China plans to crush its “enemies” who dare disturb the harmony and social order the CCP has strived to hard to create. Didn’t anyone tell them, the enemy is the Chinese people? (“We have met the enemy, and it is us.”)

China is preparing to “strike hard” against rising public unrest, a senior police official said according to state media on Thursday, highlighting the government’s fears for stability even as the economy booms.

An unnamed top official of China’s Ministry of Public Security told a Wednesday meeting that China faced a long period of dangerous social discontent, Xinhua news agency said.

“For a considerable time to come, our country will be in a period of pronounced contradictions within the people, high crime rates, and complex struggle against enemies,” the official said.

“Contradictions within the people” is a Maoist term used to describe domestic social unrest.

China was suffering many “major sudden incidents” — a term Chinese officials use to cover riots, protests and accidents — the official added.

“Unpredictable factors affecting social stability will increase, and trends in protecting social stability don’t allow for optimism,” said the official.

He also said that “terrorism is a real threat against our country” and urged officers to guard against attacks.

China says that its biggest terrorist threat comes from Xinjiang, the far western region dominated by the largely Muslim Uighur people who share a language and culture similar to Central Asian countries.

Uighur groups have campaigned for independence from China, and a few have had links with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Last week, China’s Ministry of Public Security put the total number of “mass incidents” — riots, demonstrations and smaller protests — at a total 87,000 last year, up 6.6 percent from 2004.

The latest unusually grim police diagnosis of China’s social strains comes less than a week after Premier Wen Jiabao was reported as warning that corrupt land seizures in the countryside were stoking protests and riots.

So why aren’t they going after the real “enemies” – the corrupt land seizers?

This incredibly gloomy scenario seems to shatter those myths of a unified China, staunchly supporting its heroes in the government who know, with Bush-like infallibility, what’s best for their people. It may be unified in the big cities where life is currently good. But not everywhere.