Chinese police campaign against drugs nets 60,000 arrests

World Today

Police in China have completed what they said is an “unprecedented” campaign to crack down on drug-related crimes, with several high-profile celebrities among those arrested. CCTV’s Han Peng reported this story from Beijing.

The campaign began in Sept. 2014, with police officers across the country mobilized to fight the “hundred-city anti-drug war.”

Authorities said during the three-month campaign, they confiscated 11 tons of drugs, a 20 percent increase over last year. Police also arrested more than 60,000 suspects, an increase of 47 percent over last year.

“The toughness of recent actions targeting drugs is unprecedented in China’s history. This is in response to the ever-growing problem of drug use, brought about by China’s 30 years of opening up,” Liu Yuejin, the deputy minister of Public Security Ministry said. “Geographically, China is very close to the two major opium export regions: one along the Mekong River, and the other in Afghanistan, which adds to the challenge of our work.”

A recent high-profile case was the Sept. 2014 arrest of Jaycee Chan, son of kung fu movie superstar Jackie Chan. Jaycee Chan was charged with providing a venue for others to use drugs and received a six-month sentence.

Chinese police also detained at least 11 other celebrities on drug offenses, including singer Li Daimo, writer Ning Caishen, and actor Gao Hu in 2014.

“It is not that we are particularly targeting celebrities for their drug use. They were caught as police intensified their crackdown on drugs,” Liu said.