Formation | 1949 |
---|---|
Type | Security Department |
Location |
|
Membership
|
4,000 personnel |
Director
|
Major General Wang Shaojun |
Parent organization
|
General Office of the Communist Party of China Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission |
Affiliations | Administrative Bureau of the Mao Mauseleum |
Mission | Protect top leaders of communist party of china and PLA |
The Central Security Bureau (Chinese: 中央警卫局, also called Unit 8341, and less commonly, Unit 57001) or The Central Guard Unit (sometimes as the Central Guard Regiment) is the chief Security Detail military bureau responsible for the security of senior Chinese government, Communist Party, and military leaders.
Activated in 1949, in Xibaipo, Hebei, the bureau was an independent PLA security regiment that did not report to the Beijing Military Region. Instead, it was subordinated to the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission and commanded by a Senior Colonel of the People’s Armed Police.
When first formed in 1949, this unit included a single brigade consisted of 3 regiments, with the largest one being the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Public Security Army (PSA, 公安军) of PLA. The 5th Regiment and the 6th Regiment were from PLA units in Shandong and Northeast China respectively. Due to its important missions, the brigade sized unit was given a division unit status, and hence its original name, the 2nd Division of the PSA (公安二师) of PLA. Two years later, the unit was renamed as the Central Guard Division (中央警卫师) in 1951, and the 4th, 5th & 6th Regiments were renamed as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiment respectively, with the 1st regiment being the largest, totaling more than a thousand soldiers.
On Jun 9, 1953, the unit went through another and its most significant reorganization. The 1st Regiment of the 2nd Division of the PSA of PLA became an independent unit in Zhongnanhai, sole responsible for the missions of VIP protection. The regiment was renamed as the Central Guard Regiment (中央警卫团), and was placed under the direct control of the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China (MPS of PRC). A 9th Bureau was formed within the MPS for the new missions, with future Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Dongxing as the bureau chief, Zhang Yaosi (张耀祠) as the deputy bureau chief, reporting directly to the then MPS Minister Luo Ruiqing. After Luo Ruiqing's fall from power in 1965, Wang Dongxing was put in charge as the party boss of the regiment, and eventually he would be removed from this important position after his own downfall from power after the end of Cultural Revolution.