Wuxia fiction appears to occur in a lawless world. In many wuxia stories, law enforcement officials are either entirely absent or, if they do appear, are shown to be completely ineffectual to enforce laws against powerful wulin martial artists.

Interestingly, this is decidedly NOT the case in TVB's 1979 and 1984 CHOR LAU HEUNG series. Government law enforcement officials, including police inspectors, play notable roles in both series. While these police officials are never shown to be the most powerful martial artists, they are far from helpless and even powerful wulin figures give them wide berth and avoid confronting them unnecessarily. In CLH '84, especially, the police authorities often work together with Chor Lau Heung to go after troublemakers, and there's a respect between the heroes and the police that reminds me of Western superhero comics wherein the police often work in support of heroes such as Batman, Superman, the Avengers, etc.