US Republican Congressman Jim Banks from Indiana is pushing the Biden administration to classify fentanyl as a biochemical weapon and to sanction the role played by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in fueling the drug crisis in the United States.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Banks stated, “The CCP is the world’s largest police state. If they wanted to stop fentanyl from flowing from their borders to drug trafficking organizations in the US and Mexico, they could do it overnight.”
“Instead, they annually ship this deadly opioid-like drug to the US, killing tens of thousands of American soldiers and working-age individuals, wreaking havoc on our communities and economy. The extent of this is reminiscent only of weapons of mass destruction.”
Last month, the House Committee on China issued a major investigative report. The report revealed that the Chinese authorities provided export subsidies to Chinese companies producing fentanyl precursors and other synthetic drugs, encouraging the sale of these products outside China.
This plan has been in effect since 2018. During the US-China official talks in 2019 and 2020, the Chinese authorities increased these subsidies. Even after the “Biden-Xi Summit” in November 2023, where both countries announced a consensus on cooperation to combat fentanyl, these official subsidies have not ceased.
The committee accused the CCP of using “national power” to fuel the current fentanyl crisis in the US.
Nate Moellering is the Executive Vice President of Allendale Treatment, a drug rehabilitation center in Indiana. He is also a fentanyl survivor, and he directly accused the CCP of exacerbating this crisis.
He told Fox News, “Due to the greed of the CCP, some of our best and brightest have lost their precious lives. Sanctioning the CCP is the federal government’s first step towards responsibility… This is not a red or blue (party) issue.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, over 110,000 people died in the US due to drug overdose, with 76,000 deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Fentanyl overdose has become a leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45, contributing to the decline in life expectancy in the United States.