A senior US official stated on Tuesday (September 24) that the US hopes to discuss efforts to restrict the spread of fentanyl with China at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.
President Biden announced new data in New York showing a 10% decrease in fentanyl-related deaths in the US. The official then made the above remarks to Reuters.
During last November’s APEC summit, Biden and the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping also discussed the fentanyl issue. The US hopes China will take more domestic actions to prevent the leakage of chemical substances that can be used to make fentanyl.
When asked whether the US and China will discuss the fentanyl issue at the APEC summit in Peru in November, the official said, “I am very optimistic that we will include this on the agenda.”
He added that there have been some accomplishments in the cooperation between the two countries.
Since 2013, fentanyl has been a leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the US. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that in the year ending in April 2024, about 1.01 million Americans died from drug overdoses, a 10% decrease from the previous year.
Although the CDC’s national data is still preliminary, state data indicates that the main reason for the decrease in deaths is the reduction in fentanyl-related fatalities.