E12 - Opium Eradication in Communist China

In the 19th century, the Opium Wars began a "century of humiliation" for China, which would repeatedly suffer economic and military catastrophes in the decades to follow. Opium addiction, while not the cause of this catastrophe, would make the despair far more visible. In this episode, we do a deep dive into the little known story of how the CCP eradicated opium in China for more than two decades, and explore how this drug war managed to succeed in its goal of eradication when most others have failed.