The Chinese media have been highlighting a series of executions of drug traffickers across the country ahead of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, which is being marked on Tuesday.
Chinese TV carried live coverage of a rally attended by more than 10,000 people in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southern China, where 20 alleged drug offenders were earlier sentenced to death and two tonnes of heroin burned.

The executions were carried out later at a different location.

In the city of Wuhan in central China eight people were executed, on Hainan Island five people and in Liaoning Province two people were executed for drug-related crimes on Tuesday.

China had already executed 23 people charged with drug trafficking and selling on the eve of the UN-sponsored anti-drugs day.

The city of Chongqing in central China executed 18 drug traffickers, while five others were executed in other places, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Foreigners executed

Among those executed was a Burmese national, Li Shaoju, who was convicted for smuggling more than 13 kg of heroin and 12 kg of opium from Burma into China.

The China Daily wrote that "according to Chinese law, the Chinese court has jurisdiction over Li, a citizen of Myanmar, because the crime was committed in China".

Fujian Province on Monday executed five Taiwanese citizens, caught while attempting to smuggle drugs to Taiwan.

Last week nine people were executed near the Vietnamese border in southern China. Shanghai media said at least one drug offender would be executed in the city this week.

Anti-crime campaign

In the last few months the Chinese police have waged a "strike hard" campaign in a national effort to fight crime. The campaign allows for speedier trials and more frequent use of the death penalty.

Statistics from China's Ministry of Public Security, the number of registered drug users in China has risen from 148,000 in 1991 to 860,000 in 2000.

Xinhua reports that between January and May of this year, the public security organs have handled 38,233 drugs-related cases, arrested 28,163 suspects and seized 5,332 kg of heroin, 1,806 kg of opium, 2,757 kg of "ice" (crystal methamphetamine), and 340,000 ecstacy pills.

The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking is held every year on 26 June.

It commemorates the signature of the Declaration adopted at the International Conference against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June 1987.