World Tibet Network News Friday, April 24, 1998

HONG KONG, April 24 (AFP) - China has set up a special office to deal with various threats such as labour unrest associated with the economic reforms, a news report here said Friday.

The Chinese Communist Party has set up an "Office on Maintaining Social Stability" to defuse various threats coming from laid-off workers, disgruntled farmers and an underground political organisation, sources cited by the South China Morning Post said.

The unnamed sources said the move reflected fears on the part of the leadership that socio-political stability was worsening and could threaten economic reform and the party's hold on power.

The sources said Politburo Standing Committee member Wei Jianxing has been named to head the new office after a recent politburo meeting.

The office will also "combat infiltration by hostile foreign forces and ethnic unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet," a security source said.

"However, its top priority is to ensure that increasingly frequent labour disturbances in different cities will not escalate into a crisis," the source said.

The office is said to function as a steering committee in laying down policies for defusing unrest.

It will co-ordinate efforts by the police, ministry of state security and the people's armed plice as well as departments handling ideology and propaganda, trade unions, social security and ethnic minorities."