A doctor of the Shek Kwu Chau Anti-Narcotics Center in Hongkong said in March, 1965, that with fewer than 4,000,000 people in the British colony, there are 500,000 narcotics addicts, spending about US$25 million, mostly for opium, on the habit every month. The problem is growing worse. In 1957, there were only 50,000 addicts. The figure soared to 200,000 in 1961, and 500,000 in the spring of 1965.
Hongkong does not produce narcotics, but the source is clear. Opium, heroin, morphine—they all flow out of Red China and through various distribution centers to Hongkong and the rest of the world.
The Peiping regime has several routes for its thriving, deliberate narcotics traffic. The western route is via Pakistan, the Middle East, Europe, and thence to Africa and the Americas. The eastern route is through Thailand, Hongkong, Macao, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, and so to the Americas.
Emaciated heroin addict "chases the dragon". (File photo)
Because of location and its colonial nature. Hongkong is an ideal place for Chinese Communist narcotics operations. Dope smuggling and addiction are so common as to attract slight interest and attention.
Heroin processed in Tientsin, Shanghai, Amoy, and Canton and opium from Kwang-hsi, Kweichow, Szechuan, and Yunnan are smuggled into Hongkong directly or via Macao, 42 miles away. More than 10 freighters ply between Hongkong and Shanghai and. Tientsin every month. On land, the Canton-Kowloon Railway links the British colony and the mainland.
Profitable Trade
The so-called "Department of Social Affairs" of the Chinese Communist Party directs the production and sale of narcotics. The "Commission for Foreign Trade" is in charge of management. The Chinese Communist "Political Bureau" has supreme command. Poppy plantation areas include Yunnan, Kwanghsi, Kweichow, and Szechuan provinces in southern China, Kansu and Shensi provinces in northwestern China, and Jehol and Suiyuan provinces in Inner Mongolia. The Chinese Reds reportedly have established a unified organization with Burma, North Korea, and North Vietnam to coordinate production and sale. Peiping is the boss.
Hongkong police at farm where opium was found. (File photo)
The most sophisticated and complicated methods are used to conceal shipments. Narcotics are hidden inside flour and cement sacks, toys, bamboo sticks, bags of rice, cans of food, and steel pipes. Packages of narcotics sometimes are airdropped on the high seas and then picked up by speedboats. Hiding places are changed with every shipment.
The current price of a pound of crude opium in Southeast Asia is about US$100; that of heroin is US$2,000 at wholesale and US$4,000 at retail. An ounce of morphine is worth US$100-160. Because heroin and morphine are more convenient to handle, the Chinese Reds are concentrating on the production of these drugs. Heroin is easily disguised as white flour or cement.
Peiping agents stationed in Southeast Asia sell the narcotics to dealers for cash. Agents are changed after one or two sales.
Last February, Japanese police announced crackdown on a large narcotics ring operating in Osaka and other places and the arrest of 101 suspects. Police said that in the last three years, more than 700 kilograms of heroin had been smuggled to Japan from Hongkong.
This huge ring may have been under direct command of the Peiping regime. There is evidence that the Chinese Reds have used the money obtained from sale of narcotics in Japan to finance the subversive activities of the Japanese Communist Party.
Opium in thickened end of pipe is heated over lamp. (File photo)
Tsusai Sugahara, chairman of the Japanese National Committee for the Struggle Against Addiction to Drugs, has said that "the Peiping regime each year squeezes from Japan alone some US$170 million by opium smuggling ... The amount is only one-third of its total dope trade."
The Thai police last November 2 accused Peiping of using that country as a way station in smuggling opium to Japan and the United States.
Soviet Accusation
Chinese Communists use armed teams to escort narcotics from Yunnan into Thailand. The number of addicts in Thailand is growing alarmingly.
In May, 1965, the Thai police seized one and half tons of opium worth US$150,000 being smuggled into Thailand.
Police, alerted about the move two days in advance, set up road blocks in northwest Thailand near the Burmese border. Four trucks, including one with radio transmitter, were stopped, but no opium was found aboard them.
Smugglers use dolls with cavity in the back to hold drugs. (File photo)
The heavy, sweet odor of opium was heavy in the trucks, however. Police began sniffing along the roadway and soon discovered the contraband hidden in the grass.
Even Russia has felt compelled to oppose Peiping's trade in illicit drugs. An article in Pravda by Tokyo correspondent V. Ovchinnikov last September accused the Mao regime of being "the biggest opium, morphine, and heroin producer in the world".
The article said: "The smuggling of dope into many nations, including the United States, has become one of the main sources of foreign exchange for the Peiping regime. the tremendous profits are used for anti-Soviet propaganda or to subsidize the puppets of the Peiping splitters."
For medical purposes, the world needs only 300 tons of opium a year. From 1952 to 1957 alone, the Chinese Reds increased opium production from 2,000 to 8,000 tons. To keep the international price high, production has not been increased so rapidly since. Last year's nefarious Red Chinese trade is estimated at more than 10,000 tons worth about US$800 million.
Bundle of firewood used to conceal opium.(File photo)
While using Hongkong as a principal distributing center, the Chinese Reds try to divert the attention of Interpol to opium smuggling in other Southeast Asian countries. To mislead and pacify police, the Reds often sacrifice minor traders in order to protect themselves and the really big smugglers. The Communists often change top personnel so as to evade police suspicion.
Many Brands
Opium brands include the "Yunnan Pillow", "Monk's Head", "One-Three-Nine", "South Pole", "Golden Elephant", "Red Eagle", "Camel", "Globe", and "Satellite". Heroin brands include "Red Rooster", "Black Rooster", "999", and "Snow Mountain". Packages of these drugs are labeled "Excellent Quality" and "For Export Only".
Many addicts prefer heroin to opium. The smoking of opium requires a long wooden pipe, a lamp, and a bed. Heroin requires only some tinfoil, a hand-rolled paper pipe, and a candle. The effect of heroin is 30 to 80 times stronger than opium. Some addicts drink tea spiked with heroin.
Addicts' hiding places, like this one in Kowloon, are sordid and filthy. (File photo)
There are several methods of heroin smoking:
1. Heroin is placed on tinfoil paper and roasted. As the heroin is vaporized, the addict inhales the smoke through a paper pipe. This is called "Chasing the Dragon".
2. Instead of a pipe, the addict uses a matchbox to inhale the smoke. Because of the appearance of the box, this method is called "Blowing the Harmonica".
3. Heroin is stuffed into a cigarette. Because the addict wants to prevent the heroin from spilling out and has to turn the cigarette skyward, this method is called "Firing the Anti-Aircraft Gun".
4. Heroin is dissolved in cold water and injected by hypodermic syringe.
5. Heroin is placed on skin that has been rubbed raw.
6. Heroin is snuffed or taken by mouth.
Ways to Addiction
In Hongkong, there are three usual paths to addiction: (1) Through membership in illegal secret societies, whose leaders try to control through the supply of narcotics; (2) erroneous belief that narcotics can cure chronic illness and strengthen the body; (3) simple curiosity, then combined with the evil intentions of pushers and other criminals.
Addicts seal their own fate in distasteful dens. (File photo)
Narcotics addiction is increasing among teen-agers in the United States. A recent publication at Oxford University disclosed that some 200 students were addicts.
Ninety per cent of illicit narcotics reaching the free world come from the Communist-held Chinese mainland. Also alarming is Chinese Red export of their opium growing techniques. Peiping has sent experts to Cuba, Albania, and African countries to instruct poppy farmers. An aerial photo reportedly has shown Peiping "agriculturists" working in poppy fields in Camaguey and Pinar del Rio, Cuba.
The Chinese Communists believe that "to poison the capitalist world is the first step in communizing it". In addition to dissemination of the poisonous drugs, they use profits from the sale of narcotics to undermine and subvert free governments. To stop such trafficking will require intensified, coordinated efforts by free countries.
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As the Chinese say—
You plant melons, you reap melons.
Western equivalent—
"You reap what you sow."