The fentanyl crisis threatens the United States, with China being the main source of fentanyl precursors globally. However, as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States is working to curb the influx of precursor chemicals from China, they are in the process of closing two of their offices in China.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the DEA will be shutting down their offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, while offices in Beijing and Hong Kong will remain operational.
Last week, the DEA Director Anne Melissa Milgram mentioned in an email to employees that the closures reflect the necessity to utilize the agency’s limited and strained resources to maximize saving American lives.
The email further stated that over a dozen offices globally will be closed to downsize the agency, which currently has 93 offices in 69 countries.
The DEA stated that this decision is data-driven and aims to ensure the agency can have the most significant impact in combating the fentanyl crisis.
Senior officials from the DEA indicated that this signifies a setback in U.S.-China cooperation. China remains the largest source of fentanyl precursors globally and the root cause of the fentanyl crisis worldwide, which leads to nearly 100,000 deaths of Americans each year.
On April 16, the United States Congressional “Commission to Counter the Chinese Communist Party” released an investigation report on the fentanyl crisis during a hearing.
The report pointed out that the Chinese authorities continue to provide subsidies for the manufacturing and export of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Of the illegal fentanyl entering the U.S., 97% comes from China, and nearly all fentanyl precursors worldwide are manufactured in China.
“We need to work with China to help stop the export of precursor chemicals,” said Mike Vigil, former International Operations Chief of the DEA.
After years of lobbying by the U.S., the Chinese authorities finally agreed in 2017 to allow the DEA to open offices outside Beijing.
The U.S. had hoped for substantial collaboration by establishing two offices in Guangzhou and a similar outpost in Shanghai, a financial hub in China.
However, an American official familiar with the closure of these offices, speaking anonymously to the Associated Press, stated that cooperation with Chinese authorities has significantly dwindled, and due to deteriorating U.S.-China relations, agents deployed to these offices face many restrictions and difficulties in obtaining visas.
In 2022, the Chinese authorities terminated drug enforcement cooperation with the U.S. in retaliation for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
However, after President Biden’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco last year, cooperation between the two sides seems to have improved.
In January of this year, DEA Director Milgram and Todd Robinson, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, visited China. Months later, Chinese authorities arrested a Chinese citizen who had fled the U.S. after being indicted by a federal court in Los Angeles for selling fentanyl.
Earlier this year, Milgram mentioned during a congressional subcommittee meeting: “So far, this work has been constructive, but I think it’s too early to tell whether we will see the results we hope for…If we can stop the flow of precursors from China, it will have a significant impact.”