Snow Leopard Commando Unit
The Snow Leopard Commando Unit (Simplified Chinese: 雪豹突击队), formerly known as the Snow Wolf Commando Unit (Abbreviation: SWCU; Simplified Chinese: 雪狼突击队), is a highly elite police tactical unit of the People's Republic of China under the People's Armed Police (PAP), tasked with counterterrorism, hostage rescue, riot control, serving high-risk arrest and search warrants, and other special tasks such as anti-hijacking, anti-WMD terrorism, bomb disposal, counterinsurgency, crowd control, law enforcement tactics against crime, VBSS, VIP protection. The SLCU, along with Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's SWAT unit (under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS)), was tasked with many of the security responsibilities of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
| Snow Leopard Commando Unit | |
|---|---|
| 雪豹突击队 (Chinese) | |
The arm patch formerly used by SWCU operators | |
| Active | December 2002 (existence only revealed on 29 August 2006) – present |
| Country | China |
| Agency | People's Armed Police |
| Type | Police tactical unit |
| Role | |
| Part of | Beijing General Corps |
| Abbreviation | SLCU |
| Structure | |
| Officers | 400 |
| Notables | |
| Significant operation(s) |
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Officially, the SLCU is known as the 3rd Group, 13th Detachment, People's Armed Police Beijing General Corps.
The former "Snow Wolf" name was bestowed on the unit because of the known tenacity of Arctic wolves and their ability to both survive and thrive in extremely harsh conditions.