Everywhere in Beijing there areuniformed men. Standing toattention on little boxes outsidemy office building, dozing inbooths at file gales of apartment blocks and napping at desks in the lob-bies, guarding the entries to large privatecompanies, watching over bicycle parkinglots next to department stores, directing traffic under umbrellas, wandering among thecrowds at subway stations, beckolfing dri-vers into car parks on busy streels, patrollingparking lots at shopping centers, fiddlingwith their mobile phones at museum entries.