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Article: Now for another opium war. (Hong Kong)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- November 19, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FROM OUR HONGKONG CORRESPONDENT IN A sense Hongkong owes its existence to
opium, the "foreign mud" that British merchants used to sell to the Chinese. In 1839 China tried to stamp out the trade and banned opium imports. The British started a war that was settled by their acquisition of Hongkong in 1842. The colony's opium trade is still flourishing, but under a different guise, heroin trafficking. In the past year the drug business has shown remarkable growth.
Dealers in Hongkong import heroin from the "golden triangle" of Thailand, Burma and Laos, and sell it locally or re-export it, mainly to America. Prices have fallen, but quantities are rising. This ...