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Culture Connection: Saying 'No' to Drugs

Having resided in various cities around the world, I have to say that the last four years of my adult life in Beijing have without doubt felt the safest. Whether this feeling is based on misplaced laowai cockiness or a genuine absence of danger is another matter, but give me a choice between a midnight stroll along Brixton High Street in London or Sanlitun Beijie, and I’ll take the latter any day of the week.

In fact, the only times I have felt mildly threatened in this country have been in encounters with non-Chinese citizens—more specifically, people in Sanlitun selling drugs. And I donít just mean grass or hash, but ecstasy and coke too. The routine is always the same: false bonhomie, followed by, “Do you want some gear, man?” This is often followed by abuse when you decline to purchase. I find this unpleasant, especially when accompanied by a friend.

With this is in mind, the round-up of people in Sanlitun one Friday night in late September was hardly surprising. If people are going to sell drugs on Beijing’s streets so blatantly, what should they expect? Randomly approaching every foreigner in Sanlitun and proffering drugs, especially in broad daylight, doesn’t strike me as the most discreet way of doing business.

Before I get accused of stereotyping, I am genuinely sorry for those innocent bystanders caught up in the “disturbance,” and I do not condone violence of any kind, especially when it is senseless and indiscriminate. Only a small number of the non-Chinese people who hang out in Sanlitun are dealers. But I am curious to know what the amount and types of narcotic substances collected that night were: I am certain it was more than a few bags of Yunnan home-grown.

With Beijing hosting the world’s greatest sporting event in less than a year, and to ensure the expatriate community’s quality of life and safety in Beijing, it’s up to everyone to ensure that the relationship between the expatriate community and their local hosts remains as solid and as amicable as it has historically been. Saying, “No,” to aggressive drug dealing on the streets of Sanlitun would seem to be a good place to start.