By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2011

...Beijing —....Chinese leaders are calling for new ways to defuse social unrest in what appears to be an ominous harbinger of tighter controls on the Internet and elsewhere.

Splashed across the front page of Monday's People's Daily newspaper were highlights of a speech given by President Hu Jintao at a Saturday meeting that included all nine members of the Politburo's standing committee and senior cadres from around the country.

Hu, in the speech at the Central Party School in Beijing, called on the nation to "enhance and complete management of information on the Internet" and to "establish a system of public opinion guidance on the Internet," according to excerpts. The speech also called for danwei, the work units to which Chinese traditionally belong, to enhance their roles in "social management"; for a database that would keep track of the movements of migrant populations; and to make clear the "social responsibilities" of private companies....

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China Co-Opts Social Media to Head Off Unrest
By Jeremy Page, Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2011

BEIJING—China's domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, added his voice to calls for tighter Internet controls as censors ratcheted up temporary online restrictions, a day after a failed attempt to use social-networking sites to start a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.

Mr. Zhou, one of the nine members of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision-making body, was quoted in official media Monday as saying Chinese officials needed to find new ways to defuse social unrest....