China, January of 1951

The triumph of the People’s Revolution in all of China means that the CCP must conduct another anti-drug suppression campaign; this time on a national - and revolutionary - level. We will overhaul our anti-drug policies by applying it to all provinces of China, with aggressive commitment to rehabilitation of peoples, elimination of drugs and replacement of poppy fields into other agricultural goods which may serve China better.

Opium: A Plague

Although the corrupt Kuomintang attempted - at least partially - to remove the pestilence that is opium consumption from China, it failed massively. By the end of the Six-Year Plan, in 1944, our nation was still the leading producer of the drug, at 1100 tons of opium annually, composing nearly half of the world’s total production of opium.

The Second Sino-Japanese War was also destructive to the people of China; collaborationist regimes such as Wang Jingwei’s and Mengjiang were massive producers of opium, and maintained a steady supply of revenue with the drug, at the cost of furthering our epidemic and weakening the structure of China. In the South, where warlords reigned with little limits, regions such as Sichuan, Yunnan and Fujian had their lands replaced by opium fields. The peasants were often coerced into the production of the drug, with heavy taxations for those who refused, as per Edward R. Slack’s work on the subject matter, ‘Opium, State, and Society: China’s Narco-Economy and the Guomindang, 1924-1937’.

By 1946, Shanghai was infested with the consumption of opium; Zhang Shengyuan, in the work ‘Shanghai’s Ban on Prostitution and Opium During the Liberation Era”, reported that the city contained 23 drug factories, with over 30,000 people participating in the production and trafficking of drugs.

It is, therefore, with numbers as high as these, and with the proliferation of opium all over the nation, that the People’s Republic of China must take a hands-on approach for dealing with the drug. Not through legislation that prohibits it - although that is certainly a part of it - but through the complete obliteration and elimination of the problem.

Step One

Step one of the anti-opium campaign will be based on cataloguing and obtaining information about drug production, farming and distribution in the People’s Republic; Kuomintang statistics are notoriously unreliable due to under-reporting and bribing of government officials. As such, we will interrogate, patrol and investigate all of China with attention and focus. Variations in the level of the consumption of the drug, the cultivation of the poppy and subsequent trafficking between regions can play a major part in the efficiency of our anti-drug operation. Our men and women in the CCP will be responsible for the development of records which detail trends in poppy fields and lists of individuals involved in the trafficking and consumption of opium.

A major part of this investigative step is already fulfilled through the peasant associations that have been previously established. These associations have been responsible for mapping all of the land in China, and as such, alongside the leadership being based out of these counties and villages, have the knowledge of where poppy fields are cultivated.

Step Two

Step two is to act with the agricultural role of opium. The concept is simple, and tied with the proposals of land reform that the PRC has been conducting. As our peasant associations are assigning new land to peasants, the role of the PRC in uprooting opium in rural China will be based on providing alternatives for farming new agricultural goods in China. Due to the tight link between opium uprooting and land reform, the transformation of opium cultivation into other goods will be undertaken between 1951-1953, and addressed in another measure, although the general base of the reform is quite simple:

• Increase taxation of opium goods, while reducing respective taxation of other agricultural goods as to encourage the plantation of other goods, on a per-province basis;

• Provide free seeds and equipment for farmers to plant new agricultural goods.

Step Three

Step three is the most important, and deals with the commercialization, trafficking and consumption of opium in both rural and urban China. The transformation of China into a model society must tackle this issue with far more severity, aggressiveness and determination than the uprooting of opium plantations. It will, in general, focus on the doctrines detailed below, on General Order Against Opium and Narcotics of 1951:

• Create propaganda against the usage of opium to mobilize the masses as per our previous propaganda campaigns - through the usage of interviews and posters;

• The People’s Government at all levels, and within all provinces, will hold committees regarding the suppression of opium and act alongside peasant associations to suppress the consumption, commercialization and trafficking of opium;

• Eliminate opium in regions not occupied by the PLA, and immediately eliminate opium in all regions after the end of military occupation;

• Outlaw the cultivation, production, trafficking and commercialization of all illegal narcotics, the most important of which is opium;

• Encourage Chinese citizens to relinquish any opium or other narcotics in their possession. We shall encourage them to relinquish such possessions by removing any jail time, as well as the usage of Socialist pressure, not withholding or cracking down on “excesses”;

• Register all addicts in the timeframe between 1951-1952;

• Provide crucial resources for addicts to fight the plague of opium, such as clinics and medications. All medications will be under absolute and strict control of the Chinese Health Department;

• Create rehabilitation centers in all provinces and cities of China. Villagers with addiction problems will be given transportation to the nearest city with a rehabilitation center;

• Each provincial government must deal with the problem of opium within the aforementioned timetable of 1951-1953.

In every case where opium is found in one’s possessions, it will be completely confiscated, and the offender will be punished with a prison sentence between 3-5 years; in case of large amounts of opium, the offender will be executed. This punishment also extends to addicts who fail to register or fail to quit opium within the time-frame of 1951-1953.

All opium dens will be banned and closed in all provinces of China after all addicts have registered themselves; those who have not will be legally prosecuted. The banning of opium dens will leave dealers with no areas in which they can sell their products, and addicts with nowhere to receive their goods.

One of the most important issues that we must tackle is that coercion and forcefulness against opium trafficking - while certainly a part of the issue - must not be the only way that the Chinese people abandon opium. We must provide farmers with seeds for the planting of new goods, addicts must be granted medication to aid with withdrawal symptoms and the voluntary surrendering of illegal narcotics must be provided as an alternative to arrests and executions.

The Central Ministry of Public Security will be emphatic in providing these alternatives, and in encouraging addicts to register themselves so that they may be given a better life in the PRC as productive members of society; all the while, all of these measures will be used as material against the KMT. We will be propagandizing the fact that the KMT was ineffectual during years and years of campaigning. The usage of the slogan ‘three decades of plague into three decades of cleansing’ will be frequent, and will be popularized by the widespread usage of it in all areas where our anti-opium campaigns exist.

According to a work by Qi Ji, in “Chinese Communist Party Period of Opium Suppression”, in some cities, there are as many as eight opium dens for every square mile on average. This epidemic must be crushed, with effectiveness and dedication. One of the main consumers of opium is the city of Nanjing; a work by Ma Weigang, “Oppose Prostitution, Suppress Opium”, recorded that Nanjing was importing at least 2250 kg of opium on a yearly basis, which meant that Nanjing was no beginner to opium suppression campaigns and, as such, needed to have innovative campaigns.

One of the main attempts of the KMT to curtail opium was to initially control it and monopolize it, to then end its consumption; the attempt, as with many things that the KMT has horridly tried to do, failed miserably. The legal loopholes meant that many of the opium dens remained open, and little was done.

The first step to breaking opium dens in all of urban China is through the usage of propaganda. We will associate opium usage to being a KMT supporter; we will echo back to the failures of the Kuomintang to suppress opium, the participation of warlords - of KMT affiliation - with opium trafficking. We will mirror the crimes of the KMT, be it the violation of human rights to many innocent peoples or the sacking of cities during their evacuation, to the crime of consuming opium. An excerpt to one of the propaganda speeches that we will do, explains such a concept perfectly:

“[...] the same party that has blown up ports in the south of China, violated the rights of native Taiwanese and murdered and executed many innocent Chinese extra-legally, is the same party that has sold opium in China since 1920. The same party that attempted to monopolize opium, the most immoral of drugs, to attain its profit. The same party that continues to sponsor insurgents, bandits and criminals who profit off of opium to enslave Chinese people. To consume opium is to support the KMT. To support the KMT is to support the continuation of the Century of Humiliation.”

There will be propaganda trucks and buses, driving through the cities and espousing anti-drug sentiments over speakers; propagandists of the CCP will travel door-to-door informing locals of upcoming meetings and spreading propaganda regarding the usage of drugs. There’ll be hundreds of thousands of public meetings between 1951-1953 to encourage citizens to report any drug activity and for drug offenders to turn themselves in.

There needs to be a connection between anti-drug sentiment, pro-CCP feelings and anti-KMT feelings; these need to be tied together by ensuring not only that being against drugs is being against the Kuomintang, but also that reporting drug usage and activity is an act of patriotism. Drug addicts will be given the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and register during rallies, and maximum attempts will be given by organizers to provide help and a welcoming atmosphere to those willing to rehabilitate themselves, similar to KMT soldiers who have chosen to surrender during our campaigns of liberation.

Drug lords and major distributors will be the biggest focus of police operations, while small-time drug dealers will be given the opportunity to repent with active community service and a small jailing period; they will be given the opportunity to work on fields and factories all over China, if they maintain a clean record and a dedication to the Marxist-Leninist ideals of the CCP.

All cities in China will be given the direct order to form anti-drug committees, of which at least half of the membership will be composed of local community leaders and representatives, and the rest can be filled by CCP cadre members dedicated to fighting against opium and other narcotics.

Waves of arrests will be done, rather than periodic arrests; during these waves, small-time drug dealers will receive small-to-moderate sentences, if they are willing to provide information regarding the upper structure. The medium and large drug lords will not be granted any opportunities for leniency, and will receive maximum sentencing, if not outright execution for their crimes against Chinese society; there needs to be a culture of “showing results” within the Chinese law enforcement, as to increase our support amongst the Chinese peoples.

Two strategies will be used to eradicate the drug consumption and trafficking problems of urban China. The mass-mobilization of all Chinese citizens into denouncing drug activities, and the coordination by the Central Ministry of Public Security, in organizing the drug campaign across multiple cities. Both of those are imperative to our victory against drug use in China and a massive moral victory to the CCP, while at the same time painting the KMT in an even worse light, as a quasi-narco-state and a totalitarian dictatorship that preferred to ally itself to opium than eradicate it effectively.