China’s Drug-Related Crimes Spike This Year After Hitting 10-Year Low in 2022

China has experienced a spike in drug-related crimes this year after ending its stringent Covid-19 restrictions and posting a decade-low in 2022, when strict lockdowns and border closures stymied trade in narcotics, the Ministry of Public Security said in a report Wednesday.

In the first five months this year, police handled some 16,000 drug crime cases, arrested 27,000 people for related offences — up 27.5% and 35.9% year-on-year, respectively — and seized 8.4 tons of drugs, Zhao Zhongchen, deputy director of the ministry’s Narcotics Control Bureau, said at a press conference held the same day.