Vice-President Xi Jinping has been put in charge of a massive public security campaign to prevent and respond swiftly to any possible social unrest this year, sources say.
The Communist Party leadership is facing several politically sensitive anniversaries at a time when economic growth is faltering and unemployment soaring - which could lead to social discord.
Zhou Yongkang, another Politburo Standing Committee member and the top official in charge of law and order, and Meng Jianzhu, the national police chief and a state councillor, are Mr Xi's deputies on the central government taskforce in charge of the campaign, the sources say.
The taskforce, made up of top party, government and police officials, is believed to have been set up before the Lunar New Year.
All provinces and municipalities have also been required to set up similar taskforces, headed by their deputy party secretaries and assisted by local police and law enforcement chiefs. In the Communist Party hierarchy, the deputy party secretary is the top official in charge of a province's political and party affairs.
Under the programme, governments below provincial and municipal level have also been asked to assign a top party official and police and law enforcement chiefs to oversee social stability and report to the security taskforces, sources familiar with the process say.
The local taskforces will also include officials from local economic and labour departments, government-sanctioned trade unions and the Communist Youth League, the sources said.