Chinese SOEs Set Up In-house Armed Forces Departments, Readying for Massive Social Unrest: China Experts

Female and male security guards march in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing Saturday, May 31, 2014. A quarter century after the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement’s suppression, China’s communist authorities oversee a raft of measures for muzzling dissent and preventing protests. They range from the sophisticated - extensive monitoring of online debate and control over media - to the relatively simple - routine harassment of government critics and maintenance of a massive domestic security force. AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan

Multiple recent official reports in China reveal the setting up of Armed Forces Departments (AFDs), a paramilitary entity under the supervision of both the army and the regime that oversees China’s militia, one of the largest of its kind in the world.

A major state-owned enterprise (SOE) in Shanghai, China’s commercial and financial hub, reportedly launched an AFD inside the company last Thursday.