No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Justifying the use of excessive force: A critical discourse analysis of Chinese police individual WeChat Subscription Accounts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2023
Abstract
This article examines how individual police officers in China interpret and justify the use of excessive force on social media through their WeChat Subscription Accounts (WSAs). Existing research examines how the police department uses social media to justify deadly force, but overlooks individual officers’ online justifications. Adopting a critical discourse analysis approach, this study analyses 211 articles commenting on a prominent case of police violence in China. The findings shed light on the online voice of Chinese frontline officers, revealing an ideology that defends the use of excessive force. The articles published in WSAs displayed strong empathy towards the involved officer; contested the characterization of the incident as police brutality by police officials, the public, and the media; and employed various strategies to justify the officer’s actions. The discussion section expands on these findings by drawing comparisons to justifications in the United States, emphasizing the distinctive dynamic between individual officers’ online expression and official police discourse in China, and offering insights for scholars examining online expression and digital nationalism in the Chinese context.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
References
1 Taiyuan Police Department, ‘Announcement on “12.13” unnatural death incident (in Chinese)’, published online on 26 December 2014, available at http://gaj.taiyuan.gov.cn/site/page/news_xq.html?id=2014122620212468960101&titname=%E8%AD%A6%E6%96%B9%E6%97%B6%E8%AE%AF, [accessed 10 October 2023].
2 Guozheng Yan, ‘The cause of death of female worker Zhou Xiuyun was found out, and the police involved were suspected of intentional injury (in Chinese)’, Xinhua News, published online on 30 January 2015, available at http://news.sohu.com/20150130/n408249146.shtml, [accessed 10 October 2023].
3 On 11 January 2015, the incident was first reported by the province’s top official media, with the headline ‘Shocking death of a migrant worker, trampled by police (in Chinese)’, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20150116175000/http://zzwb.zynews.com/html/2015-01/07/content_626890.htm, [accessed 10 October 2023). On Sina Weibo (one of China’s largest social media platforms), a search for ‘Wang Wenjun from Taiyuan’ yielded two relevant posts with 488 comments overwhelmingly condemning his actions, perceiving him as a murderer, available at https://weibo.com/2995936710/4791802218939465 and https://weibo.com/5220711693/4708050986861450, [both accessed 10 October 2023].
4 ‘Chief of Taiyuan Police Department apologized to victims of “12.13” (in Chinese)’, The Paper, published online on 3 January 2015, available at http://m.thepaper.cn/kuaibao_detail.jsp?contid=1290913&from=kuaibao, [accessed 10 October 2023].
5 ‘Officer Wang should be found innocent (in Chinese)’, ‘A Sir’, published online on 9 February 2015, available at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bybDqI1iij3jco1k3WSWSw, [accessed 10 October 2023].
6 Taiyuan Intermediate People’s Court, ‘The case of female migrant worker dead in police station was sentenced: Wang Wenjun was sentenced to five years in prison for the crime of causing death by negligence (in Chinese)’, The Paper, published on 10 November 2016, available at https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1558903, [accessed 10 October 2023].
7 Cheng, Tony, ‘Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence’, Criminology, vol. 59, no. 3, 2021, pp. 391–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Bittner, Egon, The functions of the police in modern society (Bethesda: National Institutes of Mental Health, 1971).Google Scholar
9 Garner, Joel H. et al., ‘Measuring the continuum of force used by and against the police’, Criminal Justice Review, vol. 20, no. 2, 1995, pp. 146–168CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Klahm, Charles Frank IV, Frank, James and Liederbach, John, ‘Understanding police use of force: Rethinking the link between conceptualization and measurement’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, vol. 31, no. 3, 2014, pp. 558–578.Google Scholar
10 Terrill, William, ‘Police use of force: A transactional approach’, Justice Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 1, 2005, pp. 107–138CrossRefGoogle Scholar; William, Terrill and Paoline, Eugene A. III, ‘Police use of less lethal force: Does administrative policy matter?’, Justice Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, 2017, pp. 193–216.Google Scholar
11 Chevigny, Paul, Police power: Police abuses in New York City (New York: Pantheon Books, 1969)Google Scholar; Skolnick, Jerome H. and Fyfe, James J., Above the law: Police and the excessive use of force (New York: Free Press, 1993).Google Scholar
12 Terrill, ‘Police use of force’, pp. 107–138; Terrill, William and Mastrofski, Stephen D., ‘Situational and officer-based determinants of police coercion’, Justice Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 2, 2002, pp. 215–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Alpert, Geoffrey P. and MacDonald, John M., ‘Police use of force: An analysis of organizational characteristics’, Justice Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 2, 2001, pp. 393–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14 Gerber, Monica M. and Jackson, Jonathan, ‘Justifying violence: Legitimacy, ideology and public support for police use of force’, Psychology, Crime and Law, vol. 23, no. 1, 2017, pp. 79–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gau Jacinta, M., Eugene, A. Paoline III and Paul Nicholas, D., ‘De-policing as a result of public scrutiny: Examining officers’ perceptions of negative media attention and willingness to engage in self-initiated activity’, Journal of Crime and Justice, vol. 45, no. 5, 2022, pp. 539–551.Google Scholar
15 Worden, Robert E., ‘The “causes” of police brutality: Theory and evidence on police use of force’, in Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice, (eds) Marguire, Edward R. and Duffee, David E. (New York: Routledge, 2015), pp. 149–204.Google Scholar
16 Liu, Shelley and Zhang, Lening, ‘Police attitudes toward the use of inappropriate force in China’, International Journal of Police Science and Management, vol. 23, no. 4, 2021, pp. 358–371.Google Scholar
17 Ministry of Public Security, ‘Operational procedures for police to stop criminal activities (in Chinese)’, published in 2010, available at https://www.sohu.com/a/313342509_472534, [accessed 10 October 2023].
18 Atherley, Loren T. and Hickman, Matthew J., ‘Controlling use of force: Identifying police use of excessive force through analysis of administrative records’, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, 2014, pp. 123–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 Liu, Shelley, ‘Citizen provoking behavior and police attitudes toward the use of force: A scenario-based study in China’, Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, vol. 38, no. 1, 2023, pp. 210–218Google Scholar; Liu and Zhang, ‘Police attitudes toward the use of inappropriate force in China’, pp. 358–371.
20 Liu, Jianhong et al., ‘Police supervisors’ work-related attitudes in China’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, vol. 50, no. 3, 2017, pp. 419–438CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sun, Ivan Y. et al., ‘A comparison of Chinese and the US police cadets’ occupational attitudes’, Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 38, no. 4, 2010, pp. 640–647.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Liu and Zhang, ‘Police attitudes toward the use of inappropriate force in China’, pp. 358–371.
22 Trevaskes, Susan, ‘Using Mao to package criminal justice discourse in 21st-century China’, The China Quarterly, vol. 226, 2016, pp. 299–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Liu and Zhang, ‘Police attitudes toward the use of inappropriate force in China’, pp. 358–371.
24 Gerber and Jackson, ‘Justifying violence’, pp. 79–95.
25 Thompson, John B., Ideology and modern culture: Critical social theory in the era of mass communication (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990).Google Scholar
26 The framework developed by Hirschfield and Simon was based on Thompson’s framework of legitimacy. Hirschfield, Paul J. and Simon, Daniella, ‘Legitimating police violence: Newspaper narratives of deadly force’, Theoretical Criminology, vol. 14, no. 2, 2010CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
27 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
28 Van Leeuwen, Theo, ‘Legitimation in discourse and communication’, Discourse and Communication, vol. 1, no. 1, 2007, pp. 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, pp. 155–182.
30 Cheng, ‘Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence’, pp. 391–418.
31 Rojek, Jeff, Alpert, Geoffrey P. and Smith, Hayden P., ‘Examining officer and citizen accounts of police use-of-force incidents’, Crime and Delinquency, vol. 58, no. 2, 2012, pp. 301–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Marenin, Otwin, ‘Cheapening death: Danger, police street culture, and the use of deadly force’, Police Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 4, 2016, pp. 461–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’; Rojek, Alpert and Smith, ‘Examining officer and citizen accounts’, pp. 301–327.
33 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
34 Waegel, William B., ‘How police justify the use of deadly force’, Social Problems, vol. 32, no. 2, 1984, pp. 144–155CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Westley, William A., ‘Violence and the police’, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 59, no. 1, 1953, pp. 34–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
35 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
36 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, pp. 155–182.
37 Van Leeuwen, ‘Legitimation in discourse and communication’, pp. 91–112.
38 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
39 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, pp. 155–182; Scraton, Phil and Chadwick, Kathryn, ‘Speaking ill of the dead: Institutionalised responses to deaths in custody’, Journal of Law and Society, vol. 13, no. 1, 1986, pp. 93–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
41 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, p. 170.
42 Cheng, ‘Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence’, pp. 155–182.
43 Thompson, Ideology and modern culture.
44 Van Leeuwen, ‘Legitimation in discourse and communication’, pp. 91–112.
45 Waegel, ‘How police justify the use of deadly force’, pp. 144–155.
46 Cheng, ‘Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence’, pp. 391–418.
47 Goldsmith, Andrew, ‘Disgracebook policing: Social media and the rise of police indiscretion’, Policing and Society, vol. 25, no. 3, 2015, pp. 249–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48 Ibid., pp. 249–267.
49 Qian Ye and Yizhu Mao, ‘Solving the “knot” of law enforcement disputes (in Chinese)’, Xinhua Net, published online on 15 June 2016, available at https://kknews.cc/society/593elbl.html, [last accessed 25 July 2023].
50 Xuesong Liu, ‘Why there are always voices justifying problems in law enforcement? (in Chinese)’, People’s Daily, published online on 12 June 2016, available at http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0612/c1003-28425871.html, [accessed 11 October 2023].
51 Xiaobo Li, and Han, Chunmei, ‘A study on the development of Chinese police personal WeChat Subscription Accounts (in Chinese)’, Journal of Shandong Police College, vol. 29, no. 06, 2017, pp. 139–144.Google Scholar
52 Li, Xiaobo, ‘A research on the strategies and influencing factors of police WeChat public platform intervention in major police-related incidences on social media (in Chinese)’, Journal of Intelligence, vol. 39, no. 05, 2020, pp. 137–141.Google Scholar
53 Ibid., pp. 137–141.
54 Tencent, ‘2015 Tencent annual financial report’, published online in 2015, available at https://static.www.tencent.com/storage/uploads/2019/11/09/7ff11f32cb38df8cacc59374c0e94b84.pdf, [accessed 11 October 2023].
55 Chen, Yujie, Mao, Zhifei and Linchuan Qiu, Jack, Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese society (Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
56 Plantin, Jean-Christophe and De Seta, Gabriele, ‘WeChat as infrastructure: The techno-nationalist shaping of Chinese digital platforms’, Chinese Journal of Communication, vol. 12, no. 3, 2019, pp. 257–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
57 Zhang, Yiqiong, Wang, Min and Ying, Li, ‘More than playfulness: Emojis in the comments of a WeChat official account’, Internet Pragmatics, vol. 4, no. 2, 2021, pp. 247–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
58 Haiqing, Yu and Sun, Wanning, ‘WeChat Subscription Accounts (WSAs) in Australia: A political economy account of Chinese-language digital/social media’, Media International Australia, vol. 179, no. 1, 2021, pp. 96–112.Google Scholar
59 Li, ‘A research on the strategies and influencing factors of police WeChat public platform’, pp. 137–141.
60 The New List, 2021, available at https://www.newrank.cn/ranklist/weixin, [accessed 23 October 2023].
61 Fairclough, Norman, Discourse and social change (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992).Google Scholar
62 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, pp. 155-182; Cooper, Samantha et al., ‘Media coverage of refugees and asylum seekers in regional Australia: A critical discourse analysis’, Media International Australia, vol. 162, no. 1, 2017, pp. 78–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
63 Van Dijk, Teun A., ‘Socio-cognitive discourse studies’, in The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), pp. 26–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
64 Hirschfield and Simon, ‘Legitimating police violence’, pp. 155–182.
65 Fairclough, Discourse and social change.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid.
68 Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Michael, Methods of critical discourse studies (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2015)Google Scholar; Fairclough, Discourse and social change.
69 ‘Powerful police, the sign of a great country (in Chinese)’, Guaerjia, published online on 12 January 2017, available at https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RVioUwn3a1py9684u8GClg, [accessed 11 October 2023].
70 Cheng, ‘Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence’, pp. 391-418; Walby, Kevin and Alabi, Babatunde, ‘Examining press conference and press release accounts of Canadian police shootings’, Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, vol. 61, no. 1, 2021, pp. 30–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
71 Scoggins, Suzanne E., ‘Authoritarian policing under Xi Jinping’, Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 28, no. 2, 2023, pp. 251–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
72 Yang, Yifan and Chen, Xuechen, ‘Globalism or nationalism? The paradox of Chinese official discourse in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak’, Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 26, 2021, pp. 89–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
73 Jiao, Allan Y., ‘Police and culture: A comparison between China and the United States’, Police Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 2, 2001, pp. 156–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
74 Liu et al., ‘Police supervisors’ work-related attitudes in China’, pp. 419–438.
75 Tyler, Tom R., ‘Procedural justice, legitimacy, and the effective rule of law’, Crime and Justice, vol. 30, 2003, pp. 283–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
76 Reuss-Ianni, Elizabeth, Two cultures of policing: Street cops and management cops (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2011).Google Scholar
77 Waegel, ‘How police justify the use of deadly force’, pp. 144–155.
78 Deuk Hyun, Ki and Kim, Jinhee, ‘The role of new media in sustaining the status quo: Online political expression, nationalism, and system support in China’, Information, Communication and Society, vol. 18, no. 7, 2015, pp. 766–781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
79 Jiao, ‘Police and culture’, pp. 156–189.
80 Chen, Zheng, ‘Job satisfaction among frontline police officers in China: The role of demographic, work-related, organizational and social factors’, Psychology, Crime and Law, vol. 24, no. 9, 2018, pp. 895–914.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
81 Li, Li, ‘High rates of prosecution and conviction in China: The use of passive coping strategies’, International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, vol. 42, no. 3, 2014, pp. 271–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
82 Chen, Feng and Tang, Mengxiao, ‘Labor conflicts in China: Typologies and their implications’, Asian Survey, vol. 53, no. 3, 2013, pp. 559–583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
83 Trevaskes, Susan, Courts and criminal justice in contemporary China (Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Lexington Books, 2007).Google Scholar
84 Qiongyou, Pu and Scanlan, Stephen J., ‘Communicating injustice? Framing and online protest against Chinese government land expropriation’, Information, Communication and Society, vol. 15, no. 4, 2012, pp. 572–590.Google Scholar
85 Harwit, Eric, ‘WeChat: Social and political development of China’s dominant messaging app’, Chinese Journal of Communication, vol. 10, no. 3, 2017, pp. 312–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
86 Bo Chen, Mark and Yang Wang, Wilfred, ‘Governing via platform during crisis: People’s Daily WeChat Subscription Account (SA) and the discursive production of COVID-19’, Communication Research and Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, 2022, pp. 166–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
87 Schneider, Florian, China’s digital nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
88 Chen and Wang, ‘Governing via platform during crisis’, pp. 166–180.
89 Schneider, Florian, ‘Emergent nationalism in China’s sociotechnical networks: How technological affordance and complexity amplify digital nationalism’, Nations and Nationalism, vol. 28, no. 1, 2022, pp. 267–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
90 Biddle, Bruce J., ‘Recent developments in role theory’, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 12, no. 1, 1986, pp. 67–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
91 Schneider, ‘Emergent nationalism in China’s sociotechnical networks’, pp. 267–285.
92 Zhang, Chenchen, ‘Right-wing populism with Chinese characteristics? Identity, otherness and global imaginaries in debating world politics online’, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 26, no. 1, 2020, pp. 88–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Speelman, Tabitha, ‘How China’s online nationalists constrain policymaking—the case of foreigners’ permanent residency reform’, Journal of Contemporary China, vol. 32, no. 144, 2023, pp. 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar