Caught in action at an "anti-terror drill" in Beijing on May 15th, this is unmistakably a Ford F-250 Super Duty in Chinese SWAT Police livery on their 6th Ring Road. Ford doesn't sell the Super Duty in China, so how the hell did that happen?

Ford is not offering F-250s in any capacity in the People's Republic, fleet or otherwise. We know how much the Chinese love to , but this looks way too tidy to be a knockoff. Every line is Ford F-250, down to the indicators on the towing mirrors.

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There are some Chinese companies officially partnered with Ford to bring some Blue Oval vehicles to the Chinese market, but again... no Super Duty in any of those agreements.

So is this a takeover-conspiracy between Ford and the Chinese government? I'm gonna go with no... but the only explanation I can reckon is that the F-250s in this photo, and any others in the Chinese police motorpool, were imported through some kind of grey-market. Then it seems like it'd be simple enough for the Chinese DMV-equivalent to give the cops some license plates and send them on their way.

Getty's caption for the image above claims "two police helicopters and more than 30 special vehicles" were involved in the exercise we're seeing. I can make out at least two F-250s and what looks like an older Ford Transit van, but the rest of the vehicles are too far away to identify.

Image: ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images