The mainland's top intelligence and security official has proposed building a centralised national population database, based on the identity card information of every adult citizen, to improve control of society.
If the plan materialises it would be the world's biggest identity database.
In an article published in Qiushi magazine yesterday, Zhou Yongkang, head of the Communist Party's political and legislative affairs commission and the Politburo Standing Committee member in charge of security and social stability, said social management was a top priority and would feature in promotion assessments for officials at all levels.
The article was entitled 'Strengthen and be innovative about social management - building and perfecting a social management system with Chinese characteristics'.
Qiushi, or 'Seeking Truth', is the flagship magazine of the Central Party School - the training ground that grooms the party elite.
Social management - party code for maintaining public order and boosting social-political stability - has become a buzzword in mainland politics since late February, when President Hu Jintao introduced the phrase at a Politburo meeting. A few days later, mysterious online postings began calling for peaceful Sunday afternoon protests in major mainland cities, modelled on the Arab world's 'jasmine revolutions'.
In the Qiushi article, Zhou said there was no time to waste in amending the law on residents' identity cards and setting up a dynamic management system based on the information they contained.