Snow Leopard Commando Unit

Snow Wolf Commando Unit
The arm patch formerly used by SWCU operators
Active	December 2002 (existence only revealed on 29 August 2006) - Present
Country	People's Republic of China
Branch	People's Armed Police
Type	Special Forces
Role	Counter-Terrorism
Size	400 officers
Part of	As the 3rd Group of the 13th Detachment under the PAP's Beijing General Corps
Colors	White with blood specks
March	Goose step
Engagements	Conducted security operations in the 2008 Summer Olympics Counter-terrorist operations in Xinjiang province Security missions in Afghanistan Guards of the Chinese embassy and officials in Iraq

Conducted security operations in the 2008 Summer Olympics

Counter-terrorist operations in Xinjiang province

Security missions in Afghanistan

The Snow Leopard Commando Unit (Simplified Chinese: 雪豹突击队), formerly known as the Snow Wolf Commando Unit (Abbreviation: SWCU; Simplified Chinese: 雪狼突击队) is a special operations unit of the People's Republic of China under the People's Armed Police, tasked with counter-terrorism, riot control, and other special tasks such as anti-hijacking and bomb disposal. The SLCU, along with Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's Beijing SWAT unit, was tasked with many of the security responsibilities of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Officially, the SLCU is known as the 3rd Group, 13th Detachment, People's Armed Police Beijing General Corps.

The former Snow Wolf name was bestowed on the unit because of the known tenacity of Arctic wolves and their ability to both survive and thrive in extremely harsh conditions.

After its secret establishment in October 2002, the Snow Wolf Commando Unit (SWCU) trained out of the public eye for five years. The SWCU and the Beijing SWAT unit were unveiled in a demonstration at the Beijing Police Academy on 27 April 2006 as part of a public relations effort to illustrate the capabilities of the People's Armed Police to deal with terrorism, the protection of delegates, and to enforce law and order in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The SWCU had participated in anti-terrorist exercises with Russia on 4 September 2007 known as "Cooperation-2007." SWCU operators have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to protect Chinese diplomatic personnel.