China's finest come under scrutiny of the fashion police

KODE PPC ANDA

China's police officers are polishing their belt buckles, pressing their shirts and leaving their bling at home. The fashion police are on patrol and China's finest are under scrutiny.

The drive to clean up China's image before next year's Olympics means the country's police have new orders. They include having no weirdly dyed hair, no beards, no sideburns and leaving the scarves and the jewellry for when they are off duty.

In the interest of ensuring "a good image for the people's police" the Ministry of Public Security has issued orders about what beat officers can and cannot wear in future.

"When police are in uniform on duty, they are not allowed to wear scarves or jewellery, paint their nails or have colourfully dyed hair," the Beijing News reported, citing the new fashion guidelines that are aimed at ensuring neatness. Anyone who has been dying their hair will have to re-dye it back to its natural colour.

In addition, male police officers cannot have long or curly hair, sideburns, shaved heads or grow beards, while female police officers cannot have their hair longer than shoulder length or wear nail varnish.

"Unless there is a specific job need or illness of the eye, police cannot wear coloured glasses," the new rules specify.

The list of fashion dos and don'ts also includes guidelines on behaviour. The police are banned from smoking in public and entering places of entertainment such as bars - unless for work - while in uniform, according to the regulations, which take effect this month.

And the Ministry of Public Security has made it clear that breaching the new rules could cost any offending fashionista police officer their job.

"Minor offenders will be lectured and asked to mend their ways. Those who repeatedly break the rules or whose behaviour has a detrimental impact could be sacked," say the fashion guidelines.

China's police officers are generally very well turned out, and for that reason a lot of the new rules seem redundant. But they are part of a broader campaign to make sure that public figures do not breach dress codes.

In April, Beijing banned female taxi drivers from dying their hair bright red or yellow and from wearing chunky earrings, in an effort to improve the city's image in time for the Olympics.

Last month, China's armed police were issued with new uniforms, including regular-issue clothing, combat suits with self-protecting functions and specialised uniforms for officers performing missions in bad weather and difficult driving conditions.

The powers-that-be are also working on designing anti-terrorism combat uniforms and new official protocol uniforms.

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