Looking East by feeding Myanmar with ephedrine: Connecting Drugs and Peoples
- Part 3 -

Puyam Nongdrei *

Biggest drug haul at Pallel, Manipur (Indian Army colonel among six held) :: 24 February 2013
Pix - Gyanand Naorem

China's War on Drugs

How is China fighting against drugs menace? Opium Wars fought by China is a history of a civilisation trying to defend its interests against imperialist policy of Great Britain. There must be something we can learn from China's war against drugs. Yunnan province of China borders with Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries thus receiving the blows of drugs and related problems. Golden Triangle region is the major source of drugs followed by the Golden Crescent region (Pak-Afghanistan) on the western flank of China.

To begin with, universities like the People's Public Security University of China under the Ministry of Public Security is a minimal infrastructure without which no proper study and training of personnel can be achieved. It has law school, department of foreign languages, literature, criminal investigation, criminology, information security, traffic control and forensic science etc. Don't we need such a university in Manipur before the transnational security issues destroy our societies with the opening of international borders? The Manipur Police Training College, Pangei has to expand in order to meet the requirement.

The high number of HIV/AIDS infection, drugs abuse and socio-economic problems created by the menace in border areas is a big security issue which Beijing is fighting for last many decades. We can learn the way they have intensified their fights at sub-regional and regional levels through cooperation with the neighbouring countries. Again China being a victim country of drugs will never welcome the smuggling of large quantity of pseudoephedrine tablets into Myanmar from India. Thus it gives a common ground for India, China, Myanmar and Thailand to join hands to fight against drugs.

In the late 1970s, Yunnan Province became China's first area hit by the illicit use of drugs which borders the infamous Golden Triangle, one of the most important sources of drugs in the world and has been fighting against the drugs and related crimes. China had been basically free from drug perils for three decades since the founding of the new republic in 1949. In 1982 serious drug trafficking was made a capital offence and a 1000-strong anti-narcotics force, the first of its kind in the country, was formed in Yunnan.

In 1999, the Chinese government set up the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), composed of 25 departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Health and General Administration of Customs. The NNCC leads China in drug control activities and cooperate with international drug control agencies with an operational agency based in the Ministry of Public Security. In 1998, with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Public Security established the Drug Control Bureau to serve as an operational agency of the NNCC.

From 1993 to 1996, in the Southwest border areas, the Ministry of Public Security launched a three-year campaign against drugs and firearms. From 1991 to 1999, China's drug control organs cracked more than 800,000 drug cases, and confiscated 39.67 tons of heroin, 16.894 tons of opium, 15.079 tons of marijuana and 23.375 tons of methamphetamine. In 1999 alone, China cracked down 65,000 drug related criminal cases, and confiscated 5.364 tons of heroin, 1.193 tons of opium, 16.059 of crystal methamphetamine (commonly known as ice), and some cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana. It was a 2.4 percent increase in the number of drug-related cases and 33.6 percent increase in the amount of drug confiscated over 1998.

In order to effectively control and eradicate the drug menace, China started taking measures, policies and principles. The "four-in-one prohibitions" is one such principle under which China made a comprehensive programme to eradicate the sources of drugs and obstruct their channels of trafficking, enforce the law strictly, and solving the problem by examining both its root causes and its symptoms. The need for prohibiting drug abuse, trafficking, cultivating and manufacturing have brought China closer to its neighbouring countries where poppy cultivation and manufacturing of synthetic drugs are abundant.

As drugs mainly come from other neighbouring countries, the Chinese government has emphasised on controlling trafficking across the borders. In the 1980s, the government organised public security, armed police and customs departments and the civilian joint defence teams to coordinate the fight against drug trafficking mainly in the Southwest border areas and southeast coastal areas. A "three lines of defence" strategy was made to check and control trafficking of drugs with borderland check points, inland checkpoints and checks on vital lines of communication such as airports, railways and harbours as first, second and third line of defence respectively.

In the 1990s, the work of banning illicit drug trafficking was further intensified and special attention was paid to eradicating sources of drugs and obstructing their channels of trafficking. The Chinese People's Armed Police, frontier defense force, judicial departments, customs, supervision and control organs of pharmaceutical companies and administration departments for industry and commerce also undertake corresponding anti-drug law enforcement tasks.

The State Council established the China Narcotics Control Foundation in 1998 with the aim at collecting funds from society to support drug control activities. Strengthening its anti-drug fight, Beijing invested US$ 14.5 million in 2006 to improve the system against drug in police forces, border infrastructures, railways, airports, customs department and postal department. As a part of this, China has provided advanced drug detecting equipments to border patrol forces besides strict enforcement of checking at border points.

The 1990s marked a new era in China's fight against drugs as the problems increased with China's opening of borders with the neighbouring countries as part of the economic reform programme. The opening was further intensified under the Western Development Campaign strategy to bridge economic development gap between the eastern coastal region and the landlocked western parts. There were debates over the opening of the borders with neighbouring Golden Triangle states as large scale drug addiction and spread of HIV/AIDS threatened China's socio-economic life and public health.

In May 1991, the NNCC hosted the first meeting of senior officials of China, Thailand, Myanmar and the UN Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in Beijing, to discuss multilateral cooperation against drug abuse in the sub-region. In June 1992, China, Myanmar and the UNDCP signed the China/Myanmar/UNDCP Joint Cooperation Project on Drug Control in Yangon, Myanmar. In October 1993, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and the UNDCP signed the MoU on Narcotic Drugs Control. In May 1995, China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and the UNDCP convened the first ministerial-level meeting on drug control in Beijing. The meeting adopted the Beijing Declaration and signed the Sub-region drug control program of action.

Since 1996, China has established a liaison offices on anti-drug matters and law enforcement cooperation in border areas with Myanmar. Another major development in this direction is the ASEAN and China Cooperative Operations in Response to Dangerous Drugs (ACCORD) Plan of Action which was adopted on 20 October 2005 in Beijing. It has emphasised civic awareness on dangers of drugs, strengthening the rule of law, improving law enforcement and legislative review, boosting alternative development programmes and community participation in the eradication of illicit crops for a drug-free ASEAN and China in 2015.

The Chinese government started helping Myanmar since the beginning of 1990 to promote alternative development by providing agricultural and technological and tourism resource support. This policy is to improve and economic and social development of the border areas where traditional poppy growing is the major means of livelihood. China is constructing transport infrastructure in the border areas to help in promotion of tourism and resource exploitation for economic development.

China has reached out to ASEAN, ARF and GMS to fight against drug trafficking and other non-traditional security threats. In China, human security has been incorporated into the traditional state centric view with attention to "putting people first" (yi ren wei ben) gaining acceptance in recent years. Official exchanges between China and Myanmar do not sideline the issue of drugs control and transnational security issues. For the first time, the white paper on national defense (2004) clearly mentioned 'cooperation in non-traditional security fields' reflecting Beijing tough policy to fight against these threats.

Along the China-Myanmar border, both People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) have been engaged in cooperation with Myanmar counterparts to fight against various transnational crimes. The border public security force is deployed for border administration, inspection and surveillance and prevention and crackdown on illegal and criminal acts in border areas such as illegal border crossing, smuggling and drug trafficking.

The Chinese military assistance to Myanmar has strengthened the hold of Naypyitaw over a large part of these ethnic minority areas which are under the control of armed ethnic groups. The ceasefire agreements signed between the Myanmar regime and the ethnic armed groups have not succeeded in maintaining peace and stability in the region. Contrary to this, many armed groups have taken advantage of the ceasefire agreements to have free run of drug trade and other illegal business along the border.

China has extended support to Naypyitaw's national reconciliation process which also called for the transformation of the ethnic armed groups into border guard forces. But after the Kokang clash in 2009, China is experiencing volatile security situation due to Kachin conflict and the problem of drugs and armed gangs are increasing manifold border areas.

The Chinese Anti-Drug Report 2009 reported that 1113 tons of precursor chemicals were seized in 2008. Since 2008, methamphetamine type drugs are the second most popular drug in China next to heroin. In 2009, China reported seizures of 40.5 million methamphetamine pills compared with just over six million in 2008 while Myanmar reported seizure of 23.9 million pills. Both domestic manufacturing and trafficking into China from Myanmar and the Golden Triangle region are responsible for this.

In 2009, China reported a total of more than 1.3 million registered drug users, of which 360,000 (27%) were registered amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) users. By the end of 2010, China reportedly have more than 1.5 million registered drug users, of which, 432,000 were synthetic drug users, accounting for 28 percent of the total. The number of heroin users also increased by almost 9 percent in 2010, to 1.065 million compared with 978,226 persons in 2009.

In 2010, a total of 101,748 persons were arrested for drug-related crimes, representing an 11 percent increase from 2009. In this year, 58.4 million methamphetamine pills were seized recording the highest ever seize in the country representing a 44 percent increase from 40.5 million pills seized in 2009. Chinese police seized 5.1 tonnes of heroin and 7.9 tonnes of methamphetamine produced in, and smuggled from, the Golden Triangle region in 2011, which made up 72 percent and 55 percent of the total nationwide seizures respectively according to a report released by the Ministry of Public Security in 2012.

In 2011 alone, 14 tons of drugs were seized in Yunnan out of which 8 tons were synthetic drugs compared to 4 tons of synthetic drugs in 2010. In 2011, 528 tons of precursor chemicals were seized in Yunnan province compared with a total of 408 tons seized from 2008 through 2010. Most of the heroin seized in China is trafficked into China from Myanmar and other areas in the 'Golden Triangle region' while methamphetamine crystalline is primarily manufactured domestically. But the amount of trafficked synthetic drugs from Myanmar has surged in 2009 and 2010 as indicated by the substantial increase in the seizure of this drug in Yunnan province and Northern Myanmar.

A total of 528 tons of precursor chemicals were seized in Yunnan Province in 2011, compared with a total of 408 tons seized from 2008 through 2010. According to the "Annual Report on Drug Control in China" (2011), there were 1.55 million people on mainland China taking drugs by the end of 2010 with 432,000 of them taking synthetic drugs most of whom are younger than 25 years.

Till the end of the 1990s, the opium and heroin products were widespread in China. However, by the early 2000s, ATS and other synthetic drugs have become widespread posing threats to public health. More and more drug traffickers are turning to producing synthetic drugs as these are easier to make for less money. Even after spending millions on training law enforcement agencies, strengthening border security and infrastructure development, China is fighting a never winning war against drugs.

To be continued ...