BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- "If you are in trouble, seek help from a cop." The household saying in China shows the people's trust in the country's police force, which boasts the title "the Chinese People's Police."

Sunday marks the first Chinese People's Police Day, which falls on every Jan. 10, corresponding with the country's emergency call number of 110.

The decision on the introduction of this festival was approved in July last year by the Chinese central authorities in recognition of the extraordinary work of the country's public security guardians.

THOUGHTFUL HELPER

For 14 days last April, Fu Tianlei, a "community policeman" in Beijing, played multiple roles as a medic, cleaner and delivery man simultaneously for a resident quarantined at home alone.

Taking body temperatures twice a day, delivering three meals and dumping the trash, Fu was willing to multitask "if what I did could reduce the risk of infection in other people and make the life of the person in quarantine easier," he said.

After his quarantine ended, the man took a deep bow of gratitude to Fu at the door. "I felt everything was worth it at that moment," recalled the 37-year-old police officer.

Stationed in Beijing's Fengtai District, Fu was barely home when COVID-19 was at its peak in the national capital last February. He was shuttling between his office, the residential communities and a designated COVID-19 treatment hospital under his jurisdiction and could only take some naps in his office or patrol car.

Seeing how exhausted the doctors and nurses were while combating the coronavirus, Fu coordinated with several nearby hotels to offer them temporary accommodation so that they could get more and better sleep.

The officer also voluntarily escorted the medics to the hotels at midnight every day when they finished their shifts. He did this for nearly two months till the epidemic was under control.

Chinese police officers have been mobilized nationwide to help stem the spread of coronavirus whenever there is an outbreak, maintaining security and stability while offering various kinds of help.

In the first half of 2020, 169 police officers died on duty across the country amid the fight against COVID-19, according to statistics provided by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

ECOLOGICAL SECURITY GUARDIAN

Yao Di is one of more than 300 water police officers posted in the Poyang Lake area in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province.

"Migratory birds, finless porpoises and other rare species are the special 'residents' I focus on guarding," said Yao.

As Asia's largest habitat for wintering migratory birds, the Poyang Lake is home to 98 percent of the world's white cranes and over 80 percent of the oriental white storks over the winter seasons.

Among some 1,000 finless porpoises still left on the planet, about half have made the lake their home.

Patrolling with his colleagues every day, Yao is familiar with every part of the water in its Nanchang section. "We regard the killing of an endangered animal here as a homicide," said Yao, who has been working in this field for 24 years.

Due to the vast area of the lake, when police received a report of poaching activities and rushed to the scene, it was often too late to catch the suspects or collect evidence.

Since last year, Jiangxi has applied 5G technology in the combat against illegal hunting and fishing in the lake area, using drones equipped with a smart system to cover the previously blind spots of daily patrol, with a diameter of more than 10 km per drone.

The city of Nanchang is also planning to install more than 400 video cameras and other ship-borne equipment around the lake and set up over 10 cruise stations of drones in sparsely populated bank areas.

"Smart devices can automatically identify signs of crime, thus illegal fishing and hunting can be detected in time and stopped quickly," said Yao.

The provincial public security department, along with other departments, also carried out joint patrol and law enforcement in the key water spaces of Poyang last year, during which 65 illegal and criminal acts were exposed, and more than 50 disputes were solved.

With the three-dimensional inspections from the shore, in the air and on the water, Yao said he is confident to create a safer living environment for the "residents" of Poyang Lake.

SACRIFICE HONORED

In China, the people's police are those who have sacrificed the most and contributed the greatest to the general public in peacetime.

Since the founding of New China in 1949, more than 14,000 police officers have lost their lives while performing their duties, according to the MPS.

China has also sent over 2,700 police officers to nine countries and regions as peacekeepers over the past 20 years, including Timor-Leste, Liberia and Haiti. Eight officers have lost their lives in those missions.

It was on the early morning of Jan. 10, 1986 when the first 110 call was received in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, as the country just introduced its new nationwide emergency report and response system.

Today, Chinese police receive an average of 300,000 emergency calls daily, said the MPS.

Meanwhile, the number of serious and violent crimes reported across the country has been declining for 10 consecutive years.

Homicides per 100,000 people are among the lowest levels in the world, making China one of the safest countries on the planet, and the Chinese people's satisfaction rate with public order is as high as 95.55 percent, added the ministry.

Addressing a national teleconference of public security authorities celebrating the Chinese People's Police Day, Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, stressed practising the mission of being loyal to the Party, serving the people and being impartial in law enforcement and strict in discipline through concrete actions.

Zhao Kezhi, China's state councilor and minister of public security, urged the country's police to faithfully perform their duties to safeguard national security and social stability.