China says more drugs trafficked from Central Asia

CHINA: China plans to strengthen security along its borders with Central Asia to combat a rise in drug smuggling through its restive western region of Xinjiang, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri also said drug offenses were on the rise, and the increasing use of shared needles has given the region the highest HIV infection rate in the country, the China Daily reported.

Bekri said the region wants to beef up security forces along the border with the so-called Golden Crescent opium producing area of Central Asia, encompassing Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the newspaper said. “We have asked (the central government) for the deployment of more security forces. The current number is simply not enough,” Bekri said.

Bekri said the number of border security staff has not changed since 1992 even though the number of travelers has increased from 69,000 a year to 2 million.

The report said half of the total drugs seized by Xinjiang police last year - about 320 pounds (144 kilograms) of heroin and 15 pounds (6.7 kilograms) of methamphetamine - came from the Golden Crescent.

“While traffickers are trying to make Xinjiang a transit point, consumption within the region is increasing as well,” Bekri told the newspaper on the sidelines of China’s annual legislative session. To fight the increase in infections, Bekri said the regional government plans to allocate 40 million yuan ($5.8 million) to HIV/AIDS prevention programs this year.

Beijing ,Tuesday, AP