The Chinese Heroin Trade: Cross-Border Drug Trafficking in Southeast Asia and Beyond

Description

In a country long associated with the trade in opiates, the Chinese government has for decades applied extreme measures to curtail the spread of illicit drugs, only to find that the problem has worsened. Burma is blamed as the major producer of illicit drugs and conduit for the entry of drugs into China. Which organizations are behind the heroin trade? What problems and prospects of drug control in the so-called “Golden Triangle” drug-trafficking region are faced by Chinese and Southeast Asian authorities? In The Chinese Heroin Trade, noted criminologists Ko-Lin Chin and Sheldon Zhangexamine the social organization of the trafficking of heroin from the Golden Triangle to China and the wholesale and retail distribution of the drug in China. Based on face-to-face interviews with hundreds of incarcerated drug traffickers, street-level drug dealers, users, and authorities, paired with extensive fieldwork in the border areas of Burma and China and several major urban centers in China and Southeast Asia, this volume reveals how the drug trade has evolved in the Golden Triangle since the late 1980s. Chin and Zhang also explore the marked characteristics of heroin traffickers; the relationship between drug use and sales in China; and how China compares to other international drug markets. The Chinese Heroin Trade is a fascinating, nuanced account of the world of high-risk drug trafficking in a tightly-controlled society. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 14 1. The Chinese Connection......Page 18 2. The Drug Market in Burma......Page 41 3. Wholesale Heroin Trafficking......Page 75 4. Low-Level Heroin Trafficking: Ants-Moving-House......Page 102 5. The Social Organization of Entrepreneurial Traffickers......Page 126 6. The Retail Heroin Market in China......Page 152 7. Women in the Heroin Trade......Page 190 8. Drug Treatment with a Chinese Characteristic......Page 214 9. Combating Drug Trafficking......Page 237 10. Conclusion......Page 264 Notes......Page 276 References......Page 290 B......Page 306 C......Page 307 D......Page 308 E......Page 310 H......Page 311 J......Page 312 L......Page 313 N......Page 314 P......Page 315 S......Page 316 U......Page 317 Y......Page 318 Z......Page 319 About the Authors......Page 320