Leader inspects Beijing's security "moat" before congress

China's top security chief on Monday stressed firm efforts to ensure stability in Beijing as the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opens on Thursday. Zhou Yongkang, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, made the remarks while inspecting a security "moat" project created in areas encircling Beijing for the congress' smooth holding. He toured two checkposts on major roads leading to Beijing, with one in Xianghe County of Hebei Province, and the other in Tongzhou district on the capital's outskirts, and talked to police officers and volunteers posted there. At the Baimiao Public Security Checkpost of Tongzhou, Zhou also used a video command system to review security measures taken by authorities in Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Shandong for the "moat" of security checkposts around Beijing. Zhou, also a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, urged authorities in Beijing and surrounding regions to cooperate to form a "solid defense... thus creating a safe, orderly, auspicious and peaceful environment for the successful holding of the 18th CPC National Congress." He was accompanied by Wang Lequan, deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, and Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu on the tour. It came after Sunday's conclusion of a key plenum of the CPC Central Committee. The 18th CPC National Congress is expected to make strategic arrangements for the overall advancement of China's reform and opening-up and socialist modernization drive.