Preliminary figures indicate that during 1998 Chinese police seized record amounts of heroin, other illicit drugs, and precursor chemicals. The Chinese Government sponsored a nationwide education campaign aimed primarily at reducing drug use by youth. Narcotics enforcement cooperation between the United States and China continued to expand in 1998, with increased levels of training, professional exchanges, and tactical-level enforcement cooperation. China is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, as well as to the 1961 UN Single Convention and its protocols, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Drug traffickers from other Southeast Asian nations, particularly Laos and Vietnam, have also on occasion used China as a transit route.
China is a major producer of precursor chemicals.
The ephedra plant, from which the precursor chemical, ephedrine, is made, grows wild in northern China. China legally exports potassium permanganate, which is used in cocaine production. China vigilantly monitors precursor chemical exports and has in place a system of pre-export notification. China monitors all 22 of the chemicals on the 1988 UN Drug Convention Watch List. Yunnan, the province most directly affected by China's growing drug problem, goes further by monitoring exports of 28 chemicals.