The year ahead will challenge Chinese security officials increasingly nervous about social stability, the nation's top police officer said Tuesday, amid concerns about gang violence, separatism and dissident plans to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.
Leaders are particularly anxious about how the cooling economy, and the accompanying loss of jobs, will affect social order.

"The present situation of maintaining national security and social stability is grave," Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu warned leading officers in Beijing, official state media reported Tuesday.