US opioid crisis must be tackled, says Beijing as it cracks down on deadly Chinese fentanyl labs
China’s drug agency promises joint effort after Donald Trump’s claim that cheap Chinese-made fentanyl was partly to blame for its use in the US
China’s drug control agency has said the United States should do more to cut its demand for opioids to tackle the use of synthetic drug fentanyl, but it vowed to step up cooperation after Chinese production of the substance was blamed for helping to fuel the US opioid crisis.
US President Donald Trump said in November on a state visit to Beijing that China and the US would do more to stem what he called a “flood of cheap and deadly” fentanyl “manufactured in China” from entering the US.
A year-long congressional probe into the use of fentanyl in the US found that the substance could easily be bought online from Chinese “laboratories” and posted to the United States because of gaps in oversight by the US Postal Service.
“China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu Yuejin, deputy head of China’s National Narcotics Commission, told a news conference on Monday.
“But I believe that to resolve this, the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids.”