China shares a 2000-kilometer border with Burma. The majority of heroin produced in Burma now travels through China en route to the international market. Smaller quantities of heroin enter China from Southwest Asia. There are 596,000 registered heroin addicts in China, but government officials admit that the actual number of users is far higher. More than 80 percent of drug abusers are under 35 years of age, and government anti-drug education campaigns are centered on this group.
Drug treatment is compulsory for known users.
Some centers also use traditional Chinese medicines to help users overcome their addiction. The goal of these communities is to eliminate narcotics trafficking and drug-related crime, but also to provide an environment free of the pressures that lead many former abusers to relapse into drug use. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs Policy Initiatives. U.S. policy objectives are to expand bilateral dialogue at both the operational and policy level, to foster more cooperation between American and Chinese enforcement officials, to increase Chinese counternarcotics capability, and to encourage regional counternarcotics cooperation. In 1999 the United States worked to improve counternarcotics cooperation at the operational level.