Public security authorities look to minimize terror attacks  

公安部一正两副部长齐考察 北京站特警昼夜持枪巡逻

State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun paid a visit to a railway station in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province on May 6, 2014. [Photo: weibo account of the Changsha police]Three senior officials from China's Ministry of Public Security inspected railway stations in Changsha, Beijing and Shanghai respectively late Tuesday, in the aftermath of a violent attack at the Guangzhou railway station earlier the same day, the third similar incident this year in the country.

State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun paid a visit to a railway station in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan province on Tuesday night.

The same night, Fu Zhenghua, deputy-minister with the Ministry of Public Security and director of Beijing's Public Security Bureau, visited four major railway stations in Beijing.

Liu Yanping, another deputy-minister, also inspected a railway station and a transport hub in Shanghai, as well as Suzhou railway station, which is located around 100 kilometers from the Shanghai city center.

The three senior officials all urged police to upgrade security in populous areas, in order to establish a quick response system to emergencies.

Liu also strengthened the importance of security for the upcoming Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), which is expected to be held in Shanghai on May 20 and 21.

Meanwhile, Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, vowed that law enforcement agencies and judicial departments will deploy new technologies to detect and remove security threats.

Violent terrorism is among the biggest security threats for China, says Feng Zhongping, deputy director of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

New defense systems and effective early-warning mechanisms are also called for by the China National Security Research Report.

Within the first half of this year, China has witnessed violence at different railway stations targeting ordinary people.

On April 30, three people were killed and 79 injured in an attack at a railway station in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

March 1, assailants killed 29 civilians and injured another 143 at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming, Yunnan province.

The two incidents have been confirmed as terrorist attacks.

On Tuesday morning, a male suspect carrying a knife attacked 6 people at a railway station in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou. The motive for this attack has yet to be confirmed.

In addition to incidents at train stations, according to the country's newly released national security blue book, the China National Security Research Report, 10 terrorist attacks happened in China during 2013.