China's Ministry of Public Security (MOPS) announced on its website on Tuesday that 85 percent of the country's police were fully equipped by the end of 2007.

The move came from the government's efforts to ensure police safety while performing duties. "Gone are the period when Chinese police performed duties with an empty hand," the ministry said.

To ensure police at grassroots level get adequate equipment and their gear is upgraded, central finance has worked with local governments to raise funds.Central finance has allocated 640 million yuan (about 90.1 million US dollars) for the country's central and western police departments, according to MOPS. Part of the funding was self-raised locally, the MOPS says. The ministry didn't elaborate on the exact spending of the national upgrading.

To ensure proper management of the equipment, the ministry set forth unified standards for the equipment and had stable suppliers, it said. New criteria for patrol cars, revolvers, tear gas, helmets and bullet- proof vests for police use were also put forward. The central government has subsidized grassroots police bureaus with 100 million yuan in ammunition, the MOPS said. A total of 27,000 police items worth of 16.6 million yuan were allocated to 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in case of emergency and disaster relief, according to the ministry.

In addition, the finance and commerce ministries jointly organized a team to check the quality of police uniforms in 24 provinces and ordered a prompt settlement of disqualified products. Police sometimes get hurt or die in emergencies when combating criminals empty handed. Official statistics released in November showed that 2,717 police had died in the line of duty over the past six years, with about 29,000 others injured.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 6, 2008)