Jia Qinglin, who is ranked number four in the Communist Party leadership, made the comments at a meeting Thursday attended by the police minister and officials from Tibet and four Tibetan-inhabited provinces.
His comments came as leading Tibetan poet Woeser - who like many Tibetans only goes by one name - said she had been placed under a form of house arrest in Beijing and prevented from accepting an award.
"Currently the Dalai clique is plotting to create disturbances in Tibet and in Tibetan-inhabited areas in four provinces," said Jiang, referring to followers of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"Party and governments at all levels must side with the masses and implement all working measures to resolutely smash the plots of the Dalai clique to bring turmoil to Tibetan-inhabited areas."
Beijing has blamed the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in March 1959, for recent unrest in Tibet and nearby areas, including a series of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns.
Jia, who heads the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a type of lower parliament, also ordered officials to increase their presence in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, according to the comments posted on the central government's website.
The government closely monitors the activities of Tibetan Buddhist clergy, stationing its representatives in monasteries and nunneries in the region.
Authorities are particularly keen to avoid any unrest ahead of a 10-day annual meeting of China's parliament that starts on Monday. It will coincide with the sensitive anniversaries of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile and of the 2008 riots.
China's top leader in Tibet has ordered increased controls over the Internet and mobile phones during the period, according to state media reports.
Tibetans have long chafed at China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language.
Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.
Woeser said Friday on her blog that she had been prevented from attending a ceremony at the Netherlands embassy in Beijing to accept the 2011 Prince Claus Award, a prominent Dutch cultural prize.
Police "informed us - including my husband Wang Lixiong - that for the coming period of time our freedom will be restricted", she posted.
"If we want to leave home we have to get their agreement, if they agree we can leave, they will still follow us."
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So, what else is he supposed to do? What else can he do? Get your jackboots out of Tibet!
So Dalai Lama is a terrorist and Chinese forces in Tibet are liberators.?
Good for India in keeping the Tibet government in exile.
I support a free Tibet. Tibet has no racial or cultural linkage with Han China.
The whole country is artificial. China is using it's military power, money and secret police to control and bind the country.. if this is the "bond" that keeps the country togather then sooner or later the country will breakdown. The current size of the country is unsustainable, sooner or later it will happen and it will not be pretty, same as Soviat union. This is my well researched prediction :-)
Free Tibet !!!!
Xinjiang violence killed about 20. where is this news ET? no courage to report this?