China tightens security ahead of holidays

(CNN)-- Chinese police are taking extra precaution to maintain public safety duringthe upcoming National Day holidays.

A source close to security departments in Beijing said more police would be deployed to guard public places such as railway stations, bus depots, airports, skyscrapers, squares, and large department stores during the week-long vacation next week.

"More security personnel will be deployed in places with large congregations of people," the source said.

"Prime targets includes disaffected Chinese such as the unemployed letting off bombs to vent their frustration at the existing order."

The special security measures will be in place right through Chinese New Year early next year.

Soon after the terrorist attacks on the United States, President Jiang Zemin asked Politburo member Luo Gan to make a thorough check on national security.

Luo, a veteran expert on law and order, is expected to look at weak links in the country's security measures -- as well as the underlying courses of discontent in society.

For example, under Luo's orders, security and fire-safety standards in skyscrapers throughout the nation have been beefed up.

Cities have been told not to compete with each other regarding the number and height of buildings. Restrictions have also been imposed on the use of aircraft by companies such as tour agencies.

Diplomatic analysts in Beijing said the authorities were much more worried about the unemployed than armed terrorists from Xinjiang Autonomous Region.In the past two years, jobless Chinese from both cities and the countryside have perpetrated quasi-terrorist actions such as the bombing of vehicles and buildings.

They said the only good news for China's security personnel was that members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement had been lying low to avoid further arrests.