Drug-related crimes on the decline in China with zero tolerance for smuggling

As the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking approaches, which falls on Friday, China’s Supreme People’s Court on Tuesday released 10 typical cases of drug-related crimes and druginduced secondary crimes concluded since 2019, including three death penalty cases.

Among the 10 representative cases there are cases of drugs productions and trafficking, governmental official’s drug-related crimes, abetting youth drug use, children-murdering by people with a long history of drug use. Most of the 10 cases took place in East and South China, with four that occurred at Guangdong and Yunnan provinces.

“China’s anti-drug campaign is still grim and complex,” Li Shaoping, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court and also vice head of China National Narcotics Control Committee, said on Tuesday, after the Supreme People’s Court’s data shows that the number of drugrelated crimes has been on a downward trend, dropping to 85,800 in 2019, a 38.27 percent decrease from 2015.

Regarding challenges, Yang noted drug trafficking from the “Golden Triangle” is increasing, putting China’s border regions like Yunnan and

Guangxi under great pressure. The spread of domestic drug production, the emergence of new synthetic drugs, and the use of high technology by drug traffickers also makes it harder to monitor, Yang noted.

Australian national Karm Gilespie was sentenced to death for drug smuggling at the first trial by a court in Guangzhou on June 10. Gilespie was found to be carrying more than 7.5 kilograms of methamphetamine in his luggage at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in 2013. Australian media has linked the case with the worsening China-Australia ties while analysts said China’s strict law is equal to every violator, whether he is Chinese or foreigner, and it is ridiculous to link legal penalty with politics.