President Joe Biden signed a proclamation in August to commemorate “Overdose Awareness Week,” a solemn moment for a country where over five hundred thousand people have died from drug overdoses in the past decade.
President Biden praised his administration’s reinvigorated anti-drug cooperation with communist China as a crucial tool in combating the influx of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids into the United States.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan subsequently sought support in China, including this anti-drug cooperation.
During his three-day visit, Sullivan met with senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and then told reporters in Beijing that the U.S. government is committed to gaining China’s assistance in addressing the synthetic opioid issue.
Sullivan stated on August 29th, “We will seek further progress in drug enforcement and reducing the illegal flow of synthetic drugs into the United States.”
However, as Sullivan prepared to depart Beijing, another senior official of the Biden administration was conveying a different message over 5,000 miles away in Southeast China.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell was in Vanuatu in the Pacific Islands assuring locals that the United States is taking actions to combat the growing Chinese drug trafficking networks.
Campbell highlighted that these networks are expanding new routes in the region to increase the flow of fentanyl into the United States and other areas.
He expressed concerns that networks emerging in China and Southeast Asia are beginning to exploit the Pacific to transport fentanyl to Latin America and the United States.
Campbell assured attendees that the U.S. will collaborate with foreign partners to curb drug trafficking activities from Chinese criminal networks. He admitted skepticism about the effectiveness of the Biden administration’s anti-drug cooperation with the CCP due to the continuous growth of China’s drug trade.
Now, U.S. government officials are navigating between these two priorities – managing diplomatic relations with the authoritarian regime in China and addressing the opioid crisis in America.
A State Department spokesperson told Epoch Times that the U.S. government “remains focused” on transnational criminal activities in the Indo-Pacific region and is working closely with regional partners to “vigorously” help tackle this issue.
The spokesperson emphasized that these transnational crime syndicates are global in nature, and therefore, countermeasures must also be global in scope.
Efforts by the U.S. government in diplomacy have reportedly “prompted” China to take proactive measures to combat the flow of precursor chemicals used in the production of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
These diplomatic efforts include two meetings held by the anti-drug working group with Chinese authorities, initiated after President Joe Biden’s meeting with CCP leader Xi Jinping in California last year.
The August 1st working group meeting successfully persuaded China to categorize seven chemicals, including three fentanyl precursors, as controlled substances. The White House hailed this as “an important step in the right direction.”
It is unclear whether these legal outcomes will result in a decrease in the quantity of Chinese drugs flooding into the U.S. and other countries.
According to official U.S. data, more than 75,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses last year. Law enforcement agencies seized over 1.15 billion fentanyl pills throughout 2023, significantly higher than the seizures in previous years.
Asserting whether this trend will continue into 2024 is premature, but initial statistics suggest a bleak outlook.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website shows that in 2024 alone, the agency seized 4600 pounds of fentanyl powder and 34.5 million fentanyl pills. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) summarized that it has seized over 27,000 pounds of fentanyl.
Troy Miller, Director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, stated in May that “100% pure fentanyl directly from China” was the primary threat faced by the U.S. from 2014 to 2018.
However, since persuading China to categorize fentanyl as a controlled substance in 2019, the diversion of fentanyl has shifted from direct exports from China to illicit trafficking by Mexican drug cartels utilizing precursor chemicals from China.
The potential strategic shift of Chinese drug companies to the Indo-Pacific region poses unanswered questions about similar trends. The involvement of Chinese drug traffickers and money launderers in the business of Mexican drug cartels is strengthening.
In July, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted a Chinese citizen for importing over two tons of fentanyl precursors from China. The Treasury Department also sanctioned two Chinese members of a money laundering organization linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
These arrests were not announced as coordinated actions with Chinese authorities.
Similarly, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested over 24,000 Chinese nationals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally in the 2023 fiscal year, a significant increase compared to less than 2,000 arrests in the 2022 fiscal year. Additionally, over 28,500 Chinese citizens attempted to cross U.S. ports of entry without proper documentation in the 2023 fiscal year.
When asked if cooperation with China had significantly reduced the flow of fentanyl across the border, a DHS spokesperson cited Sullivan’s remarks in China.
In the U.S. congressional foreign policy circles, particularly among Republicans, dissatisfaction with the U.S. government’s continued appeasement of China on drug enforcement issues is growing.
Representative Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the Biden administration for making concessions to China on critical issues, resulting in “negotiations with an untrustworthy regime that yield no results” in drug enforcement.
McCaul told Epoch Times that the administration’s decision to remove the Ministry of Public Security’s Forensic Science Research Institute in China from the trade blacklist in exchange for establishing the anti-drug working group had not led to a significant decrease in fentanyl precursor shipments to other countries.
The influential House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the CCP also expressed similar concerns about the effectiveness of U.S. government cooperation with China in drug enforcement.
A spokesperson for the committee’s Republican majority told Epoch Times that China’s categorization of fentanyl precursors was the regime’s “latest hollow promise” aimed at winning concessions from the U.S.
The spokesperson emphasized that unless the U.S. signals to the Chinese government and responsible companies that they will pay a price for their actions, the terror will not end.
The Special Committee’s bipartisan report earlier this year found that while technically illegal in China, opioids are subsidized in their production by China through tax subsidies and grants to companies engaged in producing such drugs for export to the Americas.
The report also revealed that China has ownership stakes in some companies exporting fentanyl precursors.
Committee member Representative Dusty Johnson told Epoch Times that the committee has its own fentanyl task force, which recommends taking “strict trade and customs enforcement measures” to combat the flow of drugs from China.
Johnson stated that “almost all fentanyl crossing U.S. borders originates from China,” expressing doubts about how President Biden could expect China to comply with U.S. demands to prevent the fentanyl crisis when the drug is primarily produced by Chinese-affiliated companies.
Democratic lawmakers have largely refrained from critiquing the Biden administration’s anti-drug cooperation with China.
Epoch Times reached out to five key Democratic figures related to the Special Committee on China and the House Foreign Affairs Committee for comments, including Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi and Gregory Meeks, but received no responses regarding the effectiveness of the anti-drug working group.
Chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, Representative Lisa McClain, linked the opioid crisis to the current border crisis and told Epoch Times that the crisis might persist until the border issues are resolved.
McClain emphasized the urgency, stating, “Lives are at stake, and we must take action to alleviate the ongoing harm and suffering this deadly substance inflicts on American families.”
Representative Alex Mooney from West Virginia, where opioid-related deaths are among the highest per capita in the U.S., placed significant blame on the Chinese regime.
Mooney told Epoch Times, “West Virginia has been hit hard by the drug epidemic, and many of the poisons on our streets can be traced directly back to the fentanyl precursor chemicals used by Mexican drug cartels from China.”
Mooney advocated for Congress to pass legislation that would deny U.S. taxpayer aid to countries like Mexico and China until they prove effective cooperation in reducing the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
He reiterated that if these steps cannot be met, these countries should not be entitled to U.S. assistance.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.