OK, this is old news, but I want to remember it because according to Norman Stockman's Understanding Chinese society, the Chinese police only hassle religionists (of course that was before the falungong troubles). Anyway, my point is that the Chinese police are by and large useless for protecting the Chinese from criminals.
Complaints and Concern Rise Over Poor Policing in China By JIM YARDLEY

PINGYU, China — The first boy disappeared in March 2001, then others went missing, all teenage boys, all regulars at the Internet cafes near the schools. Suspicious parents went to the police, who were not impressed. Maybe, the police said, the boys ran away.

Two years later, boys were still disappearing in this depressing city in Henan Province in central China. Xu Yinping's son vanished in March, and the police gave her excuses, too. At one point, Mrs. Xu and other parents said, a pair of severed hands was discovered at an Internet cafe. The killer appeared to be taunting the police.

Then in November, a terrified teenager, saying he had been tortured, led officers to the home of a 29-year-old man. There, they found the buried remains of at least 14 other boys. In all, state news media reported, the suspect is believed to have killed 17 boys.

"They are irresponsible," Mrs. Xu said of the local police. "They were playing games with the kids' lives. We want an explanation."

In China, where officials boast about the country's low crime rate, November saw an unusual glut of bizarre and gruesome crimes, with newspapers filled with sordid details about the arrests of three suspected serial killers. But the Henan case also touches on what experts say is an ingrained problem, particularly in rural China: bad and corrupted policing.

Part of the problem is the very nature of policing in a nondemocratic country. Historically, experts say, officers have emphasized maintaining government control and serving as the eyes and ears of the state over solving crimes. But as top leaders speak of China becoming a real nation of laws, experts say such an approach must change.

"If China is going to develop the rule of law, the police are going to have to become better at doing basic, nonpolitical, everyday, investigative police work," said Murray Scot Tanner, a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation with an expertise in criminal justice in China. "It has only been in the past decade that China has really made a genuine effort to impose modern, investigative skills of policing."

Public anger seems to be growing, particularly as increasingly aggressive Chinese news organizations have chronicled police beatings and killings. In Guangdong Province, in south China, public outrage was swift after officers beat a college graduate to death because he was traveling without proper identification. The Henan serial killings sparked anger on the nation's popular Internet sites, Sina.com and Xinhua News Online.

"These crimes would not have occurred if the local officials paid more attention to improving social security and management," wrote one online critic. "They should all resign."

Another added: "Police are a waste of our taxes."

Officials in Beijing at the Ministry of Public Security apparently recognize the depth of public concern. The ministry recently issued new rules establishing for the first time that evidence obtained by torture, threats or other illegal means cannot be used in court cases. The ministry also has begun a program to crack down on illegal detentions of suspects. One man was held without charges for 10 years because the police could not gather enough evidence to take him to court.