Industrial security provides specific services to corporate management, a number of which do not belong in the realm of government. Any conflicts between government and corporations will not be well served by a government controlled in-house security force with intelligence responsibilities. China already has an industrial security force numbering in excess of 200,000. It has time and opportunity to develop a private security profession. What is necessary is a clean split with the Ministry of Public Security in the area of control.
Law enforcement has a role in guidance, training, and even certification.
However, industrial security needs a separate cadre of professional practitioners who have been trained in the body of security knowledge formulated over the past forty years. If China perceives this change as a requirement of industrial joint venture partners and investors, they will initiate the change. They have exhibited great adaptability in the past by making operational adjustments to insure the success of a greater goal. Industrial security is only one small piece of China's complicated movement from a Marxist Command Society to the proposed Socialist Market Economy. About the author - Mr. Quigley participated in the first industrial security delegation to China hosted by the Ministry of Public Security in 1994.