Chengguan (agency)

Chengguan (城管; 'Urban management', short for 城市管理执法; 'Urban Management and Law Enforcement') is an administrative practice of city-level local governments in the People's Republic of China to oversee and manage city appearance and public environments according to the region's bylaws. Chengguan are non-sworn civil agencies and are not entitled police powers. Numerous incidents have occurred over the years involving Chengguan seriously wounding innocents and even beating people to death in public.

Although varied by region, the responsibilities of Chengguan are usually to maintain urban management order, sanitary environment and city appearance, and carry out urban management by law enforcement, environmental protection supervision and other work.

According to an order from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2017, the scope of administrative penalties for urban management enforcement has been strictly limited to those specified in the laws, regulations, and rules related to the housing and urban-rural construction sector, as well as the administrative penalties related to environmental protection management, business administration, traffic management, water affairs management, and areas of food and drug supervision that pertain to urban management.