Actor Wang Qianyuan and actress Liu Shishi in The Battle at the Dawn. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A TV series about China's first generation of policemen under the Communist Party of China will air on Beijing Satellite TV on March 3.

The Battle at the Dawn, with the Ministry of Public Security as one of the producers, is based on a group of Chinese policemen in Harbin, the capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, in 1946.

After World War II, Harbin became the first large city in China to be liberated by the Communists.

The Vice-Minister for Public Security, Chen Zhimin, says the series will shed light on Chinese policemen.

Chinese policemen have a lot of similarities with FBI agents. But while Hollywood movies make FBI agents into screen heroes, the series will make the policemen heroes for the public, he says.

Actress Liu Shishi in The Battle at the Dawn.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Liu Jiang, the director, says the production is a salute to the first generation of Communist policemen who tackled criminals in a complex environment.

Despite the nature of the subject, the series has star power.

Wang Qianyuan, a veteran actor who won the best actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for The Piano In A Factory in 2011, plays the lead as the public security bureau chief, Cheng Qiang, in Harbin.

Wang says that he learned a lot about the risks of police work during the shooting. He says that there are nearly 6,000 fatalities among the police in China every year.

Actress Liu Shishi, known for a series of fantasy epics, will star as a Kuomintang spy in the series.

Actor Wang Qianyuan [Photo provided to China Daily]

Actor Wang Qianyuan and actress Liu Shishi [Photo provided to China Daily]