The General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council have recently issued a joint notice ordering local officials to avoid extravagant activities and maintain social stability during the upcoming New Year and Spring Festival holidays.

The notice urges localities to ensure that the people throughout the country will enjoy merry, peaceful and stable holidays, stressing that it is of great importance for safeguarding the overall situation of reform, development and stability.

Local officials should pay visit to retired Red Army men, ex-soldiers and injured and crippled army men, and the relatives of revolutionary martyrs, as well as model workers, poor and lone elders, and laid-off workers and jobless people and help them solve practical problems.

Efforts should be made to enrich people's life and step up battle against crimes of various kinds, the notice says.

This time's Spring Festival, the first day of the first month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, falls on February 9. It is the most important festival for Chinese families to get reunion, shopping and outing.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2004)