Chinese Heroin Trade

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.

Chin and Zhang are among the most influential criminologists working today, with a well-deserved international reputation. In this book, they join forces to bring us a most illuminating and ground-breaking study of a neglected topic, the rise of China as a major consumer of heroin. I doubt anybody can match their ingenuity and dedication to high quality scholarship, but we can all learn from them and admire., Ko-lin Chin and Sheldon Zhang have produced an in-depth study of the political realities, social significance and dynamics of the heroin trade in Southeast Asia. This is an important book for those who would understand the cultivation and production of heroin, drug markets and drug use. There is perhaps no other team so well-suited to illuminate this topic and this book will be a valuable reference for years to come. It is a testament to the skills and experience of these two outstanding researchers., This comprehensive study provides an in-depth analysis of a particular illegal market about which little has been known to date. This book makes a valuable addition to the still only small number of case studies that permit a comparison of the structure and dynamics of illegal markets across, space, time and socio-political contexts.

Ko-lin Chin is Professor II (Distinguished) at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark and author of many books, including Heijin: Organized Crime, Business, and Politics in Taiwan and Golden Triangle: Inside Southeast Asia Drug Trade. Sheldon X. Zhang is Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University. He is the author of many books, including Chinese Human Smuggling Organizations—Families, Social Networks, and Cultural Imperatives and Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings: All Roads Lead to America.