Tomorrow the Ministry of Public Security will sponsor a visit for my delegation to Kunming in Yunnan Province where we will not only have an opportunity to discuss the drug issue with local leadership, both political and law enforcement, but also to visit a drug treatment center. There have been several points that I expressed with my Chinese counterparts. First, we came here to listen and learn. Both these nations face common problems, in particular from both heroin and methamphetamines. The United States has some five million chronic addicts, of which a little under million are addicted to heroin.
Methamphetamines is a new and terrible challenge to the United States.
Afghanistan and Burma produce 90 percent of the heroin in the world. Now we are seeing huge new productions of methamphetamines from the same criminal organizations in Burma that are producing heroin. And these drugs are a threat to all of the countries of the region. We have discussed further aspects of demand reduction, and Dr. Conden and I and our Drug Enforcement Administration officials have invited Chinese authorities to come to the United States and continue this dialogue. Our purpose in these visits today was to open a door leading to far wider cooperation against drugs.