KUNMING, May 5 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior anti-narcotics police
officer in southwest China's Yunnan Province says the worldwide
narcotics problem cannot be ended by relying on military means.
   As a region adjacent to Asia's "Golden Triangle", the world's
largest drug-producing area, Yunnan has long been at the forefront
of the anti-narcotics battle in China. Reporters from a number of
foreign news media including the Associated Press (AP), the
Washington Post, Reuters and CNN were recently invited to
investigate the anti-narcotics work there.
   Responding to a question on whether China had sent troops to
smash drug-making centers in northern Myanmar, Sun Dahong, deputy
director of the Bureau of Public Security of the province, said
the anti-narcotics departments in Yunnan had received no order
from any government department for going to northern Myanmar.
   "Though Yunnan Province is adjacent to the drug-making base in
northern Myanmar and adversely affected by it, we never had plans
to send troops or armed police there for smashing the drug-making
centers," he added.
   "In our view, it is no use to solve the problem of narcotics in
the "Golden Triangle" or elsewhere in the world by depending on
military means," Sun said.
   He said previous experience has showed that all military
attacks on drug production failed to yield satisfactory results.
On the contrary, they lead to a booming growth in drug production
after each attack.
   The fundamental policy on wiping out sources of drug-making is
to bring about a social change, accelerate the regional economy of
the "Golden Triangle" and alter the economic structure there, he
said.
   The Chinese government and the Yunnan Province have joined
international efforts to help the area grow substitute crops for
opium poppy, he concluded.   Enditem