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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 24, 2003

US slandering China as narcotics producer is groundless

On September 15, US President George W. Bush submitted to the Congress the "World Major Narcotics Producing and Trafficking Countries Annual Report", which once again put China on the list. Since the US State Department began writing this annual report in 1996, China has been included in the "black list" for eight successive times.


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On September 15, US President George W. Bush submitted to the Congress the "World Major Narcotics Producing and Trafficking Countries Annual Report", which once again put China on the list. Since the US State Department began writing this annual report in 1996, China has been included in the "black list" for eight successive times. On September 19, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman refuted this charge, thinking that the US practice obliterates the efforts made by the Chinese government in attacking drug crimes, hoping that the United States would respect facts and correct its related wrongdoing.

"Black list" affects US government decision-making
In line with Article 706 of the US "Foreign Relation Authorization Bill", the US President has to submit to the Congress a copy of report on the international strategic situation on September 15 each year, making assessment of the cultivation, transport and consumption situation as well as the development trend of drugs by over 130 countries around the world, and predicting the potential drug threat facing the United States.

The report basically reflects US official understanding of and attitude toward the question concerning drugs in various countries of the world, which is an important basis for the US Congress and government to formulate drug-prohibition laws and policies and draft foreign-aid budget and conduct supervision and auditing.

According to officials with the US narcotics and international law-enforcement cooperation bureau, as long as a country or region cultivates or reaps opium poppies on 1,000 hectares or above, or coca on over 1,000 hectares, or cannabis on over 5,000 hectares, the United States regards the country or region as a "main narcotics producer".

In the report China is positioned as the main transporter of narcotics in the "Golden Triangle" region and the main producer of acetic oxide, piperonyl espeleton, ephedrine and other precursor chemicals.

Aside from China, in the "black list" are also 23 countries and regions including Afghanistan, the Bahamas Archipelago, Bolivia, Myanmar and Colombia. What punishment will face those on the "black list"? According to an official with the American narcotics and international law-enforcement cooperation bureau, they will unite US embassy in the locality concerned to discuss and decide on anti-drugs cooperation target for a period of 12 months, the US embassy is responsible for supervising the progress of the plan and report this to the US narcotics and international law-enforcement cooperation bureau. If the progress of the project is not satisfactory, the United States would deem the country or region as failing to make substantive efforts and would include it on the "proved decision" list, and the country or region would thus lose the chance to get various US overseas aids.

China is surrounded by drug sources on all sides
The problem of drugs is a worldwide issue, almost no country can escape its harm. Viewed from the present world drug production situation, the "Golden Triangle" (the triangular belt in the border areas of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in Southeast Asia), the "Golden Crescent"(the crescent belt at the juncture of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran) as well as the South American "Silver Triangle" in the Andes Mountain and the Amazon area, (the location of Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil) which produce over 90 percent of the world's total drugs, in addition, Africa's "Black Triangle", Russia and some other places have also become the main areas producing new-type drugs.

It is known to all that the drug environment where China is in is very complicated. China neighbors the world's two large narcotics production areas-the "Golden Triangle" and the "Golden Crescent". In recent years, along with the northward shift of the "Golden Triangle" drug source, China's southwest border areas are greatly harmed. Outside China's northwest areas, the drug sources of the "Golden Crescent" and Central Asian regions have further developed. Traditionally, the drugs of the region flowed to European and American regions, now they have begun to flow eastward into China, resulting in increase in drug smuggling activities in Xinjiang and other areas. "Ice" and other new-type drugs in some areas outside China's southeast coastal areas have kept streaming into China. Some drugs outside northeast China have also flowed into China. The encirclement of China by drug sources has created many difficulties in China's drugs-prohibition work.

In the face of this grim situation, the Chinese government has formulated and implemented a series of drugs-prohibition principles, policies and measures with notable results. China is one of the countries in the world, which metes out severe punishment of drug crimes. In China, anyone who is trafficking in 50 grams of or more heroin will possibly be sentenced to life imprisonment or even capital punishment. At the same time, China has taken an active part in international cooperation, it is the signatory state to the 1988 "United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs" and to a variety of international conventions, it has signed over 30 judicial mutual-help agreements with 24 countries. Last year, China's police, together with the police of Myanmar and Laos, carried out 11 joint anti-drug actions including "summer snakes hunting" and "thunderbolt action", seized and arrested 36 overseas chief drug smugglers and major drug traffickers and drug criminals at large, setting a record high. At the 46th regular conference of the UN Narcotic Drugs Commission, Ambassador Zhang Yan, China's permanent representative to the Vienna -based United Nations and other international organizations, listed a shocking figure, in 2002 China discovered and stopped the illegal export of 2,288 tons of poisonous chemical products.

US accusation of China is sheer fabrication
China is one of the few countries in the world, which both controls the inflow of drugs and strictly guards against the outflow of drugs. China's drug-prohibition departments have always strictly banned transit narcotics and have thus been honored as "the World Drug-prohibition Model" by relevant UN departments. US rash accusation of China as the world's principal drug producer and trafficker is utterly groundless.

Firstly, China is not a main drug producing country in the world. Currently, heroin, cocaine and other drugs are basically not produced in China. The United States claims that China's huge chemical industry has provided conditions for the manufacture of "ice", this obviously is based on assumptions. The main component of "ice" is ephedrin, a kind of medicine for the respiratory system, has wide use and efficacy, China is a main herba ephedrae producing region in the world, it is the third country that can produce synthetic ephedrin and the only country that produces natural ephedrin, but this does not imply that China is a main "ice" producer. Although there exist some illegal "ice" laboratories in China, thanks to China's strict control and hard hit at the marketing of ephedrin, the output of "ice" is not high, Japan and other main suppliers are the main "ice" producing regions.

Secondly, China is not the world's main drug transporter. Since the 1980s, China has been viewed as a transfer station, most drug crimes in China carry distinct internationalized characteristics. Although part of the two major drug sources of the world flow into China, most drugs of the "Golden Triangle" are transferred through Southeast Asia, and most drugs of Afghanistan are transported to Europe via Russia and then further proliferate.

Experts say that the United States blames China unscrupulously in its report, this is, on the one hand, a regular course of official duties by relevant US departments; on the other hand, one cannot rule out the possibility that the United States takes advantage of the chance to ask for a price from China and compels China to strengthen intelligence exchange. Following the exchange of customs personnel by both sides, the United States still wants to strengthen its supervision and control of Chinese intelligence in other fields, and it is likely that American will demand to send personnel to observe the process of China's drug-prohibition.

US drug-prohibition needs China's cooperation
The United States is a large drug consumption country in the world, drug traffickers captured over the years are too many for prisons to hold, but the trading in drugs is still flourishing. Instead of seriously examining its own problems concerning the work of combating and guarding against drugs, the United States makes indiscreet remarks on the drug-prohibition situation in other countries, this obviously is an act of putting the cart before the horse. Furthermore, the content of the report itself is self-contradictory, on the one hand, it indiscriminately labels China, the victim of drugs, as a main drug producer and transporter and puts it on the list; on the other hand, it has to acknowledge the fairly great achievements China has made in its anti-drug work, China-US drug-prohibition law-enforcement cooperation has great cooperative space particularly in expanding and strengthening the aspect of drug strategic intelligence information.

In March 2001, the "China-US Judicial Mutual -help Agreement" went into effect, the US government believed that this provided favorable conditions for the country to investigate and sue drug-trafficking and other criminals. In recent years, relevant Chinese departments have provided a variety of drug samples to US anti-drug officials, related Chinese departments have also strengthened the sharing with the United States of drug-prohibition strategic information; the Chinese Ministry of Public Security has provided regular active assistance to US law-enforcement departments for their investigation activities outside US Embassy in China; China has repeatedly provided the US side with key intelligence information, with the result that several principal drug traffickers were caught.

On May 16, 2003, the "125" transnational drug-trafficking case was cracked, this is the largest drug-trafficking case cleared up through the joint efforts of China and the United States. According to Drug-prohibition Department of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the "125" drug-trafficking gang is a well-organized transnational drug-trafficking organization, they not only sold traditional heroin drug, but also set up an "ice" processing factory with joint investment in order to reap still greater profits. The chief figure Wang Jianzhang, nicknamed "Tingjiang 125" (he is a native of Tingjiang in Fujian Province, because the assets in his possession gained from drug trafficking exceeds 12.5 billion yuan), he was called "China's biggest drug-trafficker" by a US procuratorial officer. Two years ago, judicial departments of the two countries already put the case of Wang Jianzhang drug-trafficking gang on record for joint investigation. Since the beginning of this year, Chinese police, through careful investigation, has made clear the drug-trafficking network and activity law of the gang in China, the United States, Myanmar and Hong Kong and has grasped evidence proving the gang's crimes. Around the time of May 10, China and the United States decided to arrest the criminals. US officials admit that it is simply cannot crack the drug-trafficking case without the close cooperation of Chinese law-enforcement departments.

The aforementioned facts show that If the US government respects facts and turns accusation into cooperation in the international anti-drug actions, it will not only help attack the unchecked spread of drugs in one's own country, but will help eradicate the world poison at an early date.

This report by Global Times guest correspondents Zhang Jie and Shi Gang is published on the front page of Global Times, September 22.


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