According to a latest survey by Horizon Group among 4,128 permanent residents aged between 18 and 60, the sense of public security of Chinese urban and rural dwellers has been declining since 2003, China Youth Daily reports.

Experts attribute the result to the concentrated eruption of all kinds of social conflicts, saying it is caused, to a certain degree, by widening urban-rural gap and more transparent social information.

In the survey, residents' security sense index was 3.53 in 2005, lower than the 3.62 in 2004 and more so compared to the 3.66 in 2003.

Researchers found that the figure for urban residents rises slightly but that for rural residents drops rather sharply, resulting in the biggest gap in four years.

The index indicates a trend of continuous decrease since its first rise in 2003. Conclusion made by both the National Bureau of Statistics and the non-governmental Horizon Group showed that the Chinese public felt less and less safe from late 1990s to 2003. The figure rose sharply in 2003 but again took on a decline since 2004.

The survey result is an objective reflection of the present social psychology of the ordinary people, said professor Wang Taiyuan from the Chinese People's Public Security University.

The increasing transparency of social information, especially negative reports, has cast an effect on people's mind, said Wang. Last year in particular, the state lifted the ban on releasing the death toll of major natural disasters. It can be predicted that people will get more and more such reports in the future and this is a sign of social progress. Imbalance in social development, especially the widening rural-urban gap, triggered the sudden outbreak of various social conflicts, along with public order offences and crimes on the rise. As a result, such an imbalance has posed a heavier psychological burden on people and made them more sensitive to public security.

By People's Daily Online