Drugs a natural target in Beijing's war against corruption

The war on drugs is most readily associated with Mexico, and the war on corruption with China. But the two institutionalised vices are natural bedfellows, with the first begetting the second. President Xi Jinping's declaration of war on drugs in June therefore serves his relentless campaign against official corruption. For an example we need look no further than Guangdong, the mainland's biggest market for illicit drugs. A huge clan-based industry for the manufacture of synthetic narcotics, notably Ice, or methamphetamine, operates under the protection of corrupt officials.

These officials may not be prized scalps in the drive to cleanse the Communist Party of a cancer that poses a potential threat to its right to rule, but they have reason to be afraid. Guangdong's booming narcotics trade and huge addict population have made it a top target in a new nationwide police crackdown. Launched in September by the Ministry for Public Security and targeted at drug production, trafficking and selling, the six-month campaign has already resulted in about 24,000 arrests, confiscation of more than 12 tonnes of drugs and investigation of more than 100,000 users. The ministry says it will be widened to cover online drug dealing and drug driving. The trail is bound to lead to crooked officials. This follows a bust in January in which officials seized three tonnes of Ice from the village of Boshe, in Lufeng, along with 23 tonnes of raw materials. The latest crackdown is a warning to many Hong Kong people who are said to cross the border to use drugs.

Guangdong and Shandong provinces each have 10 cities among the 108 covered by the crackdown, according to state media - but for different reasons. Guangdong has the biggest population of registered suspected addicts - nearly one-fifth of the national total of 2.5 million - including migrants from other parts of China, who account for more than half. And it accounts for about a third of the national supply of domestically manufactured drugs. Shandong's port cities serve as transport hubs for drugs supplying Mongolia, South Korea and Japan as well as other Chinese cities.

Experts say it will take more than one or two high-profile campaigns to eliminate an industry from which so many local people make a living. But they are worth pursuing, given the social and economic costs of deaths from overdoses and related causes, illness, domestic violence, crime, traffic accidents and, of course, corruption.