As of the end of 2009, 46.6% of China’s population – 620 million people – now live in urban areas. If the country’s 211 million migrants are factored in, each urban community committee is now responsible for over 10,000 people. “As reform deepens and the economy continues to grow at a rapid pace, urban community committees now have a fundamentally different and significantly important responsibility: to maintain stability.” More incidents of social unrest are occurring due to heightened disputes pertaining to land use, eminent domain, pollution, income disparity, public security, and so on. “This requires that community committees establish a mechanism to resolve conflicts, … and resolve them at the grassroots level while they are minor.”
Source; People’s Daily, November 30, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1027/13349638.html