China aids fight against drug trade

China aids fight against drug trade

BANGKOK (Reuters): China has encouraged Myanmar's ethnic groups to grow sugarcane instead of narcotic drugs, visiting Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao told Thailand's prime minister, a Thai official said on Thursday.

Hu, who visited Myanmar before arriving in Thailand, had told premier Chuan Leekpai during a meeting on Wednesday that Myanmar's military rulers had informed him they took the drugs problem seriously but could not eradicate it completely, the official said.

The reason they gave, Hu had said, was that ethnic groups along the Myanmar-Thai border continued to grow and trade drugs.

The Chinese leader also had said that China sponsored a crop substitution project for the ethnic groups to grow sugarcane and had pledged to buy the sugar.