China's Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun said Russia and Central Asian countries must impose stricter control over the Internet to prevent "external forces" from trying to overthrow their governments.

Guo made this statement at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security alliance consisting of China, Russia and the six Central Asian countries of Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan that were once part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

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Guo also told fellow security officials of the SCO that these external forces were using the Internet to "provoke a new wave of color revolutions."

By "color revolutions," Guo was referring to the Russian term for the street protests that overthrew leaders in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan over the past decade.

"This is a serious threat to the sovereignty and security of countries in the region and is a shared concern of the SCO member states," said Guo.

Political analysts said Guo was obviously referring to Western nations as those "external forces" and are alarmed that China and the other SCO member states might soon impose further restrictions on Internet access.

Guo also accused Western nations of using the social-economic contradictions and problems to try to overthrow the authorities in other countries.

To counter the efforts of these external forces, Guo asked SCO member states to develop measures "to counteract interference in internal affairs from abroad, strengthen management of non-government organizations and control over social networks in order to discover, analyze, counter and regulate factors of uncertainty and avoid repeats of color revolution scenarios."

Guo, who describes himself as a politician and a businessman, was appointed Minister of Public Security in December 2012. He was formerly boss of the Communist Party in Guangxi and spent over two decades in state-owned enterprises and the non-ferrous metal industry before entering politics in 2004.