China has ordered its police to behave well and improve their services to the public as the country marks the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The Ministry of Public Security has launched a one-year inspection campaign in Beijing and other cities hosting Olympic events as well as major tourist cities to ensure a polite, standard and efficient police services to citizens and foreign visitors.

The inspection mainly deals with police who take a bad attitude towards the public and do not wear standard uniforms and insignia.

An inspection team will oversee police service departments such as community police stations, traffic police brigades, patrolling cops, border entrance and exit offices, reception rooms for foreigners, border checkpoints, visa application centers and police alarm "110" phones.

Police who smoke, chew food, chat or use chilly words in front of the public will be immediately punished by inspectors on the spot, says the ministry, adding the inspection team will find out whether the police can take proper, immediate and effective actions when the public, especially foreigners, ask for help.

The campaign, which is a part of the overall Olympic security deployment, is aimed at maintaining a sound order for the upcoming congress of the Communist Party of China and the Olympic Games next August, and setting a good image of the Chinese police, according to the ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2007)