TEN KILLED FOR DRUG CRIMES AS USE SOARS

The Government executed 10 drug criminals yesterday, backing up its
International Anti-Drug Day vow of "no mercy" for drug crimes, state media
said.

But the State Council acknowledged in a White Paper that "the situation is
grim for the anti-drug struggle" and called for a repeat of Beijing's
success in eradicating opium in the 1950s.

The Government's first White Paper on narcotics carried a slew of statistics
showing that drug abuse was on the rise. The amount of drugs confiscated
last year increased by 33.6 per cent over 1998, while the number of addicts
reached 681,000, up from 520,000 in 1995 and 148,000 in 1991.

Drug-control agencies cracked more than 800,000 cases and confiscated nearly
40 tonnes of heroin, almost 17 tonnes of opium, 15 tonnes of marijuana and
23 tonnes of "ice", or methamphetamines, the paper said.

Most of the mainland's illegal drugs came from abroad, the paper said,
vowing to plug up porous borders with drug-producing neighbours and to
staunch the influx of chemicals needed to make narcotics.

"It is highly necessary to strengthen international co-operation in drug
control to promote the battle against narcotics worldwide and . . . in
China," the paper said.

Beijing had boosted technical and agricultural aid to the heroin-producing
"Golden Triangle" states of Burma, Thailand and Laos - which share a border
with drug-plagued province of Yunnan - to help eradicate poppy production.
It also had stepped up co-operation in drug control with its neighbours to
the north and west: Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Xinhua said two of the 10 executed yesterday after the Supreme People's
Court rejected their appeals were heroin smugglers Chen Xinyuan from Taiwan
and Tsai Dehui from Hong Kong.

>From 1997 to last year, officials cracked 548 cases of illegal buying,
selling and smuggling of precursor chemicals and confiscated more than 1,000
tonnes of illegal chemicals used in processing drugs including ephedrine,
used for making "ice".