We're told China's off the boil - well here's
a trade that's going absolute gang-busters.
"She's successfully brought drugs across the
border before and this is the second time
she's done it".
The drug trade - flooding in to propel China's
party scene and chasing all that new money.
Methamphetamine, ecstasy, heroin - tons of
it, as drug culture spreads like wildfire.
"If you can get these drugs to Australia,
you can imagine how much more profit there
would be".
We're heading to seldom seen corners of this
dramatically changing place as Foreign Correspondent
investigates the other China boom, one that
leads all the way to our own front door.
This is remote dramatic territory. A river
forming part of a border that runs for thousands
of kilometres between China and its emerging
neighbour, Myanmar - what we used to call
Burma. You might expect large fences and guards
on patrol, but here the official borders of
countries mean little to people who've travelled
and intermingled for centuries.
"Well this is a pretty porous border. As you
can see there are lots of people moving back
and forth across the river. We've just walked
down here, jumped on the first boat there
was, paid the guy, come along and here we
are, now I'm in Burma!"
There's a brisk trade here. Myanmar has been
opening up and China has an ever growing affluence.
Yet to buy Chinese goods, poor Burmese farmers
need money and in order to get money some
are prepared to transport a very dangerous
cargo to the north. With not an official in
sight, the potential to ferry illegal drugs
across points like this is clearly substantial.
"None of the people here speak Chinese so
I can't ask them how busy it is down here
normally, but it seems like it's just boat
after boat coming through and the trucks are
bringing goods from Burma across to China
and also back in the other direction".
The home of the Golden Triangle, Myanmar has
long been a major source of the world's heroin.
Now, on top of that, there are new drugs coming
out of here and via China they'll end up as
far away as Australia. So we've come here
to follow the drugs and to gauge the size
of a problem considered so serious it's recently
led to joint operations by Australian and
Chinese police.
"The factories which produce drugs have increased..
In other words they once produced heroin but
now they've changed to produce ice-type drugs,
amphetamine-type drugs"
Former police officer Professor Wu Jiang is
now one of China's foremost experts on the
drug trade.
We ask him if Myanmar's increased ice production
is in direct response to Chinese consumption.
"That's correct. It's because of supply and
demand. The key point is they must know there
are so many people in China who are selling
drugs.
They've established networks with them. There
are also a lot of unspotted drug users...
so many invisible drug users. There's a market,
otherwise they wouldn't produce them".
Yunnan Province is a lush green corner of
China. Its remote location has spared it the
excesses of development.
Here you can find the bustling border town
of Ruili. Part of it has been given special
economic zone status to try and boost commerce
between China and Myanmar.
Here, Burmese workers can be seen in droves
looking for work in local factories. Others
come to do business. There are plenty of visitors
with all the right paperwork, but countless
numbers without.
The border fence in the middle of town is
dotted with large holes so we sit across from
one of these illegal entry points and watch.
Through they come, one after another. Some
pause first to check - others just race through.
This is only 100 metres from the main official
entry point and in broad daylight, they cross
and they cross and they cross.
We decide to approach the young men on the
Myanmar side of the border for a chat and
speak to them through a translator.
"I want to know, have a lot of people come
through here lately in order to sell drugs?
Aren't any? Aren't any here?"
"They're not coming through this actual door".
"I'm not talking so much about this particular
entrance but crossing this border. Could you
ask them where along the border?"
It seems they want to defend the credibility
of this particular illegal entrance to China.
"Ah... you have to go 105 yards that way".
"Another place".
"Another place".
"How many people do they think would cross
the border here every day?"
There are many. Every day two or three hundred".
If anything,
a few hundred daily crossings would be an
under estimation. Dozens come through in just
the short time we're here.
If drug trafficking is sky rocketing as suspected,
then it must hit these border communities
first as it winds its way north.
So we go looking for someone who knows the
local trade. We meet a young man who's prepared
to talk about the drug situation in Ruili
on condition of anonymity.
"Drug usage here... is it becoming more serious?"
"The number of drug dealers doesn't seem to
change much but there are many more drug users".
"How many more than before? Twice as many?"
"Right, nearly two times more".
He tells us that those using drugs regularly
in the town vary from Chinese to Burmese,
some are students, some are business people.
"Where are the drugs sold? In a secret place?"
"It's not necessarily a secret place - just
a place where police don't show up".
"So you can see drug dealing on the street?"
"Yes, you can".
"Could you show me where?"
"Yes".
He guides us through Ruili, down this town's
small vibrant streets to a particular little
corner. And soon after we arrive, the customers
are turning up.
This man walks across the street to a doorway
which will be very busy tonight. He indicates
the quantity and in front of a small child,
he hands over cash in exchange for drugs.
Then he goes off to find somewhere safe to
take them.
This is a humming part of town and many will
go through this doorway. We can't see what's
going on inside but there's plenty of movement
in the street. A man in green waits outside.
Eventually a woman in white emerges and approaches
him. Again it's money going one way and drugs
the other. She counts his change and then
hands it over. As soon as the coast is clear,
he walks away.
Given the ease with which we've spotted these
transactions, it's hard to imagine that the
local authorities are not fully aware of this
situation.
The man in green likes what he's seen so he
comes back for more. These are only small
purchases but Chinese police statistics cast
them in a much bigger light.
Nearby, Burmese poppy cultivation was up by
33.8% last year, the equivalent of 60 tons
of heroin. In 2012 local Yunnan police seized
9 tons of ice coming out of Myanmar - 26%
more than the year before. And the deals keep
coming.
In full public view the drugs are prepared.
The preferred method of consumption here is
smoking - even for heroin and methamphetamine.
Yet, increasingly, in what was once a heroin
zone, this is now becoming an ice town.
"Comparatively speaking, it's easier to access.
It's easier to buy from the market. It's comparatively cheap.
The consumers are many young people.
Among them it can form a kind of culture - a smoking subculture
The roads out of Ruili are all heading north
and for drugs being smuggled into China, there
is a well-trodden path. For most, the first
stop is the regional capital where onward
distribution will be organised.
"I'm here at the Kunming Narcotics Bureau.
There are more than a 160 police here. Apparently
this is the largest drug squad in China and
we've been invited here to come and have a
chat.
Wang Zheng Long is a young intelligence officer
and to give us an idea of how busy they've
been, he shows us some of the drugs police
have confiscated lately.
"These are real drugs that you've seized.
Am I correct?"
"That's correct. They are real.
This is opium".
"Opium?
So people have secretly brought this in from
overseas - or produced the drugs in China?"
"No. These drugs are all from overseas. We've
seized them in China".
"So they are from Myanmar?"
"Right, yes".
"They've come from Myanmar to be sold in China?"
"Right, right".
We see Ketamine, also known as Special K and
a pillow case of morphine. There's heroin
cut into blocks for convenient concealment
and in smaller pieces to fit into a condom
for internal body secretion.
Chinese police seized 7.3 tons of heroin last
year but methamphetamine was double that.
In 2012 ice seizures went from 14 to over
16 tons and we're shown large bags of it in
various levels of purity.
"So, if I wanted to sell these here, how much
would they be worth?"
"Sell them all?"
"Yes".
"At once?"
They sell for around 50 Yuan a tablet".
50 Yuan for one.
Ten thousand tablets at ten bucks a pop so
I'm holding a hundred thousand dollar's worth
of drugs here. It's quite a bit".
Of course that's the price in Yunnan Province.
The further these narcotics are transported
from the border, whether it be inside machine
parts, hollowed out shoe heels or wooden artefacts,
the more profit there is to be made, as the
price doubles and triples upon arrival in
China's mega cities.
Shanghai is the gleaming citadel at the heart
of China's booming East coast. It's a massive
port town, a thriving business centre, a magnet
for foreigners and home to some 23 million
people. If you were going to build a city
to promote the drug trade in China, it'd probably
look like Shanghai.
This metropolis is an affluence factory - to
the point where it's mocked by the rest of
China for having such a superficial and greedy
outlook.
But, when it comes to drug taking, many analysts
think a much more important factor than disposable
income is a new found social acceptance of
drugs and not only here.
There was a time not so long ago when it was
hard to find a young person in China who'd
taken illegal drugs. Their friends would have
thought they were freaks, but in many circles
now, it's seen as a totally normal and acceptable
practice.
"When I arrived at a friend's home they put
several kinds of stuff on the table. They
told me, "It's fine to take this - it's different
from heroin - you won't get addicted to it"...
etcetera. So I started taking it".
"What kind of drugs were they?"
"It was ice".
We meet a Shanghai woman who, at one time,
got into methamphetamine. And why not? The
feelings were great, she was with her friends
and having the time of her life.
"We thought it was fun and fashionable to
take drugs - so we wanted to keep up with
the trend.
Most of all, we didn't see the harm in it.
We thought it was different from heroin and
we wouldn't get addicted. So I took it again
and again".
It's Friday night in Shanghai so naturally
the kids are heading out to play.
It was probably inevitable that as China opened
up to all things foreign, illegal drugs would
eventually spread through cities like this
in larger numbers.
And as this is a country that doesn't know
how to do things in half measures, when you're
into it, you're into it!
What's more, Chinese people are early adaptors.
According to police research the new trend
is to order drugs over the internet. Some
dealers even use official fast couriers to
make a drop.
"Compared to Sydney, London or New York, the
level of drug use in places like this is still
pretty small. The important thing is the trajectory
and it's only going in one direction - up".
And according to some experts, while economic
growth may have fanned Chinese drug use, a
really big expansion might be in the wings
if the economy actually falters.
"If China keeps up a normal, stable level
of economic growth strengthening drug control
systems and education, drug use will not expand
so widely.
"But if our growth halts with bad social management,
and we have social instability, then the drug
problem in China will dramatically increase.
It could be ten times or twenty times bigger."
That's not just because some might turn to
drugs when times are tough to dull the pain.
It's also because people might see the narcotics
trade as a potential replacement for lost
business opportunities in other areas.
"It just brings in so much profit. If someone
wanted to break into our system, it is very
easy. The easiest and the quickest way to
make a fortune is to deal drugs - to sell
drugs here.
Yet, as with all highs, there's the comedown.
Our woman hit rock bottom when her son, who
was once a good student, was nearly thrown
out of school. She was picked up by police
and sent to rehab.
These days she's clean, has a new job and
her son has made it into university. Yet the
old times still linger in her memory.
"My life is great. My family, myself, my career
and my parents are all great. I am back to
how I felt before I had taken drugs. But deep
in my heart there's a small place reminding
me that I took drugs before".
For many in China, trying to kick it is not
only tough but it's compulsory and while ice
may be on the rise, a much more traditional
drug casts a long shadow here.
There are one thousand ex-heroin addicts working
at the Yulu complex. Work camp style rehabilitation
centres like this one in Yunnan's Kaiyuan
City were set up in the 1990s for drug users
who'd been picked up by the authorities and
today there are 678 of them across China housing
300,000 ex drug users.
But now the police who run Yulu say people
choose to come and choose to stay, but when
they're here, the rules are strict.
"Normally if a foreign camera crew came into
a Chinese factory there'd be smiles and giggling
and 'Oooh, what are they doing in here?' Not
in this place, listen... Nothing... Just the
sound of the machines. People are head down,
working. I don't know if it's because they're
sad or embarrassed about their past but it's
definitely the way it is".
Lu Jianghuai says it was only possible for
him to give up heroin because of the discipline
here. Now he's been promoted to manage this
"What about over here"?
"From there and there they glue them and over
there we sew them together.
"Ah... put them together".
"He introduces the work they do with 15 companies
investing in a network of factories making
everything from purses to solar water heaters,
door frames to cigarette lighters.
I asked him what's become of the friends he
used to take heroin with.
"Most of them are dead following an overdose".
Lu Jianghuai has found a woman to marry him
at the factory but as for those who were once
closest to him, well he doesn't see them very
much.
"Dad and Mum got divorced because of my addiction.
Because I was taking drugs they scolded me
but I couldn't stop. My family started to...
ah... what can I say? I feel very sorry for
what happened to my family".
This rehabilitation complex is rolling out
a massive attempt at healing in response to
an industrial sized problem in China. Yet,
if you think this is of concern, well it could
even hit you closer to home.
