CHINA WRESTLES WITH DRUGS

China's history is steeped in drug abuse. No other country - with the
possible recent example of Colombia - has been more deeply affected by the
trade in narcotics.

Perhaps that is why the modern Chinese attitude to drugs is especially
harsh. Over the past week, almost 50 drug traffickers and dealers have been
executed nationwide in China. A blaze of publicity has accompanied their
dispatch with a bullet to the back of the head. The government, somewhat
unnecessarily in this light, this week announced a "show no mercy" policy to
traffickers and users.

Mass opium addiction among Chinese in the 18th and 19th centuries crippled
the Chinese economy and its people, especially in the country's south. The
importation of opium by the British into China in the 18th century, and its
continuing trade despite a ban by the Chinese in 1800, sucked at the human
and financial resources of the Qing dynasty.

In 1839, when the Chinese authorities burned thousands of chests of the
drug, the First Opium War erupted. The British won and were able to extract
trading rights and the ceding of Hong Kong through the humiliating Treaty of
Nanking. This led to a scramble for foreign concessions along the Chinese
coast. The Second Opium War was fought in 1860.

While "foreign mud" was certainly not the sole cause of the collapse of
Manchu rule, it contributed mightily. The eradication of opium addiction
became a priority of the communist regime in the 1950s. Within a few short
years, the problem had largely been eradicated.

Fifty years later the problem of drugs has again become a critical issue in
China.

In a country where denial of social problems is the norm, there has been
remarkable candor in recent days about the impact of the drug trade and drug
abuse.

The Chinese Government this week issued a "white paper", an official cabinet
document titled Narcotics Control in China outlining the extent of the
problem within the country and official measures being undertaken to control
it.

China shares its border with those countries that make up the so-called
"Golden Triangle" and since the 1970s a proportion of the opium produced in
the remote areas of Thailand, Laos and Burma has passed through Chinese
ports.

A proportion has not passed through, stimulating a growing drug problem
within China itself.

Officially, there are some 681,000 registered drug addicts in China. Less
than a decade ago it was barely one quarter of that figure. The white paper
- - the first by the Chinese Government to address the drugs issue - concedes
that the problem is getting worse and pledges "attending to drug control as
a vital matter involving the rise and fall of the Chinese nation".

Over the past year the amount of drugs seized in China rose by 33per cent.
Most Chinese drug addicts are heroin users.

Some 5.3 tonnes of heroin was seized last year, in addition to 1.2tonnes of
opium and 16 tonnes of methamphetamines and smaller amounts of cocaine and
marijuana.

"It is highly necessary to strengthen international cooperation in drug
control to promote the battle against narcotics worldwide and radically
solve the drug problem in China," the paper said.

Almost 80 per cent of drug users years and the problem is much worse in the
southern part of the nation. In Yunnan alone since 1982 authorities claim to
have handled some 70,000 drug trafficking cases involving transit of
substances through the province.

Authorities also blame drug abuse for more than 70 per cent of China's
17,000 known AIDS cases.

The white paper pointed to increasing Chinese cooperation with bordering
countries and with the international community. China recently signed new
drug intelligence cooperation agreements with the United States that will
allow for the sharing of information between Chinese police and the FBI.