China accuses US of using fentanyl as a political weapon as Donald Trump orders shipping firms to step up checks
- Head of country’s national drugs regulator says Washington is politicising the issue accusing politicians of ‘upending the facts’ for their own purposes
- US President issues Twitter tirade ordering American companies to step up searches for imports of the drug linked to opioid epidemic
The US is politicising the issue of illicit Chinese exports of fentanyl and using it as a weapon against China, the country’s narcotics regulator said on Friday.
Liu Yuejin, deputy head of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission, rejected accusations from the US that China was not doing enough to curb the flow of fentanyl, a highly addictive opioid painkiller, beyond its borders.
Some American politicians “are upending the facts for their own political necessities,” Liu said in an interview in Beijing on Friday.
The comments come just weeks after President Donald Trump lashed out at his Chinese counterpart in a tweet, saying Xi Jinping failed to stop the flow of Chinese-made fentanyl as promised, and cited this failure as one reason that another 10 per cent tariff would be levied on US$300 billion of Chinese exports on September 1.
In a series of new tweets on Friday, Trump said that he would order US shipping companies to search for and reject any packages containing fentanyl, from China or any other country.