Liu Yuejin, director of the narcotics control bureau for the Ministry of Public Security, described the drug problem:

“Due to high market demand, the desire for profits, and loose management, foreign drug gangs are active in southern China, including Guangdong and Yunnan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region,”

READ: Drug Sting At Hotel in Guangzhou Nets 10 Foreigners

There were 1,491 drug-related crimes involving foreigners last year in China, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%. This lead to the arrests of 1,963 foreign drug suspects, an increase of 17.3% from the year before.

Liu said the majority of foreign suspects are of African origin, and they tend to smuggle heroin from the Golden Crescent (consisting of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan) or marijuana and cocaine from Africa and South America.

Cui Qingchao, deputy director of the Guangzhou customs anti-smuggling department, said foreign traffickers are able to cheaply purchase methamphetamine in the Guangdong cities of Lufeng and Jieyang.

READ: Nigerian Man Caught Using Chinese Girlfriend to
Smuggle Drugs Out of Guangdong

Cui said that some African drug suspects serve as “agents” for Pakistani drug lords. Cui goes on to say,

“After obtaining drugs from these drug lords, they usually hire foreign traffickers who hide the drugs in their bodies or luggage. They take the drugs to Beijing and Shanghai or send them to Guangdong and other provinces through express mail services.”

Despite language barriers and a predisposition to commit violence posed by these foreigners, Liu said authorities will increase supervision of foreign residents, especially in Guangdong.

Related:

• Drug-Riddled Guangdong Town Presents Challenge to Police
• Two Middle Eastern Men Swallow RMB 2.25 Million Worth of Drugs,
  Arrive in Shenzhen
• Meet the New Drug on the Streets of Guangzhou: Khat, the Arabian Tea
• Huge Shipment of Khat Seized in Guangdong
• Dongguan Jail Home to 500 Foreigners

Photos: Georgia Expunge

UPDATE 2:35pm June 15: There have been train delays and suspensions of service in Guangdong due to the storm, reports the People’s Daily.

As of now, service on train G6309 has been suspended from Guangzhou South Station to Chaoshan. Train service on the Xiamen-Shenzhen Railway is limited to only 80 km an hour from Huizhou Station in Zhan’an District. Other trains have been reported late.

***

A code white typhoon warning is in effect as tropical storm Hagibis is expected to make landfall with mainland China later today, reports CCTV. In Hong Kong, typhoon signal number one has been hoisted.

Hagibis is estimated to land in the coastal region between Shantou, Guangdong and Xiamen, Fujian later this afternoon or evening. The four cities expected to be hit the hardest include Shantou, Shanwei, Chaozhou and Jieyang.

At 7am today Hagibis was located 280 km southeast of Shenzhen, moving in a northerly direction. It was recorded yesterday moving at a rate of five to 10 kilometers per hour, and is expected increase its rate of speed to 15 km/h upon making landfall.

Guangdong will have precipitation today with some areas like Shenzhen experiencing torrential rains. Coastal regions will experience wind rated at category eight or nine and gusts up to category 10.

Waves are expected to be very high. At 8am, the Guangdong Emergency Response Center initiated a level 3 alert, mandating the return of all sea-going vessels.

There is one positive outcome of the arriving storm: Shenzhen can expect cooler temperatures of approximately 26 degrees Celsius later today as well.

Photos: Shenzhen Weather, CCTV News

A beach in Shenzhen as the typhoon made landfall, image courtesy of BBC News. All beaches in the province were closed.

The eastern part of the province was hit particularly hard, as 13 were killed in Shanwei, six in Shantou and two were killed in Jieyang, according to Nanfang Daily. Over 2.7 million people were affected in the province.

This banyan tree that was at least 40 years old was toppled in Liwan District

The Pearl River Delta was also badly affected. Hundreds of flights were cancelled from Guangzhou and Shenzhen as well as many train services.

Lessons were cancelled at local schools ahead of the typhoon, but they will resume tomorrow, according to Guangzhou Daily.

This image of a rat being thrown up into the air by the typhoon in Shenzhen did the rounds on Sina Weibo

Archaeologists discovered Saturday (June 15) that construction of the Guangzhou Subway line 6 had destroyed 5 ancient tombs.

The Guangzhou Metro company claimed it had been granted permission by the Guangzhou Archeological Institute to destroy an area that was home to the 2,000 year-old tombs during the expansion of the line. However, the institute has denied giving the company permission to construct in the area where the tombs lay, Guangdong Satellite Television reports.

The chairman of the institute, Mr. Zhang, put it down to miscommunication.

In related news, the largest Song Dynasty (960-1279) tomb in Eastern Guangdong’s Jieyang City was raided and seriously damaged twice between mid-May and early June. The damage done to the tomb, which is on the protected list of the local government, may be irreparable, Guangzhou Daily reports.

Huang Huanguo’s tomb, courtesy of Guangzhou Daily

The Song Dynasty sage and statesman Huang Huanguo, who originally came from Dingzhou in Fujian Province, is listed as the number 1 most important person in “The Jieyang Book of Ancient Historical Figures” and it was his tomb that was raided twice.

It became a protected site in 1996. Police are investigating.

One commenter on Shanghaiist said: “Destroying their heritage is a National (sic) pastime, it’s called archaeology with Chinese characteristics.”

However, modernity and greed aren’t entirely having their own way. Shanghaiist reports that a tomb raider died when a tunnel collapsed on him when he was trying to steal from a Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BCE) tomb in Shaanxi Province on June 15.

Police have gathered up the highly-organised group of criminals after coming across their operation and discovering fake cash worth 210 million yuan (US$33.69 million). It’s possible the group produced more, with much of it already in the system.

In total, 37 people were arrested in the raids, with two rings smashed in the process.

Here’s more from Shanghaiist:

Following several successes last year, at the end of January the Guangdong police mounted a series of co-ordinated early-morning raids in several places across the province.

In the town of Jieyang they found the main printing plant, hidden within a private furniture factory.

Guangdong is not just the manufacturing capital, it’s the counterfeit cash capital, too, producing 90 percent of the country’s counterfeit RMB.

Here is a useful primer by What’s On Xiamen on how to spot the fake stuff.

Orphans at the Jieyang monastery

After seven children died in an orphanage fire in Henan Province earlier this month, six officials were suspended and questions were raised about the shortage of government run facilities for abandoned children.

Yuan Lihai, who ran the illegal orphanage, received much support from netizens for taking it upon herself to care for the children. In reaction, provincial governments are carrying out inspections to make sure that local governments are funding orphanages.

Last week, a local government in Guangdong Province came under scrutiny after local officials asked to “borrow” some orphans from a local monastery ahead of an inspection from the provincial government, according to Southern Metropolis Daily. This was discovered after a video of the conversation was leaked online, showing that the officials were not helping the orphans but merely trying to make themselves look good.

When confronted about this, the official explained that he meant “take” instead of “borrow,” as the two words sound similar in Mandarin. But according to an excellent opinion piece in today’s Shenzhen Daily which was written by a Jieyang native, this is not possible in the local dialect.

Officials asking to ‘borrow’ the orphans.

This is not the first case in modern Chinese history of a local government attempting to paint a rosy picture for provincial authorities. It is also not the first controversy involving an official in Jieyang. Late last year, the former party chief of Jieyang, Chen Hongping, was investigated as part of the province’s anti-corruption drive.

The  opinion piece in the Shenzhen Daily draws a connection between corruption at the top and failure to look after society’s most vulnerable people.

Lacking funds is no excuse for the government. China’s fiscal revenue has recorded two-digit growth annually in the past 10 years. And according to Wang Xixin, a researcher at the General Office of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Chinese officials each year spend at least 900 billion yuan on wining and dining, overseas trips and official vehicles. If a fraction of such expenditure is saved, the country’s orphans, who numbered 712,000 in 2010, would have decent homes to live in.

Let’s hope the people at the top are serious about this anti-corruption drive.