Central Chinese authorities charged with upholding social
stability announced their goals for 2007 at a January 16 conference of the Central Committee for
the Comprehensive Management of Public Security, according to a transcript of
the event.  Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang noted
that these include 1) resolution of citizen grievances, 2) continued focus
on the official “strike hard” campaign against crime, and 3) stronger social
management, particularly of China’s
migrant population.   

Participants
in the meeting offered divergent depictions of Chinese social order. Vice-Minister of Public Security Liu Jinguo
announced that the total number of criminal cases filed during 2006 held
“basically the same” as in 2005, and that the number of mass incidents declined
by 16.5 percent during the same period.  In contrast, Chen noted that “overall
problems, it must be observed, such as criminal cases and public order cases,
including mass incidents, are still hovering at high levels, and their decrease
has been limited.” Liu repeated a warning from a 2006 report issued by the
general office of the MPS that stated, “stability has been achieved under
increasingly tough security measures, and the foundations of public order are
relatively weak.” He also linked need to
appropriately handle mass incidents to central efforts to
effectively address citizen grievances in 2007.

Vice-Minister
Liu set forth several steps that Chinese authorities will pursue to improve
both the “management” and the “service” of China’s
migrant population. These include:

• Raising the
  numbers of Chinese migrants who are registered (under China’s
  system of temporary residence permits for migrants).

• Strongly
  controlling and tracking the “targeted” population.

• Using systems of “managing
  people through housing.” Strengthening management and tracking of
  individuals residing in short-term rental housing. Conducting concentrated cleanup operations of disorderly migrant areas.

• Gradually
  pursuing reforms to the household registration [hukou] system, unifying rural and urban
  hukou registration.

Chen
Jiping, head of the general office of the CCMPS, noted that peaceful construction
(ping’an jianshe) was a primary goal for 2006. Both Chen and other participants emphasized the need to rely on official work performance targets set through responsibility systems as a means to meet social stability goals.