Full 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.
Contents
Contents 1. The Chinese Connection 1 2. The Drug Market in Burma 24 3. Wholesale Heroin Trafficking 58 4. Low-Level Heroin Trafficking: Ants-Moving-House 85 5. The Social Organization of Entrepreneurial Traffickers 109 6. The Retail Heroin Market in China 135 7. Women in the Heroin Trade 173 8. Drug Treatment with a Chinese Characteristic 197 9. Combating Drug Trafficking 220 10. Conclusion 247 Notes259 References273 Index289 About the Authors303
