NCJ Number
178202
Journal
Crime and Justice International Volume: 15 Issue: 30 &31 Dated: July/August 1999 Pages: 5-30
Date Published
1999
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Yunnan Province on China's southwestern frontier is known largely as China's drug province and has become a battleground of sorts as police and government organizations have mounted a major campaign to change an image and bring economic security to one of the country's most diverse regions.
Abstract
The province borders Laos and Myanmar (Burma), has a population of 40 million, and includes more than 12 million people of 25 minority nationalities. For more than a decade, police have actively engaged the powerful drug traffickers who move tons of heroin and opium from the Golden Triangle through China to the West. At least 20 police officers have been killed in the last decade. Authorities have used an intensive enforcement and rehabilitation campaign to reduce the addict population from more than 50,000 to about 35,000. Government programs in cooperation with other governments have also resulted in changing some farmlands from drug production to other crops. The government has also supported a massive economic campaign to develop the region as a tourist center and to support manufacturing and heavy industry. The maximum sentence for possession of more than 50 grams of heroin is death. Undercover work is central to drug law enforcement and may mean crossing the border. Police also use random roadblocks. Drug traffickers are better equipped than are the police. The Chinese estimate that 80-90 percent of the drugs crossing the border are not detected. The threat of drug abuse increases as China's economy expands. The recognize that the drug problem is international and requires the cooperation of both developing and developed countries. Photographs