China Joins Asian Neighbors in War on Drugs |
Posted by FoM on August 28, 2001 at 08:02:39 PT By Tamora Vidaillet Source: Contra Costa Times Warning that narcotics posed a threat to social stability and economic growth, government ministers from China and three Southeast Asian countries pledged on Tuesday to step up cooperation in a war on drugs. Ministers from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China meeting in Beijing agreed to work together to curb the cultivation, production and trafficking in drugs and boost surveillance along the Mekong River, according to a joint statement. ``At this stage, we face a very grave challenge,'' Yang Fengrui, director general of China's Narcotics Control Bureau, told a news conference. ``We are not only faced with traditional drugs like heroin but with other drugs like amphetamines,'' he said. ``We need full and close cooperation to focus on this problem.'' Drug addiction is growing in China, and the country has become an important gateway for heroin produced in the Golden Triangle, which straddles Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Ahead of the meeting, Chinese state media said the four countries would speed up information exchange, the planting of alternative crops and personnel training, and jointly combat drug-related crime. China State Councillor Luo Gan told the closed-door conference an expanding international consumer market for drugs and pressures created by Southeast Asia's economic woes were increasing drugs-related crimes in the region just as new types of drugs were flooding the market. The China Daily quoted the Minister of Public Security, Jia Chunwang, as saying some 80 percent of illegal drugs entering China came from the Golden Triangle. The area, in particular parts of Myanmar's Shan state, has long been one of the world's main producers of opium and its refined form -- heroin. In recent years gangs in southern Shan state near the Thai border have also been producing large amounts of methamphetamines. Holistic Approach Thai officials argued that to solve the drug problem, countries had to raise living standards and replace drugs with cash crops. ``We need a holistic approach to solve the problem, for instance not just from the supply and enforcement side but we need to introduce development in this area,'' Rasamee Vistaveth, the Deputy Secretary-General of Thailand's Narcotics Control commission, told reporters. Sandro Calvani, the U.N. representative for Drug Control and Crime Prevention for East Asia and the Pacific, said the meeting underscored the region's willingness to take its own initiatives to fight Asia's growing drugs threat. ``The important thing is that these countries have decided to take action themselves instead of just waiting for technical assistance and foreign aid,'' he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Bangkok. Calvani said China was a major producer of the chemicals needed to make amphetamine-type stimulants. Chinese officials say the problem arises when chemicals produced for legitimate purposes are diverted to the drugs trade overseas. ``These chemicals are mainly produced for legitimate markets but in some areas it gets diverted for cocaine production,'' deputy secretary-general of China's National Narcotics Control Commission Wang Qingrong told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. ``Although we do not have any problem with such chemicals in China, we have to be careful about exports to other countries to make sure it is not headed for South America for cocaine production,'' he said. Source: Contra Costa Times (CA) Related Articles: U.S. - China Rivalry in Asia Drug War China Executes 43 for Drug Crimes US Troops in Military Exercise Near China Border Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #1 posted by TroutMask on August 28, 2001 at 09:12:22 PT |
Well, this will be easy. All we have to do is figure out what crops are worth many times their weight in gold after processing and have the peasant grow them. Yeah, right! I guess the only alternative is to reduce the value of illegal crops by regulating production and availability of the illegal substances so that the profit is removed. Duh! -TM [ Post Comment ] |
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