US welcomes China’s expanded clampdown on ‘deadly poison’ fentanyl
- Inclusion of variants of the opioid in China’s controlled drugs list from May 1 greeted as ‘significant development’ by US authorities
- American politicians had called for tougher action from China, believed to be the main source of fentanyl in the United States
Washington welcomed China’s move on Monday to expand the range of fentanyl-related substances it defines as controlled narcotics, after criticism from President Donald Trump for allowing the synthetic opioid to be shipped to the United States.
The US is battling an epidemic of opioid-related deaths, and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he hopes to include China’s commitments to curb the drug in any agreement to end the two countries’ bitter trade war.
“We look forward to our continued collaboration with China to reduce the amount of this deadly poison coming into our country.”
Earlier on Monday, China had announced the expanded control of fentanyl-related substances at a press conference, even as it blamed US culture for abuse of the drug.
China said the addition of fentanyl-related substances to the supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs would take effect on May 1. Fentanyl itself and its “analogues” had previously been listed and remain controlled.
“Resolved. All resolved,” Liu Yuejin, a senior public security ministry official and vice-commissioner of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, told reporters when asked if US concerns had been resolved.
But Liu said the amount of fentanyl from China going to the US was “extremely limited” and that US criticisms of China being the main source of the drug “lack evidence”.
“We believe that the United States itself is the main factor in the abuse of fentanyl there,” Liu said, adding that American culture was partly to blame.
He said the US had a long tradition of abusing prescription medicines and that enforcement and education about the dangers were not good enough.
“Some people link drug consumption with freedom, individuality and liberation,” Liu said. “If the United States truly wants to resolve its fentanyl abuse problem, it needs to strengthen its domestic work.”
The White House said after a December meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina to de-escalate trade frictions that Xi had agreed to designate fentanyl as a controlled substance.
US Representative Chris Smith, a Republican, said enforcement was crucial.
The volume of drugs coming into the US through the mail has grown in step with legitimate online shopping, US customs agents say, as Americans have taken to ordering drugs from overseas via the dark web.
A US congressional probe into the use of fentanyl in the US found in 2018 that the substance could easily be bought online from Chinese “labs” and mailed to the US due to gaps in oversight in the US Postal Service.
Such imports of prescription medicines and controlled substances are illegal, and China has become the main source of fentanyl in the United States, the US Department of Justice says.
