the ball”. In this round of actions, many long-term fuzzy multi-sector “Intersection” or “Junction” zones have been delineated to some degree. But we must also see that the two lists of power and responsibilities are mostly for the commonest aspects of day-to-day public services and administration. Content on risk prevention and control is still very limited. The risk prevention and control system among departments has not been effectively institutionalized. At the same time, it should be recognized that the traditional boundary of liability and the boundary of risk liability are not the same concept, the boundaries of the two are not the same, The boundary of risk liability is obviously larger than the traditional boundary of responsibility corresponding to the enforcement of power. The boundary of risk liability should be the range of subsequent risks brought about by administrative acts of a government department. It often involves other departments, and even creates many problems for follow-up departments, forming the source factors of a risk. For example, according to the words of a former senior official of a municipality, the biggest difficulty in managing modern urban safety risks is that many problems were laid down 20 or even 30 years ago. It can be rightly claimed that “The risk is laid down in the planning stage, pops up during construction and gets exposed during operation.” For example, if the underramp of an elevated road is improperly designed, it may lead to traffic congestion of an area every day, to which traffic management departments can only respond passively every day. If a super high-rise building planning and design is approved, it could put a constant pressure on fire units in the area to come up with high-level rescues. Thus, the institutional problem of urban normal risk prevention and control is not limited to the design of a given urban form for risk management. It also includes the

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consideration of the institutional construction of multi-risk prevention and control within and between government departments, and connecting the past with the present and the future.

The Thinking of Managers Has Not yet Set the Issue of Day-To-Day Security Risks High on the Agenda At the same timeframe, people all tend to choose what they think is the most important thing to accomplish. This kind of thinking has also been brought into the work of the government and created to some extent the phenomenon of a “Rational economic man”. Whether managers can set the daily security risk prevention and control on a higher agenda in their thinking depends for one thing on its own quality structure. Government officials must have the knowledge and capacity structures relevant to normal risk management. Urban risk in risk society is characterized by its complexity of root causes and multiplicity of representation. If there is a lack of relevant knowledge background, there must be an information asymmetry between signals of risk and the awareness of government officials, so that the sensitivity of officials to risk can not be achieved. Government officials should have both relevant knowledge structure and the ability structure to “export” knowledge. These include: the ability to judge risks, focusing on the qualitative and source of risk; Decision-making capacity in face of risks, focusing on the innovation and choice in multi-risk response strategy; Execution capability in a risk scenario, focusing on the ability to resolve the dilemma of “Non-cooperation” game between different stakeholders. For another, it depends on the interest structure that managers are trapped in. The choice of risk perception and coping strategies of government officials is inevitably influenced by their own structure of interests. This interest structure can be divided into three major interest perspectives: The interest perspective of “public interest” maximization as a “public man”; the interest perspective of political promotion of loyalty to the organization and its superiors for the purpose of “system maintenance”; and the interest perspective of personal utility maximization as an “economic man”. Obviously, government officials’ perception of risk and choice of coping strategies must proceed from the above three interest perspectives. These perspectives of interests often exist at the same time and affect each other. The choices made by managers are often not entirely faithful to any single perspective. Most will highlight one side, but maximize the other sides simultaneously. In particular, any individual who exists as a member of an organization will be influenced by other individuals’ choice of interests within the organization. They are also influenced by their superiors, peers and subordinates. So, when an officer does something, the influences are very diverse. When the value preferences of risk management do not align with managers’ interest structure, it makes sense that they end up doing inefficient or even ineffective risk management.

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In reality, it is often because of problems in normal risk management and control that major crisis events occur. This in turn prompts all levels of government departments from top to bottom to take action, carry out extraordinary emergency management and control in response to the event, to facilitate the introduction of abnormal risk management which will be discussed next.

5.2 Urban Abnormal Risk Management and Control Model 5.2.1 Understanding of Abnormality The abnormal state is a concept opposite to the normal state. The abnormal state in the city safety management refers to the running state which is seldom seen in the daily risk prevention and control of the city. The abnormal risk prevention and control process still relies on the original set of administrative institutions and administrative systems, but takes on a special form which surpasses the conventional one in the operation mechanism. Through the analysis of past cases, it can be found that in addition to conventional control methods, there are two abnormal security risk management models. The first is the government’s strategy of action after a serious crisis event, such as a special inspection of the security risks of an industry. We can interpret the special inspection as a follow-up government action strategy to the major crisis events that occurred earlier. Of course, some scholars have directly divided emergency management into two types: normal and abnormal, considering that the former is a response to general disasters and public emergencies, the latter is a response to a catastrophe or major cross-border crisis with extremely low probability and catastrophic consequences. The normal emergency management adopts a system attached to the hierarchical structure of the government and characterized by classification and responsibility. Abnormal emergency management should launch the whole nation system with unified leadership and integrated coordination as a prominent feature.6 If the first model means risk management measures obviously involved in the process of emergency response to the crisis events that have already occurred, the second model is simply a pure risk-management exercise that precedes the actual crisis. In reality, this kind of cases included the security risk control during the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the risk management at the G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016, and the security risk control in Shanghai 2nd China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as “Expo”) in 2019, etc. This kind of abnormal risk management system has a clear phase characteristics. Their overall goals are very specific and are subdivided into each relevant department and even individual. At a certain point long before an event, the risk prevention and control system began to 6

Tong, X. Emergency management of both normal and abnormal state [J]. Journal of Guangzhou University, 2020 (2): 5–15.

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function formally, and continued until the end of the event to ensure stable operation. This extraordinary state of risk management will end then. It should be said that in recent years, there has been an obvious increase in the frequency of China’s use of such abnormal risk management methods. This is directly related to various factors such as the increase of unstable factors in the international environment, the increasing importance of China’s international status, as well as the rising level of China’s organizational and management capabilities.

5.2.2 Characteristics of Urban Abnormal Risk Prevention and Control System The application of urban abnormal risk management model is only considered for adoption when a very important activity is confirmed to be “foolproof”. Moreover, once this method is adopted, it will have a significant impact on the normal order of social operation. There are four main characteristics manifested in the running process of the system. First, the participants are carefully planned and designed, all relevant subjects are directly related to the achievement of the goal. The nature of activities determines that the participants are very different, and there are also big differences in the ways and means of participation. Among them, the principles government departments follow are intrinsically linked to the achievement of goals, to ensure a maximum all-inclusive participation. The social aspect, in contrast, will adopt the means of widespread absorption or intentional exclusion to carry on the control according to the need. For example, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo was an international open exhibition, in which more than two million volunteers were mobilized. They participated in various aspects of the work of social security and integrated services. From community aunts, college students, to international friends, their common goal was to assist China to host a world-famous expo. The G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016 was a high-end international summit which was of great significance to the world economy and the future of China. So politically, there was no room for error. Hence in order to ensure security during the summit, the evacuation and isolation of the community was carried out. On Aug. 16, 2016, Decision of the People’s Government of Hangzhou Municipality on the Temporary Closure of Certain Urban Areas was issued, stipulating that some areas, including most of the West Lake scenic area, shall be under closed management from Aug. 20 to Sep.6. And with the coordination of government departments, during the G20 Hangzhou Summit, Hangzhou residents could visit 55 scenic spots in Huangshan City for free.7 According to statistics, 220,000 people visited Huangshan City during the summit, of whom more than 170,000 were Hangzhou residents. It can be seen that in the process of urban 7

Yue, H. R. Free tours to 55 scenic spots in Huangshan City will be provided to Hangzhou citizens during the G20 Hangzhou Summit [EB/OL]. (2016-7-14) [2019-10-27]. http://news.sohu.com/201 60714/n459307336.shtml.

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abnormal risk management, exceptional abilities of dexterity and efficiency were demonstrated in terms of both the guidance and control of participants. Secondly, the operation mode is integrated into the efficient and orderly centralized management of specialized government agencies, everything goes according to plan. Although abnormal risk management and control is not necessarily a nationwide system, using a whole city’s power is very common. In order to complete the special task, it is usually “led” by core city government officials, with the full participation of all relevant government departments, to carry out efficient and orderly cooperation among government departments. All administrative tasks are fully incorporated into the plan, and implement rigorous internal performance reviews of targets. In preparation for the World Expo, Shanghai set up a special “Shanghai’s 600-day action city management headquarters to welcome the World Expo”. The headquarters were set up at both urban and district levels, the office responsible for the daily operation and management of the specific work was known as the “600 Office”. In the process of renovating the urban environment and safety for the World Expo, it performed a very important command and management function. Also, before China International Import Expo, relevant government departments, relevant enterprises and institutions, etc., all established professional security teams for the Expo, to ensure the smooth convening of the Expo as a top priority. Third, human, financial and material resources are expended “at all costs”. The entire management process is treated from a very high political standing, and security is the most important goal. During the period of abnormal security risk management in cities, the normal operation and order of society usually needs to be adjusted in order to cooperate with the management and control, such as temporary holidays, shutting down some factories, suspending schools, road restrictions, etc. The human and material resources invested in the relevant management and control also go far beyond the convention. Regular working hours such as “Nine to five” have also been disrupted. Having people on the job around the clock may become the “normal” regulatory requirement for this period. Usually this kind of control does not think too much about cost, because the high political goal determines that no conventional economic measure lever can match with it effectively. Finally, the resulting output is usually measured in a holistic, strategic, and longterm perspective. The state or the whole city is willing to pay a great price to ensure the smooth running of an activity. There is usually a profound consideration behind it. The short-term and local effects can not be simply used to evaluate its effectiveness. To take such abnormal risk control measures must have its own necessity from the political point of view. As a social group, it is usually difficult to make an effective and accurate evaluation from this aspect. And from other economic and social impacts, it is not a total “losing” business behind the big investment. We see that the site chosen for the Shanghai World Expo was both sides of the Huangpu River. This area originally was a cluster of old factories, old neighbourhoods and torndown communities, etc. If through normal urban planning, the time cost, capital input and “maintenance cost” in the process of relocation and reconstruction would be enormous. But under the abnormal demand, through a one-time investment planning

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transformation, the morphology of the above-mentioned area has undergone earthshaking changes in a short period of time. The area is now one of the most valuable investment areas in Shanghai.

5.2.3 Problems with Abnormal Control As an extraordinary control measure taken during a special period, usually it may interfere to some extent with the original normal operation of the social order in the corresponding time. Especially for cities with high population density and commercial systems, this may cause some disruption or economic impact due to abnormal control measures. First, the focus of work at the government level has shifted. Abnormal control measures usually require orders from the central government or the city’s top decision-making system for implementation. According to custom, governments at all levels under the hierarchical system often pay great attention to the directives of their superiors. When there is no significant change in the directives received, and it is all about routine work, the subordinates will maintain a normal working mode and work in a step-by-step manner. And when it comes to important activities, which the superiors pay special attention to, the subordinates tend to shift the focus of their work toward important activities during the execution process. It can be observed that in some of the past abnormal risk management actions, almost all government departments are doing their utmost to ensure that their activities are foolproof. Therefore, the normal management of the work has been somewhat affected. For example, when the routine spot check is turned into a special comprehensive investigation, what used to be lenient requirements are replaced by very strict standards. Some routine approval work may also be extended or even temporarily halted. The goal of this shift is to maximize the government’s commitment to abnormal risk management actions, so as to ensure the smooth completion of special tasks. Second, the normal pace of commerce and industry is disturbed. Abnormal control is often accompanied by temporary production control over certain production and processing industries, so that some industrial enterprises will suspend production temporarily. For example, in order to welcome visitors from home and abroad with the best air quality during the World Expo, Shanghai shut down 64 highly polluting production lines and 782 highly polluting enterprises in 2009, including Shanghai Cement Factory, Pudong Cement Factory, Shanghai Xiesteel Group, etc.8 Similarly, “APEC Blue” in 2014 was selected as one of the top ten popular science events of the year. Even in his Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation welcome dinner speech, President Xi Jinping used this buzzword coined by netizens themselves: “I hope and believe that, through hard work, ‘APEC Blue’ will be here to stay.” At that time, in order to ensure air quality during the APEC meeting, the Chinese government put 8

Shanghai shut down 700 major polluters this year to ensure air quality for the World Expo [EB/ OL]. (2010-1-22) [2019-10-27]. http://sh.sina.com.cn/news/s/20100122/0807130825.html.

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in place four right moves: Shutting down dust construction sites; Restricting oddand even-numbered license plates for alternate driving days, sealing 70% of buses; Closing down high-pollution factories; Jointly reducing emissions in Beijing-TianjinHebei and surrounding areas to prevent imported pollution. The APEC meeting was like a big test. Six Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) in North China jointly took measures to ensure good air quality in Beijing for 11 days during Nov. 1–12, only one day with light pollution.9 Obviously, this kind of super-conventional control is bound to have an impact on the operation of related enterprises. Finally, it affects the daily life of citizens. With the temporary suspension of production in areas such as industry and commerce, abnormal control also affects the normal work and rest of the public. An informal meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders was held in Beijing in November 2014, the State Council approved that, except the necessary jobs to ensure Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, state events, and city operations, etc., the Central and state organs, institutions and social organizations in Beijing, Beijing municipal organs, institutions and social organizations took a six-day holiday from Nov. 7–12.10 It was an unscheduled “long holiday”. An official in the editorial office of Xinhua News Agency exclaimed, “Even the state media, such as Xinhua, which first published the news, was just informed after receiving the message from relevant departments of the State Council.” At 16 p.m. on Oct. 9, Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily microblog client released the news of holiday at almost the same time. An analysis of data from Sina and Tencent Weibo shows that in just 30 min, the “Breaking news” was shared and commented on more than 20,000 times. The unexpected holiday also caught the citizens off guard. One citizen said, “I just spent the seven-day National Day holiday and am prepared for serious work. Well, now I’m back to the holiday mode.”11 Therefore, the impact of urban abnormal risk management on people’s daily life is significant. Given the clustering characteristics of cities in population, resources and other factors, the implementation of abnormal risk control measures will inevitably lead to huge cost consumption. However, if we look at it from a different perspective, there must be a decision-making process before a policy measure is adopted by the government. When several schemes are compared and the abnormal control measures are finally introduced, it proves that the balance of interests behind it should be tilted in this direction. Therefore, the benefits of the short-term special status should be greater than the inputs for the long-term development of the city, or for the country as a whole. 9

Can “APEC blue” become a lasting “Beijing Blue”? [EB/OL]. (2014-11-18) [2019-12-27]. http:// www.chinanews.com/gn/2014/1118/6789604.shtml. 10 Beijing will have a six-day holiday during the 2014 APEC meeting [EB/OL]. (2014-10-9) [201912-27]. http://finance.people.com.cn/money/n/2014/1009/c4287725798373.html. 11 Beijing will have a six-day holiday during APEC. Netizens from other places say they are envious and jealous [EB/OL]. (2014-10-10)[2019-12-27]. http://news.sina.com.cn/s/20141010/031030966 137.shtml.

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At the same time, if the city has adopted an unconventional strategy of action, it shows that normal risk control can not meet the ultra-high security requirements. Therefore, how to enhance the ability of normal risk management, so that abnormal risk management requirements can be achieved with lower input costs when needed, may well be an issue worth thinking about and studying carefully.

5.3 The Organized Use of Institutions and Technologies For modern cities, abnormal security risk management measures can only be used as an alternative to a particular situation. Under normal circumstances, a large city would have to manage its risks in a normal way. However, how to enhance the safety risk control effect in the normal operation management process of the city so as to prevent the occurrence of major security incidents has become an important direction of urban governance efforts. And to maximize the lessons learned from the abnormal security risk management model, transform and apply them to normal security risk management should be an important and effective way to improve the ability of city normal safety risk management. It is not difficult to find in the comparison between the normal and abnormal risk management modes that the biggest difference between abnormal control and normal control is the super-strong intervention of high-level administrative power, as well as the active mobilization and effective participation at the specific executive level of government departments. Besides, in terms of the inherent characteristics of the bureaucracy, the central government’s intense focus on a particular job is indeed an important condition for stimulating a positive response from lower-level officials. However, it is also necessary to ensure that normal operation becomes a dominant mode of urban operation in the daily operation of the city, and high-level governments are unlikely to focus their energies on one job or one or two cities for long. Hence, it is imperative to dig out the internal motive mechanism that is highly concerned by superiors and actively carried out by the grass-roots, and reasonably transform it into a control mechanism that can be used in daily life. As far as the internal mechanism of abnormal risk control is concerned, the responsibility mechanism is the core of it while information mechanism is an auxiliary means. On one hand, this can inspire decision makers to adjust the normal operation temporarily to the abnormal management and control mode. The driving force behind it must be to elevate the special situation to a certain political height, which has created a tremendous pressure for political responsibility. This pressure for accountability is transmitted from the top down through the administrative system, and is finally transformed into the responsibility of each department at all levels. This mechanism of responsibility is to mobilize the great attention of all people ideologically and fundamentally before it is externalized into strict organizational management and implementation. On the other hand, the information mechanism also provides an important foundation support for the efficient organization mobilization of abnormal management and control. The process of urban abnormal risk management goes

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through three main paths such as high-frequency internal work exchange meetings, daily rigorous “Zero reporting system” and high-profile publicity from outside, to ensure the timely, comprehensive and smooth communication of information. In the meantime, the phenomenon of “Isolated information islands” still looming in the normal work of various departments has been effectively eliminated, the control node of government information interaction can grasp the global information effectively, thereby ensuring timely and accurate decision-making. How to learn from and use the responsibility mechanism and information mechanism effectively in the normal management process? Since normal urban operation can not obtain some highly sensitive political background conditions, it is necessary to transform the responsibility mechanism and information mechanism under abnormal conditions into an operating mechanism that can be effectively maintained over a long period of time under normal conditions. In combination with China’s administrative system and cultural traditions, we can, on the basis of strengthening the system of daily supervision and accountability, achieve the goal of improving the city’s normal security risk management capacity by relying on the improvement of relevant systems and the introduction of relevant technology.

5.3.1 Strengthening the Responsibility System Construction with Accountability as Its Constraints The responsibility system construction must depend on the stable administrative system structure and clear division of responsibilities. After the latest round of government restructuring in 2018, the field of public security has developed a threepronged management structure: The Ministry of Emergency Management is in charge of natural disasters and accident disasters, the National Health Commission is in charge of public health matters, and Ministry of Public Security is in charge of social security matters. This is the normalized organizational structure of the government under the hierarchical management system. The above-mentioned structure extends down through the internal “strips” of the administrative system, represents internally in the “block” of the city government, and finally becomes the main body of department on which the city security risk prevention and control depends. After the establishment of the administrative structure, the construction of the relevant responsibility system can be promoted in an orderly manner on this basis. Recalling the responsibility system construction in the field of safety management in the past, if we start with the “SARS” epidemic in 2003, the practice of accountability in China has gone through more than a decade and made great progress, realizing the transformation from selected points to the entire field and from the abstract to the concrete. Particularly the issuing of Interim Provisions on the Accountability of Leading Cadres of the Party and Government by General Office of the Communist Party of China and the State Council General Office, and the subsequent introduction

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of a large number of accountability systems of local governments at all levels indicate that China’s responsibility system construction with accountability as a binding means has entered the track of normalizaiton and institutionalization. However, a number of problems have been exposed in the course of the implementation of the accountability system, for example, the standards of accountability need to be refined and the operability of the system need to be continuously strengthened. At the same time it must be soberly realized that local governments are not always “moral men” who take the initiative to take responsibility. More often than not, they are “economic men” who seek profit and avoid harm. The responsibility-evading behavior of local governments in emergencies shows an increasing trend.12 Security risk prevention management is a kind of pre-management, the effects of prevention often need to be revealed by the occurrence of the event. Therefore, if the risk does not translate into a specific event, no progress can be made towards accountability for preventive management. This requires strengthening the sense of responsibility in the exercise of power during the preventive management stage. The lack of responsibility consciousness is the deep-seated cause of many contradictions and problems in work. Strengthening the sense of responsibility is the basic requirement for improving the work style of administrative organs, and also a necessary means to enhance the image of the government. On the other hand, once sufficient evidence has been found, the system of accountability must also be put into practice, to avoid formalism and formalities. Only by continuously improving the responsibility system construction of urban safety risk management and strictly implementing and enforcing the accountability system at the same time, can we further strengthen the sense of responsibility of the administrative staff, so that they conscientiously perform their work duties, do a good job of security risk control, and tightly weave the security risk prevention and control network of the government work system.

5.3.2 Improving the System-Based Process Management and Control System In the normal process of work, a variety of interference factors will constantly appear, frequently interrupting managers’ attention to safety issues. Once there is a diversion, it is difficult to ensure that their attention will return afterwards to security risk issues. Therefore, it is required to design the necessary links of safety risk control as the necessary links of daily work by way of institution building, using the system construction as a tool to strengthen the normality of urban safety risk management. First of all, establish and improve urban safety risk assessment system. In his book World Risk Society, Beck made it clear that, “Artificially created uncertainty”

12

Wen, H. Analysis and countermeasures of local government’s evading responsibility behavior in emergency management [J]. Research in political science, 2013(6): 52–60.

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exposes a lack of state-government capacity to control risks”.13 It shows that there are a lot of uncertain risks in human social activities, while the current government’s governance capacity is not enough to form an absolute effective prevention of these risks. In order to effectively reduce the number of all kinds of unexpected public crisis events and mitigate their harm, it is necessary to use scientific methods and means in the light of the characteristics of emergencies, establish and improve the social risk assessment system, and reduce or eliminate all kinds of security risks from the source. To this end, we can further expand and establish urban safety risk assessment system on the basis of the risk assessment system of social stability of major projects which has been established by the state. This work mainly includes three aspects. First, promote the institutionalization of urban safety risk assessment. Relevant systems for urban safety risk assessment are to be formulated to specify responsibility subject, evaluation procedure and evaluation method, clarify evaluation conditions, evaluation content and application of evaluation results, and develop the best possible system to guide the present and the future for a certain period of time. Second, promote the standardization of risk assessment system. The content of the system must be specific, detailed, clear, complete and operable. Third, establish the daily working mechanism of security risk assessment system. Regular meetings on major safety risk assessment of cities will be held to deploy the evaluation work, determine the evaluation subject and the evaluation object, discuss the evaluation plan, and form the evaluation report. Secondly, strengthen the construction of normalized urban risk screening system. Regular screening of urban security risks is carried out reaching every corner of the city in a concrete way, and a full-coverage, no-dead-end risk screening is developed. To build this system, we can fully rely on the existing urban grid management architecture, and only need to incorporate the corresponding responsibility content into the existing grid in the system construction. The risk screening system needs to pay particular attention to two aspects: The first is the comprehensive collection and collation of risk intelligence information. The second is the insurance that the vertical and horizontal information communication is timely and smooth. Special attention needs to be paid to key risks common to cities. In the city security risk prevention and control work, the biggest influence variable is the human factor. Therefore, people should be paid more attention to in the design of urban risk screening system. Historical experience has proved that major security incidents occurred in many risk-free spots that had been just checked the day before. Therefore, we should strengthen the responsibility and restraint of the screening work itself, and prevent the work of the screeners from becoming a mere formality. In the meantime, we should also synthesize and aggregate information from various aspects, not only collecting data directly from safety supervision departments, but also obtaining data from a wider range of other government departments, and conduct effective security risk checks through scientific and comprehensive analyses. It should be said that in the past,

13

Beck, Ulrich. World Risk Society [M]. Trans. Wu, Y.Z., Sun, S.M. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2005.

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some problems in urban safety risks, such as land requisition and demolition, environmental pollution, arrears of wages for migrant workers, fund-raising fraud, etc., all needed to pass thorough and careful work before more accurate results could be obtained. In addition, the screening should remain flexible and diverse, insist on the combination of regular screening, surprise screening and centralized investigation. The subjects involved in the screening can also be diversified. In addition to the staff of government departments, it can also involve social groups, volunteers and other forces. Finally, establish the normal monitoring and early warning system for city safety risk. The core of the normalization of monitoring and early warning is to have a perfect monitoring and early warning system, including monitoring and early warning objectives, early warning indicators, assessment criteria, alert levels, as well as tools, procedures and methods for monitoring early warning. Institutionalization and normalization are important factors to promote normalization. Institutionalization is the basic guarantee of normalization while normalization is an important way to promote normalization. Promoting the normalization of monitoring and early warning includes five main points. The first is to strengthen the ranks of information workers. A multi-level network of information workers will be established covering all districts (counties), streets (towns) and resident (village) committees in the city, setting goals, clarifying responsibilities, and conducting risk information screening and collection. The second is to establish the regular working meeting system. Regular meetings will be held for information workers to collect information and input it into the system in time. The third is to establish a joint departmental meeting system. Regular multi-departmental joint working meetings will be held to effectively link horizontal and vertical departments. The fourth is to establish a risk information analysis and decision mechanism. The potential safety risks of cities will be analyzed and predicted by using the multivariate analysis method. The fifth is to establish a clear division of labor system and assessment mechanism. In short, through systematic institution-building, we can transform the “contingent individual decision-making” model that used to rely on leaders to make decisions to the “inevitable system stipulation” model depending on the conventional design of systems. We can transfer urban safety risk management to a normal mode of management and control established in an institutionalized way, truly carry out the prevention and control of urban security risks every day, every hour, and even every minute, to realize the normalization and long-term effect of urban safety risk management.

5.3.3 Building an Auxiliary Platform System with Technical Means as an Important Carrier Modern management pays more and more attention to the use of high-tech means to provide efficient support for management and decision-making. Especially in the face of the highly complex operation system of modern cities, to form an effective risk

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monitoring network, all kinds of scientific and technological tools must be arranged in different corners of the city. The most typical is the distribution of various cameras in the city. According to research by foreign professional institutions, eight of the world’s top 10 cities with the most street cameras per capita in 2019 were in China, the top five were all Chinese cities. Top of the list was Chongqing, there were about 2,600,000 cameras in the city, with an average of 168 cameras per 1000 people. Shenzhen ranked second with 1,900,000 cameras, with an average of 159 cameras per 1000 people. Shanghai ranked third, with an average of 113 cameras per 1000 people. Tianjin ranked fourth, with an average of 92 cameras per 1000 people. Jinan ranked fifth, with an average of 73 cameras per 1000 people. London ranked sixth, with an average of 68 cameras per 1000 people. Wuhan ranked seventh, with an average of 60 cameras per 1000 people. Guangzhou ranked eighth, with an average of 52 cameras per 1000 people. Beijing ranked ninth, with an average of 39 cameras per 1000 people. Atlanta ranked tenth, with an average of 15 cameras per 1000 people.14 Although the above figures are not absolutely reliable, they show from at least one aspect that all countries in the world attach great importance to installing video surveillance equipment in cities, and Chinese cities are far ahead of other countries. The input of scientific and technological tools can effectively assist the city government to carry out public safety governance. This is supported by another statistic. In 2017, a total of six million traffic violations, including traffic restrictions, speeding, lane pressure and illegal parking, were investigated and dealt with in the city of Shenzhen. In addition to the law enforcement by traffic police on the scene, more than a million other violations were captured and handled by the electronic police. And as the city continues to upgrade the performance of a large number of video terminals, more work will gradually be done by video terminals.15 An objective fact that must be admitted is that the speed of information construction in Chinese cities has been far ahead of the world. Walking through the streets of any city in the country, where there is a business stall, regardless of the size, and no matter whether it is a regular business shop or guerrilla hawkers running around, you can turn on your cell phone and make payment transactions by scanning QR codes. At the same time, the vehicles used to transport dangerous chemicals in the city have also been installed with GPS monitoring systems. On the big screen in the city traffic control center, you can see a lot of little red dots moving around on the electronic map. This is the brain that runs the entire city’s traffic. Any unusual behavior in the operation of a vehicle transporting dangerous chemicals can be captured in time in this electronic monitoring network, and the management department can arrange emergency disposal at the first time, greatly improving the efficiency of emergency response. 14

Which city has the most cameras on the street? The world’s top five are all in China [EB/ OL]. (201908-21) [2019-12-27]. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1642432992410950654&wfr= spider&for=pc. 15 Intelligent surveillance system: surveillance cameras help city traffic safety [EB/OL]. (2018-1113) [2019-12-27]. https://www.seiot.com.cn/detail/3947.htm.

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Advances in science and technology have made safety management a more convenient tool, which can increase efficiency and reduce risk, and push human capabilities to a great extent. During the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020, unmanned aerial vehicles were used in many areas, and could call out to passers-by improperly protected via a loudspeaker mounted on an aircraft, greatly increasing the efficiency in risk management. Connecting the city’s various scientific and technological means to form a vast network can cover the whole city in all directions, and form a platform system to assist manual work in city safety risk management. The construction of smart city under way in China is the practical exploration of this very idea. Smart city is a new mode and new concept of modern city operation and governance. Based on the complete network communication infrastructure, massive data resources, multi-domain business process integration and other information and digital construction, it is the inevitable stage of the development process of modern cities. By the end of Mar. 2017, a total of more than 500 cities in China including 95% of sub-Province-level cities and 83% of prefecture-level cities were explicitly proposing or building smart cities. With the development of Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, Big data and other technologies, smart city construction in China will gradually move towards the direction of data sharing, interconnectedness and ecological co-operation and win–win. Take Shanghai’s smart city construction as an example. Shanghai has taken the lead nationwide in formulating an action plan for smart city construction, continuously focusing on key projects such as information infrastructure, smart applications and smart landmarks, the aim is to build a ubiquitous, integrated, and intelligent smart city. In the area of public safety, Shanghai emphasizes providing more convenient, efficient and safe ways for urban people to pass through the city, paying attention to vehicle management, parking, traffic monitoring, public transport and other areas of intelligent landing. The framework of “One center, one platform, multi-system, multimodel, pan-perception, and pan-application” of Shanghai police has been basically completed, which has consolidated the intelligence security capability. Throughout the city the average time for 110 police to arrive on the scene was shortened by 20%, and the police response time was shortened by 35% on average. Shanghai smart community has also advanced along the two major directions of security construction and community services. By laying out the ICT infrastructure, it has built gradually the intelligent management and service system based on information and data analysis. Hangzhou is also making its efforts. The focus of Hangzhou’s efforts is to install a “brain” of wisdom in the city, turning the city’s “brain” into a digital governance infrastructure, and center on building capacity for smart transportation and smart security. Based on the urban “brain” center, Hangzhou had achieved the full coverage of intelligent traffic and intelligent security in the main urban area by the end of 2019. In terms of security, the city completed the construction of 500 smart safe residential areas in 2019, and will accomplish the construction of 1300 and 2500 smart security residential areas respectively in 2020 and 2021. Taking the smart community model of “8 + N” Xiaoshan District Xiangshu Garden as the reference standard for the construction of smart safe community, within the year after its system

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was completed, the overall police situation has dropped by 28%, and the situation of the public security police has dropped by 28.6%, compared with the same period last year. In the first half of 2018, there were zero criminal cases and no fires.16 Science and technology are the primary productive forces, this is very obvious in the field of urban security risk prevention and control. When technology and urban safety risk management are effectively integrated, the effect is beyond the reach of traditional manpower. If a human is inevitably negligent in the course of his work, a sophisticated urban “brain” can faithfully and tirelessly carry out the programs written by humans, working around the clock. With the continuous progress of technologies such as Big data, Artificial intelligence and 5G, more and more scientific and technological forces will be involved in urban security risk management. The effective organization and application of human intelligence will promote to a greater extent the continuous improvement of the ability to normalize the management and control of urban safety risks.

16

China’s smart city in 2019: Shanghai vs Hangzhou [EB/OL]. (2019-5-31) [2019-12-27]. https:// baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1635025676389175830&wfr=spider&for=pc.

Chapter 6

Grass-Roots Governance of Urban Risk Prevention and Control

Reform and opening-up have boosted China’s rapid economic development, and provided impetus for massive urbanization. At the same time, with the dissolution of traditional unit system, individuals in the society can choose job opportunities freely in the market competition, thus social mobility is activated thoroughly. The biggest problem caused by the dissolution of the unit system is that social security governance has lost its effective grip in a short period of time. Individuals no longer maintain a high unitary dependence on the unit, and the traditional dependence relation is broken. Individuals are surging like sand in the market tide, which has created a thorny problem for urban safety management. However, the government soon discovered in the course of its administration that communities can become an important grip of urban governance. As the basic unit of a city, communities have become an important hosting platform for various governance efforts. Any important policy to be fully implemented in a city will eventually have to be decomposed and implemented layer by layer to the grass-roots in different forms, so as to achieve a real sense of landing. To some extent, how well or how poorly a governance job is done depends fundamentally on the mobilization and participation of urban grass-roots forces. Therefore, the important foothold of city security risk prevention and control work must also be community-oriented to promote the grass-roots governance.

6.1 Source Prevention and Control and Grass-Roots Governance A large part of urban risk is caused by the rapid development of cities. With the continuous acceleration of urbanization, all kinds of complex social security incidents emerge one after another. Reform promotes the maturity of the market economy, whereas the accompanying acceleration of population mobility has also led to the gradual demise of the society of acquaintances formed in traditional communities. © East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_6

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The emotional bonds between people are weakening. In particular, the population density and mobility of first-tier cities presents a huge challenge to many aspects of urban governance. On one hand, population mobility has brought more social security risks, such as the intensification of cultural collision, multi-interest game, cold human relations. A variety of reasons have given rise to various security incidents. On the other hand, the relationship between neighborhood watch and mutual care in traditional society has weakened or even disappeared. This recessive resource of social security governance can hardly play a role in the society of strangers. The responsibility for public safety management inevitably falls almost entirely on the shoulders of the government. While the government is shouldering enormous responsibilities, it can not completely eliminate the hidden dangers of social security, as evidenced by the frequent social security incidents in recent years. Therefore, only relying on the relatively limited power of the government to carry out urban safety management is inevitably hard to come by, while it is of practical significance to tap into grass-roots forces and embed public participation in social public security management. To organize and strengthen grass-roots forces in urban public safety management, and cultivate the security consciousness of “All for one and one for all”, is also an effective way to reconstruct the society of acquaintances. The urban economy is highly concentrated, which leads to a higher level of infrastructure construction and information-based development. The social elements are relatively concentrated with various elements interweaving with each other forming an inextricable link, often a slight move in one part may affect the whole situation. The type and quantity of risk sources are numerous and dense. The urban security risk is characterised by high expansion and complexity, the potential damage as well as the economic and human losses would be even greater. The complexity of urban security threats and the post-crisis derivative threats call for the prevention and control of public security risks, especially the need to carry out prevention and control at the source, minimize possible security incidents with the fullest precautions, and mitigate the damage caused by security problems. And the prevention and control at the source point to the grass-roots level to a large extent. The screening of many complex and minor risk sources needs to rely on grass-roots forces. Hence grass-roots governance has become the inevitable requirement and path choice of urban public security risk prevention and control. In addition, the theory of disaster life cycle is an important guide for people to understand and manage disaster crisis, which views the disaster process as a periodic cycle, structures the evolution of disaster crises and management policies, and delineates the disaster management cycle model that is currently considered to be the most operational and widely used, namely “Disaster reduction–preparedness– response–recovery”. Among them, “Disaster reduction” refers to the prevention and reduction of various types of disaster crisis. The focus of the disaster reduction phase is to identify hazard sources and establish a series of management measures. During this period, it is necessary to confirm the existence of relevant hazard sources in combination with local characteristics, then to understand the possibility of risk and its potential impact through the risk communication mechanism, and put it on the policy agenda. While analyzing the objective risks, the importance of vulnerability

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analysis and assessment should also be noted, that is, the management systems, organizational capabilities, critical infrastructure, group disaster resilience, availability and accessibility of disaster resilience resources and other dimensions needed to respond to a local disaster crisis should be analyzed and evaluated, in order to have a clear grasp of the local disaster crisis response capacity. And these tasks can not be carried out concretely without the initiative and active participation of grass-roots forces. Capacity-building for advance disposal of disaster crises is critical, which needs to shift emergency management resources downwards and improve the organizational ability of grass-roots emergency management under the condition of moderate decentralization. The main body of advance disposal not only includes the grass-roots emergency departments of the government, but also all kinds of people at the accident site. The advance disposal mechanism should focus on capacity building of the first response group to the crisis. To this end, all kinds of publicity and education mechanisms concerning citizen safety education and self-help, the rescue ability and crisis leadership of grass-roots government emergency organizations should all be included in the scope of capacity-building for the advance disposal of disaster crises. Under the concept of mass prevention and control, while focusing on the important role of informal disaster relief capacity in the advance disposal process, we should strengthen the formulation and implementation of relevant supporting policies such as input, training and drills of grass-roots emergency management organizations. We must grasp the characteristics of the development of the real society and build a multi-emergency management mechanism. In the process of system design, considering the uneven capacity of social forces to participate in disaster crisis relief and recovery, we can establish it as an effective supplement to the government’s traditional rescue forces by constructing the cultivation mechanism. For social organizations to participate in rescue and recovery, the government must also build relevant social supervision channels. In view of the difference in the rescue and recovery capacity of social organizations, in order to form effective emergency management synergy, we need to communicate and plan in advance on information, resources, division of labor, and integrate all parties into the disaster crisis response.1 As Micheal Regester, a British expert on crisis management, argues, prevention is the best way to solve the crisis. In the book Organizational Crisis Management, Laurence Barton, an American scholar, also stresses repeatedly that organizing crisis management should adhere to prevention first, because prevention can nip the crisis in the cradle, thus mitigating the damage of the crisis. Compared with other stages in the crisis management process, public crisis prevention is an economical and simple method, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort. Successful

1

Tong, X., Tao, P. On the innovation of emergency management mechanism in China—based on the combined concept of source of governance, dynamic management and emergency treatment [J]. Jianghai Academic Journal, 2013 (2): 111–117.

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and effective public crisis management must be proactive rather than reactive.2 Preemptive prevention and disaster reduction is the inevitable way of urban public safety management. At present, China’s existing emergency management and risk prevention mechanism is still not perfect. There is still much room for improvement and progress in pre-emptive prevention and disaster reduction. First, the structural imbalance of urban public safety management mechanism. The status quo of “valuing emergency, neglecting prevention” still exists. Although “Prevention first” has become the basic concept of emergency management system construction in China, there is still a lack of sufficient attention in the relevant institutional and technical design levels, thus leading to the structural imbalance of the emergency management mechanism. The shift in the practice of modern risk management from economic rationality to risk rationality shows that in a high-risk society, we need to transform and reshape traditional risk management tools, identify, communicate and evaluate risks in a comprehensive manner to achieve a risk management framework. At present, risk management in China’s emergency management system is still not completely separated from the management of a single subject, top-down one-way operation and closed operation. It has not yet built a set of multi-agent, crisscrossing and open collaboration networks in order to realize the management mechanism of risk co-governance. Secondly, there is a capacity dilemma in the implementation of the pre-disposal mechanism in the place where the incident occurred, thus affecting the overall emergency response capacity. In practice, pre-disposal mechanisms tend to focus only on the communication function while lacking attention to crisis intervention, this is related to the lack of emergency handling capacity at the grass-roots level. Under a “Top-heavy” distribution model of emergency resources and capabilities, the construction of local emergency response capacity is seriously lagging behind. In the early stage of the crisis, local emergency management system is aware of various emergency needs, but is difficult to meet the rescue needs. The lack of local emergency response capacity has seriously affected the response and disposal of emergencies above a larger level. Thirdly, there is a lack of innovation in disaster relief mechanisms in a pluralistic society and a lack of integration with the features of real social development. With the advent of the network information age, social participation has taken on new characteristics of diversity, looseness and coupling. The traditional government-incharge is not suitable for the diversification of the main body of emergency response, and is difficult to identify and engage disaster volunteers and related organizations in a timely manner at the onset of a disaster crisis.3

2

Zhang, X.M. Research on public crisis prevention system based on vulnerability analysis [J]. Journal of Beijing Administrative College, 2013(4): 52–57. 3 Tong, X., Tao, P. On the innovation of emergency management mechanism in China–based on the combined concept of the source of governance, dynamic management and emergency treatment [J]. Jianghai Academic Journal, 2013 (2): 111–117.

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Fourthly, too much emphasis is placed on the professionalization and functionalization of management, that is, the line division of labor. Although it conforms to the basic principles of fine division of labor in modern organizations, it is also easy to form a line division and manage fragmentation, showing obvious inadequacies in dealing with the combined risks and disasters of large, especially mega-cities. Fifthly, top-level startup and vertical response of management. While this facilitates the coordination and integration of multiple resources, focus on crisis management for rapid recovery, it often neglects the different levels of prevention preparation. Furthermore, the blocking effect of information transmission may result in delayed response and delay the optimal time of disposal. In terms of both the cost and the performance, a shift from the late disposal type to the risk prevention and control type is the inevitable choice for the development of urban public safety management system.4 Thus, prevention and control from the source is still a long way to go. It is difficult to solve the problem effectively only by relying on the traditional government power. Therefore, the strengthening of grass-roots governance, integration of grass-roots forces and the mobilization of social participation constitutes a feasible and powerful path and method. Social public security belongs to non-exclusive public goods, and there is the possibility of “Hitchhiking”. Thus, the government also needs to take the lead in launching supply. However, there are also phenomena of bureaucratism, rigidity and conservatism, and even abuse of power in government institutions, which often lead to government failure in effectively solving problems. In serious cases it can also make the government itself a troublemaker. In trying to solve the problems, the government has gradually realized that grassroots communities are platforms that can be well developed and utilized. A lot of resources outside of the government can be found here, and can be very effective in carrying out risk prevention, early warning and first response. Therefore, the urban grass-roots security risk management model centering around the community governance has gradually become a way to explore for the government. The so-called grass-roots governance emphasizes the effective integration of multiple forces at the grass-roots level. The term “Governance” was proposed and promoted by the Council on Global Governance in 1995, while the theory of governance is based on the theories of Morten Olsen and Elinor Ostrom. Morten Olsen’s theory is generally seen as focusing on the “Plight of collective actions”. Elinor Ostrom used cases to show that collective actions are possible, rational actors can cooperate through negotiation and the establishment of mechanisms. The quintessence of Ostrom’s “Multi-center governance” is to construct a cooperative mechanism to disperse the benefits and risks effectively. She stressed that human rationality does not lie in self-interest, but in the ability to achieve cooperation. She has always believed that the grass-roots people have originality and the ability to 4

Rong, Z. Theoretical construction of urban safety risk prevention and control system: Based on the enlightenment of Shanghai World Expo [J]. Journal of Shanghai University (Social Sciences Edition), 2012, 29 (3): 116–128.

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govern themselves, attracting people to participate in public governance is more ideal than relying on the government to govern unilaterally. Based on Ostrom’s ideas, the first step in “Governance” is for the government to devolve power and authority. To paraphrase Oseberne Guèble, “The government should steer, not row”. The most influential theory of governance is “Good governance”, which is a process of maximizing public interest. It is a novel relationship between the state and civil society, and the best of both worlds. We can think of good governance as consisting of four main elements: The public is safeguarded, the law is respected; public institutions are effectively administrated; The responsible government is fully realized; The public is well-informed and politics transparent. In his introduction to Governance and Good Governance, Keping Yu wrote: “As a society, good governance is inseparable from government, but even more so from the public. From the point of view of a small community, it can be ruled without government, but it can not be ruled without public administration. Good governance depends on the voluntary cooperation of the public and their awareness and acceptance of authority. Without the active participation and cooperation of the public, there can be good politics at best, but not good governance. So the foundation of good governance is not so much in government or the state as in civil society.” The theory of governance and good governance tells us that neither government’s governance nor social governance is the best way to govern social public security. When dealing with public safety problems, the most effective response is for the government to fully mobilize the resources of the general public and civil society organizations, give full play to their advantages and jointly resist unexpected incidents, involve the public in the prevention and control of public security risks in an active and orderly manner, to realize the interaction between the government and the society, and promote the legitimacy, transparency, responsiveness and accountability of public security governance in China.5 In addition to the support of related theories, the important driving force to push the center of urban safety risk prevention and control downward towards the grassroots level needs the promotion of specific practice. The World Health Organization first introduced the concept of a “Safe community” at the First Accident and Injury Prevention Conference in 1989. A safe community must have a working network that includes the joint participation of the government, health services, volunteer organizations, businesses and individuals. The organizations in the network are in close contact and make full use of their resources to serve the community security. After the“9·11” incident, in order to deal with the threat of terrorism, the US government further promoted “Disaster prevention community”. And the key to building a “Disaster prevention community” is to establish community partnerships, which relies more on private disaster relief groups that are familiar with the environmental characteristics of their communities.6 The research and practice of safe communities 5

Wang, Y., Wang, Y.B. The model and strategy of public participation in social public security governance [J]. Research on urban development, 2015, 22 (2): 101–106. 6 Jin, L. Research on the construction mode and synthetical disaster reduction planning of Chinese safe communities [J]. Urban planning, 2006 (10):74–79.

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at home and abroad show that the construction of safe communities can effectively reduce the incidence of injury accidents in a certain period of time. The first country in the world to build a safe community is Sweden. Its pilot injury prevention program took effect in less than two and a half years of implementation. Within the community traffic injuries were down by 28%, home injuries were down by 27%, work accident injuries by 28%, and injuries to preschoolers by 45%. These injuries did not decrease over the same period in the neighbouring communities where no injury prevention programmes were in place. Five years after the implementation of an injury prevention project in five communities in the Fulan region of Sweden, the proportion of patients with injuries in the outpatient department of the hospital decreased by 23%, and the average number of patients hospitalized with injuries decreased by 7.2%. Following the implementation of the safe communities programme, Motala, Sweden saw a drop of 13% in the number of child injuries and 50% in the work accidents in five years. Two years after implementing the safe communities program in Vaerlander, Norway, there was a 29% reduction of injuries in two years. Eight years later it was down by 58%. After two years of building a safe community in Tuen Mun, China Hong Kong, home injuries were reduced by 18%, child injuries were reduced by 31%, social security cases were reduced by 30%, fires by 47% and traffic accidents by 32%. After a comprehensive analysis of safe communities around the world, the Center for Community Safety Promotion and Cooperation of WHO concluded that for communities that successfully develop safe communities, accidents and injuries can be reduced by 30–50%. A cost–benefit analysis of community injury prevention programs shows that considerable benefits can be obtained from less economic input. According to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), investment in injury prevention can yield several times or more than ten times of benefits. For example, for every dollar invested in a smoke alarm, there is a 69 dollar gain; For every dollar put into a protective helmet, there is a 29 dollar gain.7 From the point of view of social contradictions at the grass-roots level, China is still in an important period of social transformation. Various conflicts of interest are complicated, and these conflicts almost all started at the grass-roots level, which then escalate and expand. Conflicts and disputes at the grass-roots level need normal expression and rational solution, the interest game needs a proper way and fair environment. If conflicts and disputes continue at the grass-roots level and can not receive timely mediation, the public will have doubts about and dissatisfaction with the credibility of the government, the executive power exercised by the government can not be upheld. It will inevitably lead to tension between cadres and masses, and even shake the grass-roots regime.8 Therefore, strengthening grass-roots governance is also an important way to resolve social contradictions and prevent social risks. 7

Jin, L. A study on construction mode of safe community and comprehensive disaster reduction planning in China [J]. Urban Planning, 2006 (10):74–79. 8 Zhang, R.J. “Micro-governance”: an effective mechanism to prevent social contradictions at the grass-roots level from the source–based on a case study of “Micro-governance” in H community in Changshu City [J]. Theory and reform,2017 (4): 51–58.

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In addition, compared with the traditional “Management theory” and “Control theory”, modern administration emphasizes a new type of communication relationship, that is, the government and citizens should form a space for coexistence of interests in various ways and means, to achieve the goal of “win–win” through consultation and cooperation. Although under special circumstances the government may choose to adopt more extreme control methods, like the US government which took strong control measures over the society within a certain period of time after suffering a terrorist attack, the essence of “the theory of government by rule of law” lies in the pursuit of equality of the legal status between the government and the citizens, which demands that social forces other than the government be valued, the role of non-governmental organizations and citizen participation be effectively played, the principle of relying on the masses, mobilizing the masses, mass prevention and mass treatment and combining the efforts of the masses with those of the experts be adhered to, and an “Iron wall” be built to prevent and contain social security events by “equalizing the relationship between government and citizens”. This is the meaning of the “overall concept of national security”, which is people-oriented and combines public and private interests. It is also the fresh content and bright features that the “overall concept of national security” should possess in the new era.9 In Jul.2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China that we should strengthen the management of urban operation, enhance the security risk awareness and strengthen the governance at the source; We should strengthen the identification of urban and rural security risks, carry out a comprehensive survey of urban risk points and hazard sources, and prevent those unrecognizable, unthinkable, and uncontrolable problems from happening. In the report to the 19th National Congress of the Party, he also stressed that we should adhere to the overall concept of national security, enhance the national security awareness of the whole Party and the people, and promote the formation of a strong synergy of the whole society to safeguard national security. At the same time, he pointed out that a social governance pattern of co-construction, cogovernance and sharing should be created to strengthen the construction of community governance system, push the focus of social governance down to the grass-roots level, give full play to the role of social organizations to achieve the benign interaction between government governance, and social regulation and residents’ autonomy. He stressed that the most solid strength of the Party’s work is at the grass-roots level, the most prominent contradictions and problems in economic and social development and people’s livelihood are also at the grass-roots level. It is necessary to take grasping the grassroots and laying the foundation as a long-term and fundamental strategy. Through systematic observation, we can find that from the endogenous problems of urban development and their solutions, to the long-term exploration and precipitation of related theory and practice, and to the current central government’s important 9

Yang, H. K., Ma, X. The new vision of emergency rule of law under the overall concept of national security–from the perspective of social security events [J]. Research in the administrative law, 2014 (4): 121–130.

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strategic thinking and deployment of social governance, it has become an important guiding ideology and working path to emphasize source prevention and control and grass-roots governance in the city safety risk management.

6.2 Practical Value of Grass-Roots Governance The key to urban risk management is prevention and control at the source, while the effective implementation path of source prevention and control is good grassroots governance. There have been quite a number of grass-roots governance explorations and practices demonstrating the effectiveness of urban risk prevention and control, proving the important significance of the grass-roots governance for urban risk prevention and control, and providing valuable practical reference and model selection for the path of the institutionalized grass-roots governance.

6.2.1 Grass-Roots Practice in Normalized Risk Management There are numerous risks in the process of urban operation, which are ubiquitous and can happen at any time. Therefore, the prevention and control of urban operational risks should also be normalized, we must always be on the lookout for possible security problems. In the practice of grass-roots governance of the city’s normal risk prevention and control, “Maple Bridge Experience” is a typical case of success.

6.2.1.1

“Maple Bridge Experience” and Its Promotion

In the early 1960s, the cadres and the masses of Fengqiao Town, Zhuji County, Shaoxing City of Zhejiang Province created the “Maple Bridge Experience” featuring “mobilization and reliance on the masses, insistence that conflicts not be handed over but solved on the spot, to achieve the goal of arresting fewer people and maintaining good public security.” For this reason, in 1963, Comrade Mao Zedong personally instructed that this example be followed the country over and promoted after trials. “Maple Bridge Experience” thus became a well-known model in the national political and legal front. Since then, the “Maple Bridge Experience” has been continuously developed, forming a new “Maple Bridge Experience” with distinctive characteristics of the times featuring “The Party and government take action and rely on the masses to prevent disputes, resolve conflicts, maintain stability and promote development”, which has become a good example of upholding and implementing the Party’s mass line in the new era. In Nov.2003, Comrade Xi Jinping, who was then the Party Secretary of Zhejiang Province, clearly put forward at the meeting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong’s instructions of the “Maple Bridge Experience” that we

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should firmly establish the political awareness that “Development is the absolute principle and stability is the absolute task”, deeply cherish the “Maple Bridge Experience”, vigorously promote the “Maple Bridge Experience”, keep innovating the “Maple Bridge Experience” to safeguard social stability. In Oct.2013, Xi Jinping gave important instructions on adhering to and developing the “Maple Bridge Experience”, stressing that Party committees and governments at all levels should fully understand the great significance of the “Maple Bridge Experience”, carrying forward the fine style of work, adapting to the requirements of the times, innovating the working methods of the masses, ingeniously using rule of law thinking and methods to solve contradictions and problems concerning the immediate interests of the masses, uphold and developing the “Maple Bridge Experience”, and upholding and implementing the Party’s mass line. He pointed out that the cadres and the masses of Maple Bridge in Zhejiang Province created 50 years ago the “Maple Bridge Experience” of “Relying on the masses to resolve conflicts on the spot”, and gave it new connotation according to the changes in the situation, which has become a banner of the national political, legal and administrative front. The Party committees and governments at all levels in Zhejiang Province have attached great importance to the study and promotion of the “Maple Bridge Experience”, closely followed the main line of doing a good job of mass work and provided an important guarantee for economic and social development.10 In Jan. 2018, the central political and legal work conference called for summarizing and popularizing the “Maple Bridge Experience” in the new era, to upgrade the level of modernization of social governance at the grass-roots level in urban and rural areas. The conference requested that the “Maple Bridge Experience” of the new era be summarized and refined, pushing it to extend from promoting the construction of rural governance system to promoting the construction of urban and community governance system, to boost the formation of a new pattern of social governance featuring co-construction, co-governance and sharing, innovate new models of social governance at the grass-roots level in urban and rural areas, and build a new system of comprehensive prevention and control of the risks of social contradictions. In Mar.2019, The Government Work Report of the State Council stressed the need to strengthen and innovate social governance, to push the focus of social governance down to the grass-roots level and promote the “Maple Bridge Experience” to promote social harmony, and to build a new pattern of community governance in urban and rural areas. Public security organs across the country launched a campaign to create “Maple Bridge-style police station”, to enhance the improvement of the social governance mechanism, and to further the construction of a pattern of public security and public order of co-governance and sharing and the building of a higher level of peace and security in China. It is of great significance to defuse hidden risks, strengthen the grass-roots foundation, tighten the relationship between the police and the people, and consolidate political power at the grass-roots level.

10

Learn from “the Maple Bridge experience” [EB/OL]. (2018-8-22) [2020-1-21]. https://www.soh ucom/a/249478247_100014762.

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“Maple Bridge Experience” is rich in content. First of all, the use of mediation to resolve conflicts at the grass-roots level. Maple Bridge has set up the corresponding mediation organizations in the neighborhood committees and villages, and even in some key enterprises. In recent years, more than 1,000 civil disputes have been successfully settled, with a success rate of 97.2%, 80% of the disputes were settled at the village level. Second, helping ex-convicts. On the basis of a sound network of legal work, more than 200,000 yuan is spent on legal publicity and education every year, and for those who have ever committed illegal acts, Maple Bridge adheres to the principle of “No suppression but support, support not for a while but for a lifetime”. Of the 200-plus people who have been released from prison, the vast majority have been converted into self-supporting laborers. The conversion rate has reached 99.15%. Some have achieved prosperity, and some even joined the Party and become village cadres. Finally, the new management model for migrant workers. With the development of the economy, Maple Bridge Town has also introduced a new management model for migrant workers, to solve the problems of housing and school enrollment for migrant workers. Every year, the “Top 10 outstanding young people from outside” are evaluated and awarded the title of “Honorary Townsman” to mid-and senior-level talents. “Maple Bridge Experience” also has the traces of a social organization. According to statistics, there are 728 existing registered social organizations in Zhuji of Zhejiang Province, of which 46 existing town-level social organizations are in Maple Bridge Town, accounting for 6.3% of the whole city’s total number. If grass-roots groups such as security committees, night patrols, volunteer fire brigades in rural areas are included, that number will be even bigger. The scope of activities of social organizations involves social mediation, public welfare undertakings, people’s livelihood construction, environmental protection, etc. In general, Maple Bridge Town’s social organizations are divided into social organizations formed spontaneously and those established by external forces, the operational characteristics and comparative advantages of the two are different. First, the development of social organizations has taken shape, resulting in a number of influential social organizations such as “Red Maple volunteer police”, “Maple Bridge aunty” volunteer organizations, and the township leaders’ council. Among them, “Red Maple volunteer police” is an organization formed by public volunteers interested in building a safe Maple Bridge which mainly carries out legal publicity, security education, civil persuasion and other activities. “Maple Bridge aunty” volunteer organization is composed of a group of middle-aged women. They gathered together to give play to their strengths by mainly carrying out anti-gambling, anti-drug, neighborhood support, reconciliation, matchmaking, etc. The township leaders’ council has made use of Maple Bridge Town as a base for the continuation of township leaders’ culture in Zhuji City, to unite the force of township leaders and help the modernization of rural governance. The disadvantage of its development is that most social organizations are still driven from the top down, the tendency of administration is prominent, the social foundation is not firm, self-vitality is insufficient, self-planning and project operation ability is lacking.

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Secondly, the mediation-type social organization is the most important and most characteristic type among them. A number of mediation brands such as Lao Yang Mediation Center, Mediation Volunteer Association, and a team of gold-medal mediators have emerged. People’s mediation has achieved good results through the organic combination of administrative mediation and judicial mediation. The wise and able people of the township are mobilized to take part in people’s mediation. While these methods have achieved good results, they are also facing profound challenges. In the process of market-oriented reform, the traditional factors in rural society are gradually weakening, the sociocultural basis for “Reconciliation” through mediation is fading. At the same time, people’ mediation also faces the challenge of over-administration and insufficient specialization. Third, the participation of social organizations is combined with the participation of the people, but there has not been a good synergy between the two yet. In addition to the participation of social organizations, Maple Bridge Town carried out mass prevention and control by mobilizing and relying on the masses. The masses participate in the local social management as mediators, peace volunteers, comprehensive information officers, voluntary patrol members, etc. According to the survey, more than 10% of Maple Bridge’s population participated in local social management.11 The modern concept of governance emphasizes the joint participation and management of multiple subjects and the interaction between the government and society. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it was imperative to “strengthen the construction of the community governance system, push the focus of social governance down to the grass-roots, give full play to the role of social organizations, realize the healthy interaction between government governance, social regulation, and residents’ autonomy.” And one of the core connotations of the “Maple Bridge Experience” is to mobilize and rely on the masses. Mobilizing all social forces to participate in co-governance is a grass-roots governance model of multi-subject co-governance. Although the “Maple Bridge Experience” originated in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, its governance concept, mode, mechanism, technology and means have commonality. There is an active team of nearly 600 volunteers for peace and mutual aid in the district under the jurisdiction of Huale police station of Yuexiu branch of Guangzhou Public Security Bureau. This team’s name is “Huale Uncle & Aunty”, it is an effective grasp for Huale police station to innovate social governance. Since 2015, Huale police station has begun to explore a new model of “Peace building + Volunteers” for mass prevention and control, and in 2017 the group of peace and mutual aid volunteers made up of retired Party members and other groups was named “Huale Uncle & Aunty”, building a comprehensive governance model of co-construction, co-governance and sharing featuring “Patrol spot support service + Neighborhood mutual assistance and mutual exchange support service + Volunteer service by Huale people”. The Public Security Bureau in Baoshan, Yunnan Province has been deepening its efforts in creating a “Maple Bridge-style police station”, 11

Zhao, T. The participation of social organizations in “Maple Bridge Experience” [J]. China Social Organization, 2019 (7): 53.

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integrating grass-roots units, mass participation in social governance, exploring and launching a new model of social governance of “Party building at the grass-roots level + Community policing + N” to promote “great peace” with “small innovation”. Dongxing branch of Neijiang Public Security Bureau of Sichuan Province has actively explored grass-roots social governance models combining self-government, rule of law and rule of virtue, expanded new ways to resolve conflicts and disputes, and effectively resolved potential risks at the outset. They successively organized the police to go into the frontline and visit thousands of enterprises and farmers, to coordinate the solution of major difficulties at the grass-roots level. In accordance with the principles of “Territorial administration”, “The one in charge is responsible” and “Graded administration, centralized administration”, Dongxing branch coordinates the Party committee governments and village community organizations around the enterprises, gradually forming a pattern of conflict and dispute resolution where departments work in tandem to achieve common management. It has vigorously promoted the integration of community policing and grid management, and implemented a grid police work pattern of “One village, one police system” and “1 + 2 + 2 + N” (one civilian police officer, two auxiliary police officers, two grid officers, and more than one patrol officer), realizing “People and things are all handled in the grid”.12 Thus, “Maple Bridge Experience” as an effective model of grass-roots governance has important practical value and real popularization significance. It has outstanding effect on risk prevention and control and public safety management. In the process of promotion and inheritance, “Maple Bridge Experience” has also seen a lot of extension, development and innovation. There have derived from the “Maple Bridge Experience” in the countryside the “Maple bridge Experience” in the urban community, the “Maple Bridge Experience” in the sea and Online “Maple Bridge Experience”, it has expanded rom the field of social security to the economic, political, cultural, social, ecological and other fields. With the development of social economy, in order to comply with the needs of social governance and the trend of scientific and technological development, “Maple Bridge Experience” in the new era needs to further enrich its connotation, work hard to build a new system of good governance at the grass-roots level, taking forecasting, early warning and prevention as the fundamental task, and trying hard to create a new model of security risk prevention and control. The development of information technology has greatly changed the mode of production and life of human beings. New challenges and new requirements are put forward to social governance, which also provides more convenient and effective technical means. It is the inevitable requirement of innovating grass-roots governance to enrich and develop “Maple Bridge Experience” with the help of Internet and other information technology. In Jan.2018, the central political and legal work 12

Local public security organs adhere to and develop “Maple Bridge Experience” in the new era with rich fruits [EB/OL]. (2019 7 15)[2020 1 21]. https://article. xuexi.cn/articles/index.html?art_ id=18076192377228445981&study_style_id=feeds_ default&showmenu=false&source=share&share_to=wx_single.

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conference stressed the need to summarize and promote the online “Maple Bridge Experience”, promoting social sentiment and public opinion to be understood on the Internet, contradictions and disputes to be resolved on the Internet and positive energy to be aggregated on the Internet, exerting efforts to transfer social governance from one-way management to two-way interaction, offline to online and offline integration, pure department supervision to social coordination. To innovate and develop the “Maple Bridge Experience”, we should make full use of the information platform, and pool the opinions, suggestions and wisdom of the masses. At the same time, we should give full play to the advantages of high efficiency, intelligence and convenience of information technology, to realize the inter-departmental information connectivity, resource integration and sharing, work coordination and linkage. It needs to be pointed out that the Internet, Big data, and so on are just a means and a method to innovate grass-roots social governance. With the help of information technology such as the Internet to promote the “Maple Bridge Experience” innovation and development, we must serve the work of people, mobilize the masses, social organizations and other parties to really participate in it.13

6.2.1.2

Multi-practice of Grass-Roots Safety Prevention and Control

Community Policing and “Neighborhood Watch” Community Policing is the core of the fourth Western Policing Revolution, which refers to an interactive process that exists between the police and the community. The police take the community as the basic point of their work and participate in the community life, whereas community citizens take part in the work of public security through certain means.14 Among them, “Neighborhood watch” is one of the important content of Western Community Policing model. It means a way of crime prevention in which residents form informal organizations on a voluntary basis to help each other and join efforts to prevent crimes in order to improve public security. For example, the core idea of the neighborhood watch program in Britain is that neighbors understand each other, look out for each other, monitor and report suspects, become the “Eyes” and “Ears” of the police. Its neighbourhood watch system is based on the establishment of a local liaison officer, the residents of the community appoint representatives to coordinate the work of the liaison officers and the residents. They hold regular meetings, compile neighborhood newspapers, post neighborhood watch billboards, set up neighborhood watch signs and propagandize neighborhood watch system.15 After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in order to strengthen 13

The variance and invariance of “Maple Bridge experience” in the past 55 years [EB/OL]. (201811-16) [2020-2-21]. https://www.henandaily.cn/content/xxi/lxyz/2018/1116/132849.html. 14 Xiong, Y.X. A comparison of community policing between China and foreign countries [J]. Journal of Chinese People’s Public Security University (Social Sciences Edition), 1999 (1):3–5. 15 Liu, X.M. Theory and practice of crime prevention in Britain since 1990s [J]. Crime Research 2009 (6):74–78, 80.

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crime prevention, the Public Security Bureau guided communities, rural areas and other places to establish a joint security system. It fully mobilizes and relies on the masses to select qualified personnel from among the masses to form a joint defense team for public security, which can be seen as a neighborhood watch system with Chinese characteristics.16

The “Blue Vest” Project of Yongzhou’s Public Security Organs Yongzhou’s public security authorities have called on taxi and bus drivers to actively participate in the management of public safety, setting up “Blue Vest” volunteers’ wechat group, and fully tapping their enthusiasm in participating in safety management by organizing events such as “taking snapshots and reporting in time”, giving full play to the unique advantages of taxi and bus drivers in their occupation such as large mobility and wide range of contacts. On one hand, relevant policies and regulationscan be publicized; on the other hand, social conditions and public opinions can be understood in a timely manner, people and things that affect the stability of public order can be detected, thus effectively assisting the Public Security Bureau to strengthen the prevention and control of public order risks.

“The Chaoyang Masses” “The Chaoyang Masses” refers to the enthusiastic citizens of Chaoyang District who are actively involved in the prevention and control of public security risks. They have been involved in cracking a number of major cases, such as celebrity drug abuse. The official Weibo account of the Beijing Police, “Peaceful Beijing”, once made this remark of the “Chaoyang Masses”: “The Chaoyang Masses are mysterious, for the police protect the privacy of the informant, so don’t bother getting to the bottom of it. The Chaoyang Masses are lovely, for they abhor evil as a deadly foe and have sharp ears and eyes. The police can not do its work without their support and cooperation. Whether it is case clue collection or traffic, fire protection, security risks investigation, everyone can act as The Chaoyang Masses.” It can be seen from “Everyone can act as The Chaoyang Masses” that the mysterious “Chaoyang Masses” are actually a group of mass prevention and control teams composed of the general public. The target group is non-specific and vague; they may be roadside vendors, neighborhood security guards, or retired uncles and aunts from the community. The reason why “The Chaoyang Masses” have fresh vitality and wide-ranging influence is precisely that they are based on the grass-roots integrating broad and powerful grass-roots forces.

16

Zheng, R.Z. Analysis of neighborhood watch system in victim prevention [J]. Journal of Jiangxi Public Security College, 2008 (5):43-45.

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“Xicheng Dama” Similar to “The Chaoyang Masses”, “Xicheng Dama” is a mass prevention and control team in Xicheng District of Beijing. More than 70% of the members are old women between 58 and 65, affectionately known as “Xicheng Dama”. The number is approaching 100,000. Most of them are real-name registered public order volunteers. The rest include some parking officers, patrol officers, unit security guards in the community, assistants of shops with street frontage, and even housekeepers, In the Walnut Garden Community of Guangei Street, Xicheng District alone, there are more than 70 shopkeepers, big and small, who have been developed as part of the volunteer community. They wear red armbands and take part in the management of public safety in their daily life and work. The assistants of street-facing shops can look after the business and keep an eye on the neighborhood looking out for suspicious people simultaneously. The location of the street-facing shops determines the high mobility of the population. The participation of street-facing shop assistants in public safety management is the embodiment of their public spirit, and a guarantee for their own safety. At the same time, a considerable part of the assistants in these street-facing shops belong to the floating population. Admitting them as public security providers is beneficial to strengthening the management and service of the floating population. There are also quite a number of people who use their spare time to participate in the practice of safety management. Such grass-roots forces boast a large number and a wide social influence. Take retired residents in the community for example. They have more free time and generally live longer in the community. Being familiar with the community situation, they can be more acute in detecting the abnormal situation in the community. In the meantime, retired residents generally have rich social experience, their ability to deal with various situations is also relatively strong.

“Haidian Netizens” The Haidian District government has created an interactive platform for “Haidian Netizens” with six columns: clues to report, wonderful moments, netizens talk, wonderful activities, Xiaowei talk and the personal center. Netizens can use the platform to provide Haidian District Police with real-time crime clues. Haidian District is clustered with universities and colleges, and in previous year’s statistics, the number of students in nearly 60 colleges and universities accounts for more than half of the total number of students in the city. Besides, there are white-collar workers connected to the Internet in Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park and Haidian New District Science and Technology Innovation Center. Haidian District has arguably the largest number of Internet users in the city. Internet users in Haidian District are also very active; they can post texts, photos or videos to report suspected illegal clues online and communicate with the police in real time through related platforms. The above grass-roots security risk prevention and control forces are only a microcosm or representative of the grass-roots security management team in many Chinese cities. They come from the grass-roots level, the vast majority of participants

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have voluntarily participated in urban public safety governance. Through grass-roots governments or other forms of effective organization, they form a special force to safeguard urban security.

6.2.2 Grass-Roots Security Prevention and Control in Abnormal Management In addition to the normal day-to-day prevention and control of urban grass-roots risks, in some special time nodes and the process of events, targeted means and methods need to be used for the possible occurrence of urban security risks. For example, during large-scale events such as the Olympic Games and the World Expo, the risks of urban operation rise exponentially, greatly increasing the pressure on the safe operation of the city. The importance and difficulty of risk prevention and control and grass-roots governance also increase. This requires the use of abnormal control measures. Among them the practice of risk prevention and control at the grass-roots level during the Shanghai World Expo is especially noticeable. The Shanghai World Expo is the first registered World Expo held in a developing country. With 190 countries and 56 international organizations participating in the exhibition, it is the World Expo boasting the largest number of exhibitors and participants. The modern international metropolis has provided many conveniences and important supports for the World Expo, but also poses a number of major security challenges. The Shanghai World Expo has the following four characteristics. First of all, long duration and heavy traffic. The Shanghai World Expo lasted 184 days, attendances exceeded 73 million, daily averages exceeded 400,000 and extreme peaks exceeded 1.03 million. If the security time starting 15 days earlier and ending 15 days later is added, the “wartime” state of security management of the entire Expo lasted a total of 214 days. It is the longest-running, most-attended world event since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Second, high standards and heavy security. There were national pavilion day activities and more than 100 celebration performances in the Expo Park every day, foreign and Chinese dignitaries, such as heads of state, government officials and art and sports stars, came in droves. The security department had at most 68 guard assignments in one day. Third, overall impact and large control surface. The 5.28 km2 Expo site straddles both sides of the Huangpu River. Located in the center of the city, the terrain is rather complex. On one hand, the Expo’s large passenger flow brought unprecedented pressure to the city’s public and rail transport, exerting an important impact on transportation hubs such as aviation, trains and ferries, increasing the amount of reception and pressure on accommodation, tourism, health, catering and other aspects, and adding to the difficulty of urban public safety management. On the other hand, the success of

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the World Expo also demanded a safe, peaceful and orderly social and cultural environment, the active cooperation of all citizens and the overall prevention and control of all aspects of society. This undoubtedly required a broad social mobilization. Fourth, serious threat from hostile forces and separatism at home and abroad. The scope of Expo security management was not limited to the Expo site, but involved the entire administrative territorial entity of Shanghai. To effectively ensure public safety in this area, emergency management alone was not enough. It was necessary to take preventive measures from the angle of risk prevention and control.17 It is worth noting that for large-scale public events such as the World Expo, safety and security work is not only the responsibility of the local grass-roots government or a certain government department, rather, its risk prevention and control work needs the linkage and cooperation of larger scope and more departments. The safety management of large-scale public events such as the World Expo often involves a wide range of areas and domains. Relying solely on the power of the government is difficult to do everything without mistakes. Risk prevention and control and maintenance of public security work also needs the participation of multiple subjects as well as the strength of the masses and social organizations. Moreover, public participation in risk prevention and control and public security governance is both a right and an obligation, relevant laws and regulations in China provide for this. In large public events, the public also has the obligation to actively cooperate and assist government departments in maintaining public safety. The competent authorities of the government shall, in accordance with the law, install security inspection or preventive facilities, identify and eliminate potential safety hazards, check up and handle safety incidents. To prevent the occurrence of safety hazards, the public may be required to cooperate or assist in accordance with the law, and the public shall actively cooperate or assist in accordance with the law.18 In the practice of safety management and risk prevention and control of the Shanghai World Expo, the practice of grass-roots governance with the participation of multiple subjects is especially noticeable. The Shanghai governments at all levels carried out adequate organization and mobilization work for the World Expo. From the city to the district (county) streets and towns, they adhered to the “Strip and block-combined, block-based” principle, fully deploying and responsibly positioning health, fire protection, engineering, social order and other tasks during the Expo. Shanghai also urged governments at all levels to attach great importance to urban safety work by means of target responsibility system, government performance

17

Rong, Z. The construction of urban public safety management system from the perspective of risk prevention and control–An empirical analysis based on Shanghai World Expo [J]. Theory Monthly, 2012 (4): 147–151. 18 Ye, B. F. The fulfillment of government’s duty of maintaining public safety in large-scale public activities [J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Sciences (philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2008 (2): 5–12.

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appraisal and the like, to resolve social conflicts at the source and prevent and control social security risks.19 Before the World Expo, Office of Shanghai Public Security Committee, in accordance with the working principle of “Combining the efforts of professionals and the masses, leading the masses by the professionals, prevention and control by the masses”, carried out the recruitment, organization and management of Shanghai Ping An volunteers in a step-by-step manner. According to statistics, over 800,000 Ping An volunteers were recruited throughout the city, forming a working pattern of “Government promotion, multi-Party participation, collective brainstorming and joint management”. It seems that these volunteers tended to focus on simple, concrete details in the community, such as fire prevention and theft prevention, social security, neighborhood watch and mutual help. But in fact, not only could the community volunteers discover hidden dangers of community safety in time, they could also build a “big net” of safe cities, to provide grass-roots guarantee for the social “safety and peace” during the World Expo, which was an important force in public safety management at the social level. The voluntary organization was mainly organized by the government, participated by the citizens and combining the professional and non-professional. Just like the “Ping An volunteers” team at the World Expo, these voluntary organizations could participate in the popularization and education of emergency management knowledge in the whole society, responsible for daily social affairs management, social prevention and control, information communication and emergency rescue missions. They could also undertake emergency handling tasks with a certain degree of professionalism, such as the volunteer team participated in by community doctors.20 In the fire protection of the World Expo, in order to be able to detect and eliminate fire hazards in a timely manner, and keep the risk at the source, Shanghai stressed that governments at all levels “have a responsibility to guard the land and do their utmost to guard the land”, each responsible for its areas. The district and county governments took the lead in organizing relevant departments, grass-roots organizations such as streets and towns, as well as neighborhood (village) committees, conducting a “Full coverage” fire safety census for all units in the city, especially places with large crowds, inflammable and explosive units, high-rise buildings, underground space, “villages in the city” and other key sites and key targets. Social units signed the fire safety responsibility letter one by one, specified fire safety obligations, responsibilities and penalties for violations of the law to social units, implemented fire safety prevention and control by the masses, and focused on solving all weak links, to make sure that everything was foolproof and infallible. While concentrating on publicizing and implementing The Shanghai Municipal Fire Protection Regulations, 19

Rong, Z. The construction of urban public safety management system from the perspective of risk prevention and control–An empirical analysis based on the Shanghai World Expo [J]. Theory Monthly, 2012 (4): 147–151. 20 Rong, Z. Theoretical construction of urban safety risk prevention and control system–based on the Enlightenment of the Shanghai World Expo [J]. Journal of Shanghai University (Social Sciences Edition), 2012, 29 (3): 116–128.

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it extensively publicized fire safety, emergency rescue and other knowledge, mobilized the whole society to take an active part in the activities of “Hosting a safe Expo”, so that the line of defense against major fires began at the Expo site, extended widely to key fire safety units, communities, enterprises, schools and rural areas, fully building a “Seamless coverage” network of social fire safety prevention and control. For major potential fire hazards, the governments of all districts and counties made sure that implementation were carried out at all levels, fire control management and hidden trouble rectification work reaching all corners.21 Although the World Expo was held in Shanghai, its work on safety and risk prevention and control was not limited to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other surrounding provinces and cities were also ready to launch a series of security work. The Public Security Bureau of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, was fully aware of the difficult task of ensuring the security of the World Expo. It believed that only by having full confidence in the masses, mobilizing them, organizing them, relying on them and working with them to prevent and control risks, could the line of defense of the “Moat” be firmly built, the law and order in Jiaxing be maintained. On the eve of the security operation of the World Expo, Jiaxing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held a grand ceremony of “The moat around Shanghai”–the 10,000-person pledge meeting on World Expo security work, mobilizing all sectors of the society to work together closely on the Expo security work. In the form of city and county linkage, they organized and carried out “10,000 patrols to ensure safety”, “10,000 volunteers to protect the World Expo”, “10,000 spots inspected to control hidden dangers”, “10,000 employees to welcome the World Expo”, “10,000 families to promote harmony” and other activities. The Public Security Bureau of Jiaxing cooperated with the comprehensive administration departments and the Communist Youth League committee, etc. to recruit over 200,000 Ping An World Expo volunteers from all over the city. Jiashan and Pinghu counties also mobilized government cadres, reserve militia, public security activists and other forces of mass prevention and control, conducted a 24-h rotating watch on 47 unnamed crossings into Shanghai, assisted in vehicle inspection, personnel examination, provision of convenience services, elimination of hidden dangers, etc., to build a strong line of defense to maintain local security and stability with the enormous strength of mass prevention and control.22 On the whole, the practical value of grass-roots prevention and control of urban security risks lies in breaking through the single-force management model of traditional government, pushing the focus of management down to the urban grassroots community, and fully mobilizing and organizing multiple social forces as the common subject of urban security risk prevention and control. What has been realized is the multi-subject co-governance in the sense of holistic governance. Although 21

Shen, J. Let the World Expo be a fine piece of work: Shanghai concentrates the whole city’s efforts to do a good job in fire fighting during the World Expo [J]. Orient Fire Protection,2010 (5): 1–2. Orient Fire Protection. 22 Liang, Q. The enlightenment of World Expo security to the development of modern police work [J]. Journal of Public Security (Journal of Zhejiang Police College), 2010 (6): 10–12.

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in practice it still embodies the leading role of the government, from the point of view of the best driving force of social resources integration, the government also has a natural leading advantage. One of the key issues is not who will lead; on the issue of urban public safety governance, all subjects of urban space have the common interest of pursuing safety. Therefore, the one who will promote this work to better achieve the goal of urban safety will take the center stage. Other forces should surround it and form a community of interests. Years of practical experience and results at the grass-roots level prove that it is undoubtedly right to shift the focus to the grass-roots level in the path selection of urban security risk prevention and control.

Chapter 7

A Future-Oriented Prevention and Control System of Urban Safety Risks

Looking back over the past thousands of years, the risks urban development has faced have changed from simple to complex and from single to multiple. The growing expansion of the city and complexity of its operation continue to magnify the vulnerability of the city. Today, the world has long become an indivisible organic whole, in which the city plays a key role of connection and cohesion. As globalization continues to deepen, the prevention and control of urban security risks also need strategic thinking orienting towards the future.

7.1 Regional Urban Security Risk and Governance According to Washington-based Foreign Policy, China’s urbanization is advancing at an unprecedented pace. It is 100 times the size and 10 times the speed of Britain, one of the world’s first urbanised countries. The process of rapid urbanization is characterized by regionalization, while urban agglomerations have become the typical form of regionalization of urban development. In the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the central economic work conference and the national urbanization work conference successively held in 2013, new urbanization has been established as an important strategic goal.1 “Regional integration” and “Urban agglomerations” are the main forms of urbanization development in China today. From Plan for Urban Agglomerations in the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone in 1995, to Outline of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Plan deliberated and adopted by Politburo of the Communist Party of China in 2015, and to Development Plan for the Yangtze River Delta

1

Li, M. Collaborative governance: A new model of urban trans-regional crisis governance—a case study of the Yangtze River Delta [J]. The contemporary world andsocialism, 2014(4):117–124. © East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2_7

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Urban Agglomerations issued by The National Development and Reform Commission in 2016, the central government is taking steps to gradually promote coordinated development of urban agglomerations across the country. The Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have now formed the three most representative regions, other urban agglomerations under construction are Shandong Peninsula, Central Plain, Haixi, Chengyu, south-central Liaoning, Harbin-Changchun, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, Wuhan and Guanzhong. On one hand, the construction of an regional economy cannot be separated from the safe and stable urban environment. The construction of a regional urban security risk prevention and control system is to seek the possibility of multi-city coordinated development and co-construction under the model of “Urban agglomerations” in security issues. On the other hand, integrated development planning means frequent and close regional exchanges. This will further complicate traditional crises. The region and the impact of crises reach beyond a single administrative region. Because of the complex nature of the crises, the subject of governance crosses over a single functional department, only cross-regional and cross-functional collaboration can bring about effective governance.2 This poses a new challenge to the prevention and control of urban security risks. In summary, urban development has evolved from the independent construction of a single city to the coordinated development of urban clusters, while urban safety risk prevention and control is quickening its steps from the independent development of a single city towards the collaborative co-construction of urban agglomerations.

7.1.1 Risk Types and Characteristics of Regional Cities Regional urban security risks which occur in a certain area and go beyond a single administrative territorial entity require multi-regional co-operation in the governance of public security risks. Starting from their own research interest, a number of scholars have put forward such terms as urban agglomerations risk, trans-boundary (regional) crisis, trans-regional emergency disaster risk, etc. to illustrate this urban risk. Recent years have seen many regional public safety incidents, among which the typical cases related to China can be divided into two types. One is domestic transregional crisis. For example, the strike of southern severe rain, snow and freezing rain disaster in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone in 2008, the major outbreak of Dengue fever, a transmissible disease in the Pearl River Delta in 2014, the outbreak and spread of hand-foot-mouth disease in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in 2008, and the strike of smog in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region causing serious air pollution in Feb. 2014 were some major cases. The other is crises that cross national boundaries. For example, in 2005 water pollution in Songhua River was caused by an explosion at

2

Wang, G., Jiang, W. Cross-border crisis and the innovation of its governance structure [J]. Academic Forum, 2014(4):21–24.

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a diphenyl plant of Jilin Petrochemical Company, China National Petroleum Corporation, Ltd. Along Songhua River, the pollution belt crossed over the Provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang before entering the Russian territory. In 2011, an earthquake in Japan triggered the leakage of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, causing panic to the surrounding countries. And in 2020, Covid-19 spread globally, forcing many cities in the world to “shut down”. Regional urban development is distinctive from the traditional single urban development model, its uniqueness lies mainly in the high concentration and deep connection of regional population and economy, the complex natural environment, including various types of terrain, climate, drainage area, etc. The social environment shaped by regional ties is even more complex. There are strong spatial and functional linkages and complementarities between key infrastructure systems, and there are differences in the level of development within the region. Compared with traditional urban safety risks, regional urban safety risks often have a broader impact, are more difficult to respond to, and suffer from higher disaster loss. In general, they have three key features. First, the regionalization of risks. Some risks cover a very broad area, which will go beyond a city and directly affect a local region, or even the entire country or the world. The most typical cases are various kinds of large-scale infectious diseases. Besides, economic crises, natural disasters and so on can all be extended to a larger area in terms of the scope of impact, covering one or more urban agglomerations. In the face of various threats to the risk society, cities are no longer confining themselves to a corner of the world in terms of risk prevention. Instead, faced with similar risks, cities often need to exchange information closely, to jointly monitor the evolution trend of risks, and to guard against coupling factors which stimulate regional risks, causing a large-scale public crisis in the region. Secondly, the regionalization of effects. The regional risk factors themselves can affect the urban agglomerations within a region. Even if a single city is at risk, the effects will also spread to other cities along certain routes given the extensive and timely communication of modern transportation links and information. These include the surrounding urban agglomerations that are most susceptible to being affected, as well as cities farther away along the path of transportation, finance, water and other forms of risk transmission. Ulrich Beck’s book Risk Society, which describes the spread of risks across borders, presents the very theory that many risks have crossregional effects. At present, many examples can illustrate that some risk factors can have a significant overall effect on the development of regional urban agglomerations. Both the collective decline of urban agglomerations in the Great Lakes region of the United States and the tough revitalization of urban agglomerations in northeast China have fully illustrated the close ties between regional urban agglomerations and the huge effect of regional environment. Finally, the regionalization of responses. In the modern society, it would be very difficult for a city to want to develop on its own without the support of the outside world. And in the area of public safety, if the city wants to tackle the challenges singlehandedly, it will usually meet a lot of frustrations. Every day the city has to exchange a huge sum of resources with the outside world. When it encounters a

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slightly serious security issue, it will need to mobilize a lot of external resources. In the face of some typical risk problems, the surrounding urban agglomerations can provide direct help to a large extent and exchange needed goods. The coordination between urban agglomerations can better enhance the efficiency of the use of limited resources, avoid excessive use of resources, and prevent the city in crisis from becoming too resource-constrained. For example, during Harbin’s water crisis in 2005, surrounding cities rushed to provide it with water, effectively alleviating the water crisis of four million citizens. This already demonstrated at the time the need for urban agglomerations to collectively respond to significant risks.

7.1.2 Reflections on Regional Risk Management The theory of “holistic governance” provides an ideal theoretical underpinning for regional urban safety governance. The theory came into being in England at the end of 1990s, as a reflection on and response to the problems of sectionalization and fragmentation brought about by the traditional theory of public administration and the new public management reform in the context of information age. The theory of holistic governance acts as the most valuable guidance to regional risk governance in that it aims to break through the original administrative boundaries to build an integrated, coordinated and holistic governance framework and governance model. The governance of regional urban safety risks calls for innovation in the governance system, mechanism and model. The strength of holistic governance lies in its effective response to cross-border issues that can not be addressed by traditional public administration and new public management reforms. In other words, through effective integration and coordination, it establishes cross-level, cross-departmental network relationships. By relying on information technology as a governance tool, and through designing a series of cross-organizational and cross-departmental coordination and integration mechanisms with trust and responsibility as the link, it manages to effectively resolve the problem of fragmentation of traditional urban safety management, and builds an integrated, shared and effective urban safety and emergency management system eventually.3 The theory of holistic governance adheres to “holistic” as the core. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, efforts have been made at the national level to promote the development of regional integration, increase the input of production factors to promote rational allocation of resources in the region, to accelerate the holistic mobilization and integration of the region. However, the integration process of the “holistic” region will inevitably lead to complex internal relations. Multiple local governments and interest groups also pose many challenges 3

Zhao, C.G. Holistic governance of cross-regional public crises: Analysis and thinking on its connotation, dilemma and Trajectory [J]. Journal of Social Sciences of Harbin Normal University, 2017 (4): 30–34.

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to governance given their differences in economic interest, political power, value orientation and social status. The theory of “Competitive government” proposed by Albert Breton holds that the inter-governmental relations within the country are competitive as a whole. Governments and departments within the government are forced to act under pressure from voters and the market to realize the political vision. At present, in the backdrop of urban regionalization development in China, although urban construction focuses its efforts on collaboration, inter-governmental gaming continues to be played in the shadows in the face of urban safety risks as this kind of incidents will inevitably lead to all kinds of accountability. On one hand, political tournaments for government officials have been around for a long time. As a rational “Political economic man”, the government will always pursue maximization of regional interests and personal political promotion, especially in the face of public crisis events involving multiple cities, buck-passing has happened from time to time. On the other hand, regional power differences can also be a cause of division. The great difference in urban development will lead to the imbalance of discourse power. Some city governments with weak comprehensive power are “willing but incompetent” to handle regional problems, thus weakening their initiative. Take the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example, Beijing-TianjinHebei integration is different from the other two urban agglomerations in that it shoulders the core mission of dispelling in an orderly way the non-capital function of Beijing. It is quite evident that Beijing occupies an absolutely dominant position in this urban agglomeration while the other two governments are limited in the opportunity and capacity to participate in safety risk management. In the actual process of development, the cities of Tianjin and Hebei have not received the attention they deserve. In addition, the contradiction brought about by the non-equivalence between the political status and economic status of cities is also very prominent. Take the Yangtze River Delta for example. The economic efficiency of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Wenzhou and other cities has long been in the forefront and they have provided sufficient impetus for the development of the region. Some even surpass the provincial capitals in the region, but they have never achieved high political status.4 The imbalance of political and economic status will affect, to a great extent, the role local governments play in participating in regional security issues, and the realization of maximizing the power of governance in the region.

4

Fang, Y.W. Governance of urban agglomerations in the context of regional integration: intergovernmental competition and cooperation and potential risks [J]. Journal of Dalian Officials, 2019 (7): 54–58.

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7.1.3 Problems Encountered in Regional Risk Management The development of urban regionalization is inevitable. However, the overall risk prevention of regional security is still in the stage of exploration. Under the influence of the administrative territorial entity and administrative system which has been entrenched for many years, some difficulties still remain in the realization of the unified and coordinated response of multi-cities in the region. First, constraints posed by traditional values. The basic starting point and standpoint of risk prevention in regionalization lies in the maximization of public interests. The traditional bureaucratic paradigm attaches too much importance to pursuing efficiency “rationally”, and the new model of public management advocates “quick success and instant benefit”. Under the dual impact, regional risk management is also prone to suffer orientation bias characterised by excessive pursuit of economic benefits but neglect of long-term development needs. Traditional crisis management emphasizes “classified management, hierarchical responsibility and territorial management”. As a rational “Political economic man”, local governments preserve the traditional pursuit of value with the goal of maximizing their own interests, and adhere to the principle of “minding one’s own business”. This can easily lead to buckpassing and concealment in the face of regionalization crisis and cause conflicts of interest between the whole and the parts. Second, fragmentation of risk prevention mechanisms. According to the life cycle theory, crises should go through the evolution process from latent period, developing period, breaking-out period to final recovery period. From the outbreak of a crisis in a city to the evolution of major regional crisis events, the process often takes a longer time. Therefore, a correct assessment of the nature of the crisis in the early stages of its outbreak becomes a key link, which will depend to a greater extent on the complete and unimpeded information transmission platform between the cities in the region, as well as the support of a systematic and coherent crisis response system. At present, inter-governmental crisis cooperation is all based on specific crisis events, the reverse effect of risks. The existing fragmentation of risk prevention mechanism is difficult to realize “replicable” multi-city collaboration. The risk response mechanism of urban agglomerations based on collaborative governance is still in the stage of conference discussion, draft planning or media publicity. Finally, lack of inter-governmental trust capital.5 The implementation of China’s regional crisis governance policy mostly follows the top-down model. The differences in various administrative levels are a source of suspicion and inaction among governments at all levels. Given a lack of interaction, trust and dialogue, inter-governmental collaboration is often driven by direct interests. Based on the scarcity of and dependence on public resources, plus the self-expanding nature of executive power, it is hard to avoid the dilemma of competition, and inter-governmental constraints are extremely likely to lead to the collapse of the overall interests of the region if there is 5

Jin, H. Problems and countermeasures of inter-governmental coordination governance of crossborder crisis in China [J]. Journal of Xinyang Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2016 (3): 40–43.

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no trust and cooperation between city governments, whose efforts are only driven by economic interests. The lack of inter-governmental trust capital increases the transaction costs and moral hazards in cross-border crisis management. A of trust and cooperation relationship between city governments is not achieved overnight. Rather, it is based on long-term experience, expectations and practices among governance agents. In the face of possible economic losses and political risks brought about by major security risks, inter-city governments sometimes choose to handle them alone behind closed doors. Only when the problems have grown beyond their control do they choose to expose them and ask other cities for help. For the governors of other cities, it is also hard to take initiatives to help crisis-hit cities before they receive a bailout signal. Obviously, the delicate relationship between governments in the area of trust has laid hidden perils for the effective management of cross-border crises.

7.1.4 Effective Paths to Promote Cooperation in Inter-City Regionalized Risk Prevention and Control In Nov. 2018, President Xi Jinping pointed out in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the first China International Import Expo: “We will support integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region. …The region will develop in tandem with the Belt and Road Initiative, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development area, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and will help improve the overall layout of China’s reform and opening-up.” In May 2019, Outline of the Integrated Development Planning of Yangtze River Delta Region was officially released, which aims to turn the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone into a dynamic growth engine of China’s development, a national pacesetter of high-quality development, a pioneer zone of basically achieving modernization, a demonstration zone of integrated regional development and a new reform and opening-up center in the new era. At this point, the city agglomeration of Yangtze River Delta, the world’s sixth largest city agglomeration, was officially included in the National Development Strategy for unified planning and integrated development. Among them, the integrated construction of security risk prevention and control system as the basic safeguard is also put on the agenda. In this context, the promotion of cooperation in inter-city regionalized risk prevention and control can be approached generally from the following four perspectives. First, building a legal foundation. In the context of continuous emphasis by the state on the rule of law, it is necessary, first of all, to promote the effective coordination of related safety legislation among regional cities. In 2000, Article Sixty-Three of The Legislative Law of the People’s Republic of China promulgated by the state stresses that The People’s Congress and its Standing Committee of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government have the power to

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make local ordinance,6 which provides a basic underpinning for local governments to formulate urban emergency provisions in accordance with local conditions, it has also helped to ensure that crisis management is conducted in a lawful and orderly manner. However, with the gradual formation of regional urban agglomerations, there are many differences regarding the specific legal provisions between cities. There may be conflicts in the handling of major regional crisis events, delaying the response to the crisis across the region. Therefore, improving the unified legal framework for inter-city crisis management in the region becomes an important premise to promote the regional urban risk prevention and control. Second, enhancing economic integration. The greatest impetus for regional exchanges and cooperation among city governments comes from the economy. Nothing but the explicit development effect of the market economy is the biggest goal pursued by local governments, while the relatively hidden safety risk management can not produce significant effect. Hence the government’s incentives to invest in this are limited. Therefore, they can seek to promote the development of regional common market in a roundabout way and encourage the development of dislocation. They do not push safety simply for the sake of safety; only when it is necessary for the development of the economic mainline do they carry out in-depth security risk management cooperation to ensure economic security. In other words, when economic and cultural integration deepens to a certain extent, information exchanges in other areas are deep enough and interests are tied up extremely closely, the awareness of the security risk community will naturally arise. There will also be voluntary actions to strengthen security risk coordination and joint defense. Third, establishing a joint body. As early as 2006, the State Council General Office set up the State Council Emergency Response and Management Office (General Duty Room of the State Council) to undertake the daily work of emergency management and the general duty work of the State Council, to perform on-duty emergency response, information aggregation and integrated coordination functions, and to play the role of an operation hub. At a time when there was an absence of a specialized agency at the national level to deal with major emergencies throughout the country, the establishment of such coordination bodies has to a large extent effectively resolved the problem of emergency coordination and disposal of security risks at the national level. At the beginning of 2018, the Yangtze River Delta Regional Cooperation Office was officially established. This is a joint working organization formed by personnel drawn from Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Anhui Province and Shanghai Municipality. Its main task is to make the Yangtze River Delta a leading demonstration area for the implementation of the new development concept, to become a world-class city agglomeration with global influence, and to become an Asia-Pacific gateway capable of allocating resources globally. At present, this joint working body will promote thematic cooperation in more than ten 6

Jin, L. Comprehensive disaster reduction legislation: priority of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development—with some remarks on the compilation of Management Regulations of BeijingTianjin-Hebei Disaster Reduction and Emergency Response [J]. Cities and Disaster Reduction, 2016 (1): 1–5.

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specific fields. In the future, people can use the platform to further develop special projects for safety risk management and control among urban agglomerations. Finally, starting with the basics. The establishment of a regional city security risk prevention and control system can not be rushed, but can be advanced step by step by making use of some existing work bases. In Dec. 2015, to explore Beijing sub-center transportation emergency linkage security mechanism, Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation took the lead in organizing the “BeijingTianjin-Hebei comprehensive support exercise of snow-day transportation support emergency response”, to preliminarily establish the linkage mechanism of traffic emergency disposal in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation, in conjunction with Tianjin and Hebei Transportation Departments, studied and signed The Agreement Memorandum of Cooperation on Transportation Emergency Response in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, to officialize the mechanism of the tripartite joint meeting in the form of a document. In Apr. 2019, the third joint meeting of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Transportation Emergency Response Cooperation was held in Tianjin. At the meeting, Transportation Departments of the three places signed an agreement on cooperation among highway enterprises, to organize the real-time docking of mobile emergency information platforms in the three places. With the joint efforts of Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China and Transportation Departments of the three places, the meeting successfully realized the linkage of “Three places, four directions and five points” on the mobile emergency information platform. For the first time, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei transportation departments organized real-time emergency communication among the three cities’ mobile information platforms, which is of practical significance to improving the actual combat level of emergency joint action.7 This experience can be replicated in other urban agglomerations. Various places can start with some existing cooperation mechanisms, such as the World Expo, G20 Summit, Import Expo, Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control work in the formation of a temporary cooperation mechanism, and gradually push the regional security risk prevention and control cooperation mechanism into deeper and broader fields.

7.2 New Strategies for Risk Management in the Big Data Era 7.2.1 Big Data—The New Power of Risk Governance In his book The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler wrote: “If IBM’s mainframes opened the curtain on the information revolution, Big data, then, is the highlights of the third wave.” Nowadays, with the rapid development of the Internet, cloud computing, Web 7

Liu, Y. Beijing has further promoted the establishment of a transportation emergency support system for the city’s sub-centers [EB/OL]. (2019 4-26) [2019-10-27]. https://www.sohu.com/a/310 506308_255783.

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of things and other new technologies, Big data has gained wide attention from all walks of life. “Whoever gets the data gets the world” has reached public consensus. It has also led to profound changes not only in business, information technology and other fields, but also in public safety, including crisis response and risk management. The term “Big data” first appeared in the journal Science in which McKinsey Global Institute defined it as something that is large enough to capture, store, manage and analyze a collection of data that greatly exceeds the capabilities of traditional data and library software tools. Compared with traditional data, there are significant changes in the ways of data type collection and processing in Big data. There are many types of Big data, including structured, semi-structured, non-structured and all data types. The data content also gets rid of the original locatable data limitation. Videos, images, audios, and activities collected through a variety of sensors, mobile terminals and smart terminals are also sources of Big data, showing continuity and extensibility in time and space. Thanks to its multi-dimensionality, it can realize full record of the data process, and use the distributed database to perform specialized analysis processing of complex data. The academic world has agreed on the features of Big data captured in the 4 Vs proposed by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier, namely Volume, Velocity, Variety and Value. Because Big data is different from traditional data, it can reflect in a timely and sensitive manner a multitude of sensitive information in social development and transformation. And through the integration of data resources and technical analysis, it can predict the time, place and possibility of public safety incidents, estimate various traditional and non-traditional security risks to provide new ideas and opportunities for the development in the field of public security. The Big data applied in the field of public security is of great application value, a complex and rich information source transformed by data collection, integration and analysis. In other words, the Big data of public safety itself is a collection of data, shown in the effective information that comes from the integration of cloud storage, cloud computing, and other cloud technologies, through which an accurate prediction of security risks and a proper handling of crisis events is achieved. In the world, the application of Big data to deal with security problems has been around for quite some time. For example, after Madrid, the capital of Spain, experienced a series of terrorist bombings that shocked the world, an emergency call center based on Big data technology was set up, and the city-wide coordinated emergency response was realized. Brazil has set up an intelligent municipal operations center to monitor natural disaster events such as heavy rains to coordinate the relief efforts of the government departments. Amidst the wave of Big data, the Chinese government has also attached great importance to it. In 2014, for the first time, China included Big data in The Government Work Report, which ushered in the “First year of China’s Big data policy”. In 2015, the State Council officially issued Action Plan for Promoting Big Data Development, which completed the top-level design and overall layout for the development of Big data at the national level, stressed the need to “Use Big data in a scientific and standardized way to ensure data security”, and reflected the concern of national policy makers about the risks of Big data. Today, China is furthering its practice

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of Big data in the field of public security. Take Guizhou Province as an example, the construction of “Police Service Cloud” in the public security system has greatly improved the efficiency of the police in handling cases, so that the Province has achieved a seven-year successive decline in the incidence of criminal cases. Take for another example “The early warning system of crowd gathering risks” applied to densely populated tourist areas such as Beijing, Nanjing and Suzhou. It can monitor the flow of people in the site in real time and give early warning of possible risks. Shanghai Public Security Bureau also uses the Big data real-world application platform to enhance its comprehensive information research, improve the capability of proactive and accurate strike, integrate Big data on social behavior into disaster forecasting and early warning, make full use of Big data to improve disaster early warning capabilities and help the city to accurately prevent and mitigate disasters. Besides, Shanghai continues to expand the scope of Big data governance and continuously enhance the capability of city security risk prevention and control through Big data in conjunction with the overall promotion of the construction of a new smart city. Research on the development of Chinese cities in the era of Big data shows that automatic data collection, dynamic coupling, efficient integration, in-depth mining and other innovative thinking and technologies have been deeply incorporated into the urban transformation and renovation. It will become an important technical force to promote the reform of urban safety risk management in the future.

7.2.2 Evolution of Risk Governance in the Era of Big Data There is no denying that this is an era when data controls discourse power and technology equals execution power. For governments, public security governance has been deeply imprinted with Big data. Thanks to the technology of Big data, governments have managed to use data information instead of authority’s experience to predict risks, replace causality with correlation, and shift the focus from postemergency to ex ante prevention. The new situation of public security administration of “Using data to speak, using data to decide, using data to manage and using data to innovate” is realized. These new changes and features have completely transformed the government’s traditional approach to the governance of security issues. They are mainly reflected in the following three aspects. First, a shift in the data collection model. The traditional model of government data collection channels are relatively narrow, which often rely on data departments or censuses and sample surveys of experts and scholars. To ensure the representativeness and accuracy of the data, standards are very high and errors are difficult to avoid, thus the need for timeliness and continuity in crisis management can not be met. In addition, traditional data collection methods consume a lot of time, manpower and money, which increases the cost of government response to risk and crisis management invisibly. In the era of Big data, however, with the support of Internet and Cloud Technology, government data sources have been broadened to make data collection more convenient and timely. The data quantity is big, the coverage scope is broad,

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and the exploration value is high. Through certain means, the government has broken through internal barriers between government departments and eliminated information islands. Externally, it has obtained a large amount of real-time basic data from enterprises, organizations, and other market or social actors in various fields, and met the information needs of urban security risk management more effectively. Second, a shift in government decision-making model. The government is the leader of urban safety governance. In the past risk prevention and crisis response, it suffered insufficiency in the total amount of data resources and low volume of the decision-making information despite having more than 80% of data. The pressure to make decisions in a short period of time was huge. While the scientific level of the decisions was pretty low, the risk and failure rate were both at a high level. This raised special requirements for the ability of a decision-making organization or individual, which/who often needed to rely on a wealth of experience to assist in making effective decisions. In this period, risk decision-making was a simple “One size fits all” model. In the era of Big data, the characteristics of digitization are becoming more and more distinct. Government decision-making relies on scientific analysis to process huge amounts of data. It can accurately predict the risk and crisis evolution, and reduce artificial subjective error and interference. At the same time, with the digitization of society and decentralization of data, data becomes the core resource of national governance. Governments that lose their digital edge will be left with little vertical control over social conflict.8 At this time, the ability of social subjects who master Big data resources to participate in governance by relying on data resources and technological strengths becomes more and more apparent. They are gradually integrated into the decision-making process of the government. The single subject model of decision-making in the field of urban safety is gradually declining, while more subjects that control the data resource are getting involved. Third, a shift in government thinking model. One of the fundamental changes brought about by Big data is the weakening of causality, since Big data analysis can explore the correlation between different factors. The traditional way of coping with crisis is “emergence-causality-governance”, the typical “better late than never” mode of thinking. Although ex post “facto tracing” can also resolve some of the urban safety problems, nothing can be done about the damage that has been done, reflecting a lack of capacity for prediction and prevention. The emergence of Big data technology effectively makes up for this deficiency, which changes the original reverse logic of looking for clues from the accident and reflecting on and summarizing the lessons. By conducting a risk correlation analysis of Big data obtained through day-to-day regulation, early detection and disposal of security problems can be realized. This follows the positive logic of problem-solving and effectively improves the security governance capability. At present, many local governments and departments have launched development and application of Big data resources and related technologies, which demonstrates a shift in the government’s thinking mode.

8

Shi, D. Research on data ownership and its protection path in Big data era [J]. Journal of Xi’an Jiaotong University (Social Sciences Edition), 2018 (3): 78–85.

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It is worth noting that the changes Big data brings to urban safety risk governance are not limited to the government’s governance mode, the impact of technological change will lead to more profound changes in governance structures. Big data has opened up avenues for the market to participate in urban safety governance; a number of Big data companies have emerged from this historic opportunity. With Big data technology as its core, this kind of enterprises has brought innovative solutions to the market and driven the development of technologies related to Big data. They have large databases or do data warehousing, and established their presence in the market by making use of their own resources and technological advantages. With the government’s strong push in smart city, Artificial Intelligence and other fields, these enterprises have played to their own advantages, and quickly occupied the strategic high ground in many fields, including urban safety and safe governance. On the whole, the advantages of Big data enterprises in urban safety governance are highlighted in three aspects: The first is technical superiority. Under the pressure of market competition, enterprises have strong internal drive for scientific and technological innovation. Leading cutting-edge technologies such as information security, Web of things, Artificial Intelligence, city-level cloud computing platform play a very important role in the prediction, prevention and response of urban safety risks. The second is information superiority. The value of Big data lies in the use of information resources and their in-depth exploration. Big data enterprises accumulate their own Big data in the course of business operations. At the same time, they widely capture data by powerful technical means and through an open Internet. With the help of professional classification technology processing, they can form very valuable information and intelligence. The last is sharing superiority. While the government is still stuck in an internal “information island” dilemma, enterprises have long been involved actively or passively in the exchange of data through mergers, acquisitions and other forms under the force of the market law. Profit-driven commercial operation has objectively accelerated the continuous deep integration of data resources by enterprises. Big data companies have emerged rapidly and are widely involved in the efforts to keep cities safe. Tencent, for example, launched Tencent Cloud, which has built a public safety cloud platform with the governments, public security bureaus, emergency bureaus, etc. of many cities in China, using Big data technologies and resources of enterprise to assist in public security. With its leading information and communication technology, Huawei has worked with global partners in security to create end-to-end public security solutions, introduced smart policing to protect urban security. As the national team of Voice Technology R & D and application promotion, Iflytek has also devoted itself to the field of voice information security, and strived to ensure the national security in voice information. All these deeply reflect the rapid development of China’s market economy and the profound adjustment of its security governance structure. The government holds the traditional administrative power, and Big data companies have the emerging technology discourse. The two sides can achieve win–win cooperation by taking what they need to manage urban security risks. However, during the transition period, new risks will also follow that may arise from the inherent structural contradictions

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of the “dual structure” system of urban safety governance with the government and enterprises as the core.

7.2.3 New Strategies for Urban Risk Management in the Era of Big Data From the traditional industrial era to the information era of Big data, public safety governance is undergoing a change from a “single government subject” control to a “government-enterprise” dual structure. This change is a step forward in safety governance, but the risks of change are hard to avoid as well. To this end, the city government must adopt appropriate strategies to deal with the possible emergence of new risks. First, to identify the government orientation and consolidate its dominance. Whether it is the use of Big data or the emergence of private analysis agencies, fundamental challenges have been posed on the absolute central position of the government in dealing with public safety events.9 As the “natural manager” of public affairs, the government must actively consolidate its leading position. Faced with the disadvantages of data resources and technologies, information sharing is the inevitable choice for the government to enhance its competitiveness. The so-called public security information sharing mainly refers to the four categories of emergencies, namely natural disasters, accidents and disasters, public health and social security. Public security information sharing is closely related to the public, that is, information docking and sharing between the upper and lower levels of government, government departments, and different regional governments.10 However, for administrative departments which are formed according to their functional divisions, information resources are also interest resources, hence government information has been in a fragmented state. Fundamentally, the phenomenon of “data island” within the government is caused by China’s administrative system. It hinders the government’s public security governance capacity to achieve maximum development and utilization. In order to adapt to the new changes in public security governance in the era of Big data, it is desirable to promote at the overall level the system and mechanism reform of government departments, make the advantages of data sharing become an intergovernmental consensus and voluntarily comply with the sharing principle. At the same time, government departments are taking advantage of the development opportunities in the era of Big data, build a data and information exchange platform between departments, regions and levels within the system, and

9 Chen, Z.W. Public participation in social public security. Exploration and Contention [J]. 2014 (8): 24–25. 10 Li, Ming. Big Data technology and public security information sharing capability [J]. EGovernment, 2014 (6): 10–19.

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provide the path guarantee for data resource sharing, so as to realize the maximization of the cohesive force of the government. For government departments in the same city, this should be something they can work on. Second, to transform government functions and encourage diverse participation. The government should comply with the trend of the times and be prepared mentally for the change of its orientation and role in the new era. The traditional government has always played the role of an “All-powerful”, and undertaken almost all the functions of public safety management. With the increasing complexity and diversity of social crises, the government is overburdened with the “Overdraft” phenomenon becoming more and more obvious. Therefore, it must be aware of the need to change from a “paddler” to a “pilot”. Security governance is based on governance theories. For a long time, the initiators and promoters of governance theories have been committed to promoting the participation of non-government actors in the governance of public domain issues. In the era of Big data, though, open data is a key move to improve the capacity of multi-agents to participate in public security governance. The era of Big data is an era of openness. Due to technological barriers, the information resources available to the public are often small-scale, untimely and fragmented, which seriously restricts the substantial participation of the public in public and security governance. In the field of public security, because a lot of sensitivity, negativity and confidentiality is involved, the degree of secrecy in the field of public security is relatively centralized, and the two-way barriers to sharing information between government and the public are far greater than in other areas. Without information, there is no real public participation. The government departments rely on their own advantages in information integration to make data audit and judgment, to open up data and information to the greatest extent in order to ensure the public’s right to know. This is the first step in the era of Big data that the government has taken the initiative to delegate power and allow public participation in public security risk governance, and the most crucial step as well. Of course, the open principle does not just mean that the government makes the data public. Instead, information is collected in a more inclusive manner. The government can expand public participation in public security governance by informing government data and information like issuing the latest security policies and crisis response on its website, yet this level of participation is still limited to the symbolic stage. Therefore, the establishment and improvement of the government and the public communication platform to maintain close contact with the public at any time can give full play to the strength and wisdom of the masses, identify and defuse risks in a timely manner so that the public can participate in the complete system of urban public safety risk management as the main actors. Finally, to value risk prevention and protect information security. In the era of Big data, data response with its timeliness and accuracy to monitor the operation of all walks of life is an important tool for city governments to monitor and handle risks and crises. The open, transparent, and shared nature of Big data gives rise to inevitable conflicts between Big data evolution and individual privacy. Report on the Information Security Situation of Chinese Internet Users in 2019 released by China Internet Network Information Center shows: 84.8% Internet users have encountered

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information security incidents, a total of 400 million people. Among the netizens who have encountered information security incidents, 77.7% have suffered losses in various forms. For netizens who have incurred economic losses, the average loss per person was 2 yuan, with a total loss of 19.4 billion yuan. Frequent incidents of information security make everyone feel insecure, the public’s sense of powerlessness in the face of Big data becomes more and more prominent, and the disadvantageous position gets solidified, which will greatly reduce the willingness of the public to participate in public security governance. However, in the era of Big data, it is almost impossible to block data companies from mining personal information. Especially in the field of public safety, the government and enterprises want to better monitor and forewarn future risks, which must be based on a steady stream of data analysis of social behavior. What, then, are the reasonable boundaries of data collection and use? The limited freedom of action should be insisted on, that is, the user has the freedom to use Big data, data, but he/ she should not infringe on the freedom of others and organizations.11 Personal information should be protected to ensure the public’s right to know about data collection and give the public the option of not agreeing to have their information collected. In cities, data is much denser. The city government, as the regulator, should on one hand standardize its own data collection, storage and use behavior according to law, and pay attention to data security; on the other hand, it must strengthen the management of the industry and standardize the data boundary of personal information, and crack down on all kinds of illegal data trading involving the safety of people and property. In Dec. 2018, the Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing. The conference redefined infrastructure construction, and defined 5G, Artificial Intelligence, the industrial Internet and Web of things as “new infrastructure construction”. Subsequently, “Strengthening the construction of a new generation of information infrastructure” was included in the 2019 Government Work Report. In Mar. 2020, at the meeting of CPC Politburo Standing Committee it was proposed that the construction of new infrastructure such as 5G networks and data centers be sped up. As a result, urban safety risk management has gained a stronger foundation support in the domain of governance through Big data. The corresponding city governments should attach more importance to the inherent laws of city safety risk prevention and control in the Big data era, make active use of new technical means and guard against the birth of new risks.

11

Chen, W. Q., Shi, H.X. Urban governance in the era of big data: data alienation and data governance [J]. Journal of Social Science of Hunan Normal University, 2015 (5): 126–130.

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7.3 Building a Community of Urban Security Risks 7.3.1 Theoretical Underpinning for Urban Safety “Community” The concept of “Security community” comes from the study of international security issues. First proposed by Richard Van Wagenen in 1950s, it was systematically defined and elaborated by Karl Wolfgone Deutsch and other scholars in “The political community and the North Atlantic Region”. A “security community” means a highly integrated group of people or organizations that does not settle disputes through war. Fundamentally speaking, “Security community” is a social concept based on the mutual identity of different countries, ethnic groups, religions and peoples. However, with the decline of traditional security factors such as the military after the Cold War, non-traditional security issues such as economy, environment and society have significantly increased. A true “security community” is no longer limited to nonwar or peaceful. It has been elevated to require that security threats be reduced across the board among members or within members, in other words, peace and security be established between and within nations. The key of whether the theory of “Security community” has practical guiding value is how it works in real life. The practical path of “Security community” is to establish communication and exchange, which is mainly reflected in three aspects: The core area and social learning, “Takeoff” and integrated development, and Crossing the “threshold” and the formation of community.12 China’s efforts to secure and maintain safety have never stopped. In the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi Jinping put forward the idea that “Humanity lives in the same global village, in the same space–time where history and reality meet. It has increasingly become a community of shared future for mankind where everyone has a stake”. The community of shared future for mankind is a community of shared future for development and a community of shared future for security. In particular, Xi highlighted “joint construction of a community of common security for a shared future of mankind”, emphasizing co-construction and sharing, and interpreting the concrete security value of establishing the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. The connotation of its security value is embodied in four aspects: common interests, common responsibilities, common governance and shared rights.13 First, common interests. In the age of globalization, driven by technological forces such as transportation and network communications, many risks faced by human beings, like terrorism, financial security, energy and food security, ecological security and cybersecurity, have long been a common challenge for the world. Nations of the 12

Zheng, X.W. On the theory of “Security community” [J]. Modern international relations, 2004 (2): 55–61. 13 Wang, S.Y. The security perspective of Xi Jinping’s thought on a community of shared future. for mankind [J]. Science and technology of confidentiality, 2018 (6):40–47.

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world need to come together, rely on each other, share the same fate, and build deeplevel cooperation. “Only by working together can we achieve great things, good things and long-term results. We should get rid of the old zero-sum game mentality where you lose and I win, establish instead the new win–win and all-win concept. We should take into account the interests of others while pursuing our own interests, and promote common development while seeking our own development.”14 Only common interests based on common understanding can push the world to work together to build a community of shared future for mankind. Second, common responsibility. Security is a social resource and an important item of public goods, the state and cities are its main suppliers. Under non-traditional security threats such as the financial crisis, terrorism and cyber security, all actors, including the state, cities, social organizations and individual citizens have a duty and responsibility to maintain security. In the face of the complexity, conductivity and characteristics of interaction of various risk factors, neither the state nor the cities can continue to maintain the state of separation of “minding one’s own business”. Instead, we should form a community of responsibility and work together for the fate of mankind. Third, common governance. Serious crises have broken out one after another. Through a variety of channels or resonance, the impact is global. The governance of security risks in the age of globalisation has long proved to be a very complicated system engineering. Relying solely on the efforts of one country, one city or one organization can not solve the security risks common to all humans. Last, shared rights. Each country is participating in global security cooperation as a parallel entity on an equal footing, enjoying equal rights to speak, to act, and to be safe. There can be no double standards on security issues. We can not seek our own so-called absolute security at the cost of a certain country. Whether at the national level or at the urban level, there is only a division of strength and weakness, development and underdevelopment. There should be no question of priority or size of rights. In areas involving public security, every entity, from a country to a person, shall enjoy equal rights to security. Based on the theory of community, the city is a very important part of a country, at the same time, it also serves as an important link node and main participant in the international community’s exchange and interaction. As such, it should also be integrated into national security communities and global security communitybuilding.

14

Only by working together can we achieve great things, good things and long-term results [EB/OL]. (2015-3-28) [2019-10-27]. http://kb.southcn.com/content/2015-3-28/content_121049947.htm.

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7.3.2 Shaping a Community of Shared Future in Urban Safety Risks The community of shared future in urban safety risks is not only domestic-oriented, but more international-oriented. With the deepening impact of globalization, the global division of production has long been a universal model. Markets move people, information, capital and goods around the world, the resulting impact has made the world’s cities inextricably linked. When crises break out in one major city, there are bound to be cities in other parts of the globe that will suffer consequently. In this context, urban security risks, prevention and control has become a common topic in cities around the world. No city is immune to the major risks that come its way. The shaping of the community of shared future in urban safety risks needs to rely on some important conditions, which come down to two aspects at the national and the urban level. On one hand, the construction of urban security risk community needs to rely on the shaping of inter-state relations. The sovereign interests of a state are paramount. Only on the basis of constructing a community of common destiny among states can a community of shared future in urban safety risks be established worldwide. Since Comrade Mao Zedong, China’s successive leaders have always adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, actively developed equal exchanges and cooperative relations with all countries in the world, and worked to promote the cause of peace for mankind. Since the 18th Party congress, the General Secretary Xi Jinping has on various occasions repeatedly expounded his views and ideas on building a community with a shared future for mankind. Moreover, China is also taking various practical actions to constantly demonstrate to the world China’s determination to push forward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Under the new international risk situation, China has established many bilateral and multilateral diplomatic strategic partnerships of sound cooperation, including China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and ChinaPakistan all-weather strategic partnership of cooperation. It has established a comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, members of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, as well as strategic cooperative partnerships with South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, to face the challenges of global crises together. Different countries have also created a series of regional cooperation organizations on the basis of equal consultation, including the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Shangri-la Dialogue, the Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation Council, and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ meeting, to constantly seek sustainable and systematic security risk prevention mechanisms. In recent years, China has sponsored the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the “Belt and Road” initiative, the values of a community of

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shared future for mankind, etc., which have all played a positive role.15 Facing the risks of a declining world economic situation, China has also taken on the responsibility, hosting in succession China International Import Expos to support firmly free trade and economic globalisation, opening the market to the world to boost global economic development. Against this background, many cities in China have also taken the initiative to go out, and established closer cooperation with cities in friendly countries, including learning from each other’s experience in urban management, expanding economic, trade and cultural exchanges and cooperation in cities, sharing data and intelligence, joining forces to fight urban crime, etc. During June 5–25, 2017, ten Chinese police officers appeared on the streets of four Italian cities to fight urban crime, assisting the Italian police in handling issues related to the safety of Chinese tourists and overseas Chinese. In April, 2017, on the Great Wall of Badaling in Beijing, the presence of Chinese and Italian police officers on patrol also caught the eye of many tourists.16 The development of the “global village” has already turned the world into a place where people are closely interwoven with each other. On the basis of frequent exchanges and cooperation between cities, the safe environment of the city will be better protected. On the other hand, the construction of urban security risk community needs to form the new concept of security cooperation featuring co-existence, co-prosperity and co-development. First, demand and cooperation between domestic cities. The regional security cooperation of domestic cities is more pointed to the integrated security risk management system formed by adjacent and neighboring urban agglomerations. The urban security risk community should be further expanded on this basis to form crossdomain remote cooperation. In the past few years, China has already formed a crossregional partnership model. For example, at the 7th Guizhou Talent Expo on Apr. 27, 2019, the cities of Shanghai and Zunyi, Dalian and Liupanshui, Suzhou and Tongren, the city of Hangzhou and Qiandongnan Prefecture, the city of Ningbo and Qianxinan Prefecture, the cities of Qingdao and Anshun, the cities of Guangzhou, Bijie and Qiannan Prefecture signed cooperation agreements respectively to establish cooperation and assistance with their counterparts, helping the assisted place fight the poverty alleviation and win a decisive victory to achieve common prosperity.17 Although these cities have different levels of development, when it comes to addressing the fundamental risk of poverty, developed cities provide less developed cities with talent support, in turn, they have access to many important resources and potential markets in west China, hence it is a win–win situation. Besides, in the process of interactive cooperation between the eastern and western cities for effective 15

Wang, Y.C., Zheng, K.F. Challenges, opportunities and paths of building a security community between China and its neighbors [J]. Journal of Xuzhou Normal University (Philosophy and Social sciences Edition). 2019(1):62–69. 16 Zhang, Y. Join hands to build a community of shared future for security [EB/OL]. (2017-9-27) [2019-10-27]. http://cppcc.china.com.cn/201709/27/content_41653364.htm. 17 Tian, F. Guizhou: Eight cities (prefectures) signed contracts with cities of paired assistance [EB/ OL]. (2019-4-28) [2019-10-27]. http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/201904/28/content_5387030.htm.

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development of the western economy and elimination of poverty and backwardness, the western cities can meet the requirements of environmental protection in advance with the help of the eastern cities, thus avoiding the risk of creating serious pollution upstream of several important waters in China, and achieving environmental security cooperation similar to a community of shared future. Second, demand and cooperation between international cities. With the frequent movement of the world’s population, a number of areas with exotic features have emerged in many cities. For example, “Chinatown” exist in some Japanese, American and European cities. The composition of these communities is mainly Chinese, so they have a strong Chinese flavor. And a similar phenomenon has emerged in many cities in China. For example, Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai and so on in Shandong Province have more typical Korean communities, Guangzhou in Guangdong Province has an African community, Gumei community and Biyun international community in Shanghai are also the preferred places for people from other countries to live in China. In the process of governing these cities, based on a friendly city relationship with its counterpart in the country concerned, and through friendly cooperation projects between the two cities, these groups can be effectively organized for enhanced integration and interoperability, to effectively reduce the risk of various conflicts. International cooperation between cities is a breakdown of the overall cooperation between countries, it is an effective support for deepening inter-regional ties. By building closer relations in the security community between cities, deepening exchanges and cooperation in the field of security risk prevention and control, we can have more support and more opportunities in dealing with the challenges of unknown risks in the future.

7.4 Special Thoughts on Covid-19 As I was finishing my manuscript, a sudden outbreak of Covid-19 swept through the world at the beginning of 2020, bringing serious impacts globally. All countries have encouraged or forced people to use home segregation to cut down on unnecessary travels, in an attempt to reduce the risk of further spread of the virus, the economy suffered serious losses consequently. At the same time, this pandemic has given the society on its way to hasty development a chance to slow down for a moment and reflect deeply. The debate over where the virus originated aside, let’s just reflect again on the main issues studied earlier in this book by focusing on the spread of the epidemic in China and around the world. It is fair to say that the core issues of urban safety risk prevention and control system can all find their salient realistic response in this outbreak. First, the city faces increasing risks and challenges. The world has become one, the city’s modernization process can not hide its growing vulnerability. In Wuhan, a

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perfectly ordinary seafood market had caused an outbreak all over the city.18 With the spread of large-scale returnees in the New Year, outbreaks of a larger scale broke out in a very short period of time across the country. Besides, not only was the epidemic raging in one country, but with the rapid movement of people around the world, within a few weeks, almost all of the world’s major cities had fallen, with Japan, South Korea, Italy and the United States as the most important representatives. The outbreak was just one of many risks facing the city, but that alone has plunged the global economy into a deep freeze. With major stock market indices around the world falling off a cliff, the future of the world economy is in dire straits. This may continue to trigger a large number of business failures, unemployment, intensification of social contradictions, aggravation of conflicts and all kinds of serious risks in the city. No one can predict what new security risks the city will face next. Second, the crisis pushes forward urban safety governance. Although the unexpected outbreak has caused panic and disorder in many cities in a short period of time, it is precisely because of the heart-rending crisis events that human society has made continuous progress. In this outbreak, a lot of researches have pointed out very sharply that there were man-made, system, mechanism or legal system loopholes in the past process of security risk prevention and control in cities. They have also put forward a lot of constructive schemes from the angle of promoting better development of the city. It is believed that after this huge setback, all cities will be seriously considering the problems in the field of urban public health security for some time in the future, and introduce reform measures afterwards. Judging from the longer cycle of human development, this epidemic will certainly promote, to a great extent, the construction of the city’s safety risk prevention and control system, and will be remembered by history as a landmark event in the field of public safety. Third, the city needs to build normal risk management capabilities. How should cities respond to the risk of sudden exposure? In this outbreak, Wuhan, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai of China, Seoul of South Korea, Lombardia Reg. of northern Italy, as well as New York of the United States, and London of the United Kingdom, etc., have shown different capabilities to respond to and control the emergency after an outbreak. The above-mentioned cities are either under full lockdown or limited population segregation. In terms of personnel, distribution of materials, emergency production of epidemic prevention materials, etc., the city’s basic capability of emergency response has been well-tested. It must be admitted that if the basic risk prevention and control capacity building in cities is in place, the ability to deal with sudden crises will be significantly enhanced, otherwise it will only increase the severity of the crisis and cause an uncontrollable situation. From the reactions of the cities mentioned above, we can also see that the government plays a leading role in the safety risk management and control. Therefore, we must start with the early warning and decision-making system within the government, and improve early warning capabilities for basic risks. At the same time, we should actively foster the public’s 18

As of the date of completion of this manuscript, information disclosed by the authorities indicates that the source of the outbreak in China points to the South China seafood market. Later discoveries that the outbreak has other sources in China can not be ruled out.

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risk awareness and the collective spirit of coping with the crisis, to promote the construction of normal risk management and control ability in cities. Fourth, community is an important cornerstone of urban risk prevention and control. As we all know, the vast communities act as an important battle fortress in the emergency response of this Covid-19 outbreak. Over one billion people are effectively segregated in their own communities, which is the most significant test of effective community control of dispersed populations in the market economy. Over the past decade, the status and role of the community in the comprehensive governance of cities have been continuously enhanced. In the process of security risk management, it can play the role of the first incident scene, first discovery unit and first disposal unit, so that it should, in theory, receive adequate attention. The current outbreak with its remarkable facts has proved again that the community plays an important basic role in urban safety risk prevention and control. For dozens of days and nights on end, every community sets up posts to conduct strictly checks, containing the virus in one place for timely detection and effective isolation. It is reasonable to claim that without the comprehensive community response, effectively controlling the domestic outbreak within a matter of two months would be out of the question. Of course, we must also see that many communities still have some deficiencies in their response to the epidemic, which fully shows that in the future, urban safety construction should place the community in a more important position, and assign more forces to go down to the grass roots. With a comprehensive start from the personnel training, technical support, material support, capital support and other aspects, we can make efforts to consolidate the important foundation of urban security risk prevention and control. Fifth, the urban security risk community of shared destiny is crucial. This epidemic has also shown the full picture that the flow of people around the world has caused inter-city transmission and the spread of virus from one city to many other cities. In the face of enormous security risks, if the flow of people between cities is not strictly controlled, it will cause the situation to get out of control. As a result, many cities with serious epidemic situation at home and abroad have adopted the measure of lockdown. The spread of the epidemic shows that cities form a community of shared destiny. The lockdown strategy is also a manifestation of the responsibility of the community of shared destiny. Only by controlling the flow of people and limiting the losses to one city can we make sure that there are no new cases in other cities, thus we can effectively cut off the virus from spreading from the root. It can be said that during this epidemic, all the cities that have taken effective control measures are consciously fulfilling their obligations of members of the urban security community of shared destiny. Of course, capable cities are also doing everything they can to reach out to those cities in need. In the current outbreak, China has created a “One province–one city” aid model, which includes: Chongqing Municipality and Heilongjiang Province aid Xiaogan City, Shandong Province and Hunan Province aid Huanggang City, Jiangxi Province and Henan Province aid Suizhou City, Guangdong Province and Hainan Province aid Jingzhou City, Liaoning Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region aid Xiangyang City, Jiangsu Province aids Huangshi City, Fujian Province aids

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Yichang City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Zhejiang Province aid Jingmen City, Shanxi Province aids Xiantao City, Tianmen City and Qianjiang City, Guizhou Province aids Ezhou City, Yunnan Province aids Xianning City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region aids Shiyan City, Tianjin Municipality aids Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and Hebei Province aids Shennongjia Forestry District. At the time when domestic epidemic was effectively contained and initial victory achieved while the epidemic abroad was still serious, the Chinese government launched once again the aid model of “One province–one country”, which includes: Shanghai Municipality aids Iran, Jiangsu Province aids Pakistan, Guangdong Province aids Iraq, and Sichuan Province aids Italy. China has sent medical personnel to carry out multi-country assistance before domestic epidemic has completely ended, which fully reflects the existence value of the community of shared destiny and the great spirit of mankind’s common response to risks. The epidemic has brought great sorrow to the city, but it will be defeated by the city in the end. After this tragic setback, cities around the world will experience a profound reflection and transformation. Mankind will pay more attention to city security and construct the city security risk protection system more systematically. May the city we live in be safer!

Afterword

When I completed the manuscript, it was the outdoor season to enjoy the warmth of spring and bloom of flowers. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 epidemic forced hundreds of millions of people strictly indoors. The whole world seemed to be in a virtual standstill: The streets and alleys, the plazas and shopping malls of the city long ceased to be bustling with people as they used to. The whole city lost its vigour and vitality all at once. Looking back to the early spring in 2003, China experienced the “SARS” epidemic, that strike pushed for deep reforms in China’s public health sector. At the same time, it also initiated the formal construction of China’s emergency management system and mechanism. To date, the prevention and control of the initial phase of the outbreak has taught us that many problems remain in the city’s public safety risk prevention and control system, which has been built for more than ten years. It also gives the book a greater sense of reality. At present, the epidemic situation in the country has been effectively controlled, yet it is still raging internationally, and we are looking forward to an early end to this epidemic. I believe that this outbreak will inevitably usher in a profound reflection on the global scale and the public safety management system will undergo another deep and profound reform. The writing of this book took nearly a year and was frequently interrupted by various commitments. Only in the nearly two months since the epidemic “sealed off the city” and “closed down the homes” could I have a rather intact time to complete some of my systematic thinking in recent years on the construction of urban public security risk prevention and control system. The book also incorporates some of my published works from the past. Urban problems are highly complex, urban security risk prevention and control work is full of challenges. When the research framework was first designed, I was worried whether I could effectively grasp the crux of the problems. Upon completion, in light of this outbreak, I am glad to find that some of the main problems exposed by reality were addressed in this book. It is the only thing that comforts me as a scholar. Professor Wu Baijun is the first person I want to thank for the publication of the book. In recent years, Professor Wu has invited a group of young scholars from

© East China University of Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd. 2023 X. Liu, Risk Prevention and Control System of Urban Public Security, Public Economy and Urban Governance in China, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3928-2

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various disciplines to conduct regular in-depth discussions on important issues in the field of public economy and social governance at the grass-roots level, which has finally led to the writing and publications of this series of books. It is a great honor for me to be involved in the writing of this series. Professor Wu is keen to help young talents grow intellectually and has also maintained an objective and rigorous attitude in academic study. These qualities are worth my life-long learning. At the same time, the book has been published with the support of the National Publishing Fund and the grant for the publishing project of “Shanghai universities serving the state’s major strategies”. In addition, I would like to thank the many other scholars whose wisdom and fruits the book has drawn upon. Finally, I would like to thank my family. During the writing of this book, they have shared a lot of housework for me and dealt with a lot of life chores, so that I could concentrate on the writing. I am open to criticisms and comments from all readers for the inadequacies and omissions which are unavoidable in the book. Xiaoliang, Liu Mar. 2020 Meilong, Shanghai

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