Liyuan Cheng, a visiting scholar from Beijing, China, and a lawyer working with Interpol, is spending the school year on the Pullman campus working with Otwin Marenin in Political Science and serving as a legal expert on international crime.

By Nella Letizia

In all, 178 countries are members of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol. They battle crimes involving human trafficking, stolen works of art, drugs, vehicle crime, terrorism and more using their own systems of law under one international umbrella. Penal codes and extradition laws differ considerably, but their mission doesn’t.

"We have the same goal: to fight crime and win," said Liyuan Cheng, a visiting scholar from Beijing, China, and a lawyer working with Interpol.

Cheng arrived at WSU Dec. 1 for nine months as part of Interpol’s endeavor to build better links between the world’s law enforcement bodies. Working with Otwin Marenin in Political Science, he is preparing lectures and serving as a legal expert on international crime.

"We are very interested in the criminal justice program at WSU," he added. "There are very good professors, some of whom have come to China to work for a couple of years."

WSU criminal justice professors also have contact with the International Criminal Justice Association, whose conference will be held in Hong Kong this year, Cheng said. The conference, along with other international law enforcement meetings and symposia, set the stage for exchanging ideas among countries.

"This makes us more confident to come to WSU, to have a more beneficial experience," he said.

Cheng has worked with Interpol since 1995, primarily responsible for daily maintaining information with other member countries. One of Interpol’s prime goals is ensuring that members have a rapid, reliable, secure and permanently available system for transmitting information to each other and to the organization’s general secretariat. That system, called X.400, links most of the 178 member countries and can supply information—on wanted criminals and stolen vehicles or works of art, for example—within minutes, Cheng said. The Chinese scholar also analyzes information to determine what countermeasures are needed, in some cases, and conducts his own investigations and pursuit of fugitives.

Another part of Cheng’s job is attending international conferences. Interpol’s general secretariat periodically holds seminars on specific crimes agents are encountering and possible approaches. More than information gathering, however, the conferences unite the law enforcement officers of the globe regularly.

"I think this is why I’m here," he said. "You have to know counterparts in other parts of the world to build better cooperation."

Asked about the differences between law enforcement in China and the United States, Cheng said division of power is favored here, with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies working more autonomously, but also cooperatively. In China, an internal Ministry of Public Security is in charge of the country’s law enforcement affairs. From the ministry, as well as from government at all levels, authority is passed down to public security departments at the provincial level and public security bureaus locally. In fact, most of Interpol’s member countries have the same internal ministry infrastructure.

"We have the whole system like this, and it works very well," he said. "In the beginning, I was confused as to how (the U.S. system) works. Even with the division of power, it still works. You have to use your own method to meet different challenges."

Coming to WSU has sparked a desire to study other aspects of law enforcement between the two countries, such as extradition procedures and penal law. Eventually, he would like to return to the United States with his wife, Yang Liu, and 11-month-old daughter, Sion, and pursue a graduate degree at WSU.

"This is a very excellent university," he said. "I have a better feeling about campus life."

Such a return also cements future international law enforcement cooperation between the United States and China. Cheng said a friend likened the law enforcement relationship between the two countries to the Great Wall of China, the 6,700-kilometer wall involving countless millions of hands building it stone by stone.

"We want to build up a relationship as stable as the Great Wall," he added. "The people from the two countries are expected to make their efforts to this relationship. Economic globalization and the ease of international travel have made crime transnational and linked law enforcement agencies throughout the world. If there is no cooperation, there is no way to fight crime and win."