BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official on Monday asked the border public security force to rely on the people to safeguard national security and social stability in the country's border areas.

    Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when he met with model individuals and groups of the border public security force.

Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, also the secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, meets with model individuals and groups of the border public security force in Beijing, capital of China, on June 8, 2009. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin) Photo Gallery>>>

    He asked the force to organize and mobilize people of different ethnic groups to participate in border defense to "form prevention and control network", which incorporated the strengths of both the public and the police.

    The border public security force should make special efforts in the "prevention of and crackdown on the sabotage activities by separatists, terrorists and extremists forces, illegal border-crossing smuggling, drug and human trafficking," he said.

    Most of China's border areas are economically under-developed or inhabited by ethnic minority people, said Zhou, who is also the secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee.

    The border public security force must innovate and actively serve the local people, get to know their difficulties, timely handle public security cases, and dissolve their disputes, he said.

    The border public security force, listed as a component of the People's Armed Police Force (PAPF), is an armed law-enforcement body deployed by the state in border and coastal areas and at ports.

    Since 2007, it has arrested 4,400 illegal border crossers, seized 3,806 kg of drugs, seized smuggled goods worth 620 million yuan (about 90.7 million U.S. dollars), cracked 19,205 criminal cases and handled 60,063 violations of public security, according to a white paper on national defense released earlier this year.