Combat efficiency of police to be boosted
Two top generals have pledged to boost the "combat effectiveness" of the paramilitary police to curb growing unrest. Western hostile forces, ethnic separatists, religious extremists and terrorists had been "running wild for some time" in Mainland.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Two top generals have pledged to boost the "combat effectiveness" of the paramilitary police to curb growing unrest, a Communist Party publication reported.
Protests have become increasingly common on the mainland - 74,000 in 2004 compared with 58,000 in 2003 - despite the leadership's obsession with stability.
The million-strong People's Armed Police should "truly become an extremely combat-effective force to deal with sudden incidents", PAP commander Wu Shuangzhan and political commissar Sui Mingtai wrote in Qiushi.
"Western hostile forces have never abandoned political plots to westernise and divide our country," the generals wrote in the magazine, published twice a month by the party's elite 198-member Central Committee.
Ethnic separatists, religious extremists and terrorists had been "running wild for some time" in neighbouring regions, creating disturbances, sabotaging and threatening national security and social stability, they wrote.
The generals singled out separatists in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang , the democracy movement and Falun Gong movement, banned by Beijing in 1999 as a cult.
The mainland is grappling with an acknowledged rise in rural unrest, sparked by public anger over issues ranging from land grabs without proper compensation, pollution and official corruption to a yawning wealth gap.
In December, police opened fire on residents of Dongzhou village in Shanwei, Guangdong, who were protesting against a lack of compensation for land appropriated for a new power plant. The government says three villagers were killed.
National emergency response measures issued this month require local officials to get news of unrest straight into the hands of central leaders. Cover-ups by local officials are common to avoid hurting their chances of promotion.
.png)
12/12/2005
25/05/2006
01/10/2004
