DRUG TRAFFICKING REPORT

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

U.S., China allies in war on drugs /Sources say traffickers monitored at
secret post
on Burma border
Houston Chronicle; Houston, Tex.; Oct 31, 1998; 

Sub Title: 
          [3 STAR Edition]
Start Page: 
          27
Dateline: 
          WASHINGTON

Abstract:
WASHINGTON - In a step toward joint operations to fight international crime,
the United States
and China have established a secret electronic surveillance post along
China's border with
Burma to eavesdrop on narcotics traffickers from the Golden Triangle, one of
the world's
biggest sources of heroin, sources say.

The U.S. government has also given China several dozen Humvee vehicles for
narcotics
interdiction in mountainous terrain along the Burmese border. Chinese
sources also said that
the United States has established a secret fund that Chinese officials can
access to run the
surveillance center.

Full Text:
Copyright Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, The Hearst
Corporation (the
"Houston Chronicle") Oct 31, 1998


WASHINGTON - In a step toward joint operations to fight international crime,
the United States and
China have established a secret electronic surveillance post along China's
border with Burma to eavesdrop
on narcotics traffickers from the Golden Triangle, one of the world's
biggest sources of heroin, sources
say.

The U.S. government has also given China several dozen Humvee vehicles for
narcotics interdiction in
mountainous terrain along the Burmese border. Chinese sources also said that
the United States has
established a secret fund that Chinese officials can access to run the
surveillance center.

The listening post, staffed by Chinese and U.S. agents near the Chinese
border town of Ruili in southern
Yunnan province, marks a significant step forward in a U.S.
intelligence-sharing relationship with China
that dates back to 1971.

It follows on the operation in the 1980s by the CIA and its Chinese
counterpart of listening posts in
China's far-western Xinjiang Autonomous Region to monitor Soviet nuclear
weapons tests.

The 1995 opening of the Ruili post illustrates the complexities of the
United States' ties with China, which
can include negative as well as positive engagements.

While U.S. agents were shuttling from Washington to Ruili, Yunnan's
provincial capital of Kunming, and
Beijing, installing the listening post, the countries were bickering over
Taiwan, an island of 21 million that
China views as a renegade province.

That dispute climaxed in 1996 when China lobbed missiles over Taiwanese
territory and the United States
dispatched two naval battle groups to warn China that U.S. officials would
not tolerate an attack on
Taiwan.

However, the tremors did not affect the establishment of the listening post,
Chinese sources said, adding
that intelligence cooperation is insulated from what one Chinese source
called "short- term" troubles in the
relationship.

In fact, the Ruili listening post is only the most advanced new initiatives
that U.S. intelligence and law
enforcement agencies are launching with China to battle crime.

After the October 1997 summit in Washington between President Clinton and
Chinese President Jiang
Zemin, a liaison group for law enforcement agreed last month to draw up a
list of U.S. and Chinese
suspects believed to be operating in each other's countries.

Credit: Washington Post