A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official urged local governments to solve outstanding problems in maintaining social stability, while touring the southern province of Guangdong between April 8 and 9.

Luo Gan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said maintaining social harmony and stability during the course of economic reform was a great test to the Party's ruling capacity.

Luo, also secretary of the CPC Central Committee's Committee of Political Science and Law, visited local courts, political bureaus and private enterprises in the cities of Foshan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Shenzhen as part of an in-depth study on maintaining stability.

He urged local judges and police to strictly follow the "scientific conception of development," handle the relationship between reform and stability and try their best to resolve destabilizing factors.

Luo also asked them to improve law enforcement capabilities and maintain judicial justice.

Meanwhile, Liu Yunshan, head of the CPC Central Committee's Department of Publicity, visited central China's Hubei Province from April 6 to 9 and urged officials there to widen access to services and cultural life to people with economic difficulties.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2005)