These measures are an important step forward, welcomed by Washington, given that Beijing is suspected of producing certain active ingredients in this devastating synthetic drug.
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Fentanyl is one of the issues that causes great tension between Chinese and Americans. This powerful synthetic drug is the cause of more than 70,000 overdoses each year in the United States. Washington suspects traffickers, particularly Mexican ones, of obtaining supplies from China of chemicals that are then used to manufacture fentanyl.
After several years of heated exchanges on the subject, China and the United States appear to have found some common ground. China has committed to strengthening its controls on the chemicals in question. These measures come into force on Sunday, September 1 and represent an important step forward.
Talks on the fight against drugs between China and the United States had been at a standstill for several years, but the climate eased last November. Xi Jinping and Joe Biden met in California and the issue of fentanyl was at the heart of the talks. In a speech, the Chinese president even mentioned the fate of American victims of this synthetic drug.
Beijing had then promised concrete measures, a way of implicitly recognizing that certain chemical compounds legally manufactured in China are potentially then diverted by Mexican traffickers to produce fentanyl.
After the meeting between the Chinese and American leaders, bilateral discussions continued. A working group was created in January. The topic was then raised during Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to Beijing in the spring of 2024. And all this culminated on August 6 with the announcement of concrete measures by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which apply from Sunday.
Beijing will increase surveillance over the production and sale of three products considered to be active ingredients of fentanyl. The aim is to verify that these chemical compounds are indeed intended for the pharmaceutical industry and will not fall into the hands of traffickers. The White House is calling this a valuable step forward, although some in the United States are more skeptical. They suggest that this series of measures will not change anything because Americans have been denouncing for several years the links between the communist regime and Chinese companies that sell their products to traffickers. China has always firmly denied this allegation, the country having one of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world.
