MAJOR social conflicts including racial and religious disputes surged in China last year, jeopardising stability, the Public Security Ministry said in a report to the National People's Congress.
The number of petitions, demonstrations, rallies, strikes in factories and markets, and boycotts of school classes rose sharply.
The report said most of the cases were because of delays in payment of wages for workers and teachers, price rises, resettlement caused by urban re-development, hefty levies on peasants and the reclamation of farmland.
Some erupted as a result of racial and religious problems, it said.
''As the disputes directly hinged upon the interests of a group of people, some incidents were of a larger scale and lasted for a long period of time. They involved more people.
''Over the past year, these incidents have increased. [We] should have a high degree of vigilance over the problem,'' the report said.
