China will take stronger measures to resolve social contradictions to ensure a harmonious and stable society this year, a senior Chinese official in charge of public security affairs has said.

The remarks from Chen Jiping, the deputy director of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, were published in the Monday issue of Outlook Weekly. The comments came after repeated calls from the Chinese leadership for enhanced social management and innovations over the matter.

As a measure to tackle social conflicts, risk assessment on social stability should be taken before making any decision on major projects and policies, Chen told the Beijing-based magazine. "We shall not allow inappropriate decision-making to cause social conflicts," he said.

Professional mediation organizations would be established or enhanced to play a bigger role in resolving conflicts in sectors such as home demolitions, labor disputes, medical disputes, food and drug safety, intellectual property rights and traffic accidents.

More efforts should be taken to investigate cases exposed by letters of complaints and visits, with special attention given to prominent problems affecting social stability, he said.

Chen, who is also the deputy secretary-general of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, vowed to further crack down on gangs, violent crimes and property-related crimes.

Crime prevention and control mechanism in villages, towns and communities should be strengthened, he said.

Statistics showed that in the first 11 months of last year, Chinese police investigated 5.34 million criminal cases, up by 7.5 percent year-on-year.

During the same period, prosecutors nationwide investigate 32,039 work-related crimes, up 3.1 percent year-on-year, and the courts accepted 9.75 million cases. There were still frequent occurrence of mass incidents.

The figures indicated that the task of addressing social contradictions and combating crimes is extremely heavy this year, and even in the next five years, Chen said.

Prominent problems

Chen warned that a number of problems were still prominent, such as gang crime, robbery, prostitution and gambling, land and labor disputes, crimes committed by the migrant population, and weak social management in certain poor urban areas and the outskirts of cities.

Chen ascribed the problems to imbalanced and uncoordinated development between urban and rural areas and a wide income gap. "Since the social management and service is lagging behind social development, we may frequently face social contradictions," he said.

"We have to fight against prominent social conflicts and frequent crimes for a long time," he noted.

However, China's national security and social stability are also challenged by hostile external forces that aims to contain China's development, he said.

"Some hostile Western forces always intentionally stage various incidents to interfere in our domestic affairs under the banner of safeguarding rights," Chen said, noting that this was a prominent problem faced by China on the international stage.

The report was published days after Chinese President Hu Jintao said that the country is "still in a stage where many social conflicts are likely to arise. There are still many problems in China's social management" despite its remarkable development.

Hu urged provincial and ministerial-level officials at a high-profile seminar on Saturday to recognize the significance of social management improvement and innovations, which is a prerequisite for pushing forward the country's development and building a harmonious socialist society.

Back in October last year, 35 cities and counties were listed as pilot areas for social management innovation, with focus on improving management and service for special groups, according to Chen.

For example, 16 cities among the pilot areas are exploring ways to prevent juvenile delinquency.

All the pilot cities and counties would spend one to two years to form a structure of social management, comprising Party committee leadership, government responsibility, nongovernmental support and public participation.