CHINA TO STRIKE HARD ON DRUG-RELATED CRIMES

China will make redoubled efforts next to crack down on drug-related crimes
in the country though remarkable achievements have been made in recent
years, Minister of Public Security Jia Chunwang said Saturday.

China will increase cooperation with foreign nations, especially the
neighboring countries, in narcotic control, he said at a plenary meeting of
the National Narcotic Control Commission.

In the first 11 months of this year, anti-drug forces throughout the
country cracked down on a total of 97,800 drug cases, arresting 67,500
people on drug charges and confiscating 12.3 tons of heroin, 2.3 tons of
opium, 4.6 tons of methamphetamine hydrochloride known on the street as
"ice," 1.87 million "head-shaking" tablets, and 102 tons of raw material
chemicals.

The authorities have successfully stopped the trafficking of 1,352 tons of
raw material chemicals abroad and shut down 44 underground drug factories
throughout the country, Jia said.

By the end of October this year, China had 901,000 registered drug abusers,
including 745,000 heroin addicts.

Among the 28,000-plus local registered AIDS patients, 19,000 take drugs by
injection, a practice known to cause HIV/AIDS as a result of contaminated
needles.

In the first 10 months of this year, 286,000 drug users were sent to drug
rehabilitation centers throughout the country, the minister said.