ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a recurring theme from the author's research on Chinese security politics: the idea that China is incredibly safe. In Mandarin, the word for security, anquan, also means safe, secure, or stable. In the everyday use of the word it is often associated with crime, and China does indeed have low levels of violent crime. But the linguistic ambiguity inherent in the word anquan, blending and blurring security, safety, and even stability, has profound impacts for how the very idea of security is understood, negotiated, and interacted with, in China. China's historical experience, political system, and contemporary context has produced different and more varied understandings of security which do not always fit the expectations of Eurocentric security theories. Security also filters into everyday spaces in an unprecedented way: from widespread propaganda videos and posters about security on the streets, in the subway, and in shopping malls, to growing numbers of security personnel patrolling the streets.
