Drug crackdown pledged as China remembers Qing opium hero

Guangdong province, which is on the front line of China's war on drugs, will continue to launch campaigns targeting criminals who use, sell or traffic narcotics in the months ahead, a senior security official said on Sunday.

The announcement came as the nation remembered Lin Zexu, an imperial envoy during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) who is seen as a heroic figure in the fight against the opium scourge fueled by foreign traders in Guangdong.

Starting on June 3, 1839, Lin had workers burn more than 1,150 metric tons of opium collected in Humen, a small town at the mouth of the Pearl River.

More than 1,200 officials, police officers, residents, volunteers and students gathered in Humen on Sunday for a grand commemoration ceremony.

"The event demonstrates Guangdong's determination to fight drugs," Lin Weixiong, deputy director of the Guangdong Public Security Department, said at the event.

He said combating drugs and associated crime is a tough, long-term mission and pledged that police across the province would redouble efforts to ensure a better environment for residents, investors and tourists.

In the first quarter of this year, Guangdong police seized more than 4.1 metric tons of drugs, mostly crystal meth, and detained 3,490 suspected traffickers, including residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.