US Should Rely on Itself Rather Than Others To Solve the Fentanyl Crisis

“Their meeting was a hopeful sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to better manage their contentious ties.” The Associated Press made this statement regarding the meeting on Jan. 30 in Beijing of China's National Narcotics Control Commission with a joint anti-narcotics delegation from the United States.

The U.S.-PRC Counternarcotics Working Group was officially launched on the same day. This is an important step in implementing what was agreed at the San Francisco meeting between the leaders of China and the U.S. In August 2022, when China had to suspend cooperation with the U.S. on narcotics control because of a visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This time, the anti-narcotics law enforcement agencies of China and the United States have initiated a framework for consultation and cooperation. This demonstrates that the atmosphere for contact and dialogue between the two sides continues to improve and has a constructive role to play in fostering U.S.-China relations.

In recent years, anti-narcotics cooperation has become a priority issue for the U.S. in its dealings with China. This is closely related to the uncontrolled spread of fentanyl-type substances in American society. On Jan. 30, officials in Oregon declared a state of emergency in downtown Portland because of the public health and safety crisis caused by the proliferation of fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid drug initially used for clinical pain relief and as anesthesia. However, due to long-standing problems of opioid abuse in the U.S., fentanyl-related substances have become harmful drugs in American society. According to recent data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, representing the “the deadliest drug threat our nation has ever faced.”

Why has fentanyl abuse become so rampant in the U.S.? There are many factors. On the one hand, driven by financial interests, large pharmaceutical companies lobby politicians for policy protection. Pharmaceutical representatives use various means to encourage doctors to prescribe more drugs, and pharmacies actively sell them, completing a chain. On the other hand, the U.S. government has been poor on regulation. Political polarization in the U.S. has intensified, particularly in recent years, and consequently stalled bills to combat fentanyl trafficking. It is easy to see from U.S. press reports that there is a black market for fentanyl-type drugs in many places. Coupled with the United States not adequately raising awareness of the danger of drugs and the fact that more than half of U.S. states have legalized cannabis, these factors have contributed to a glaring fentanyl abuse problem. Some have described controlling fentanyl under the current system in the United States as being as difficult as gun control.

One can see that the root cause of the fentanyl abuse crisis in the United States lies within the U.S. itself, reflecting a failure of domestic governance. U.S. politicians are unable to solve the problem and routinely choose to pass the buck. The previous U.S. administration targeted China and prosecuted and sanctioned Chinese companies and individuals. In the past few years, while engaging with China on drug control, the United States added various Chinese institutions on a list of entities subject to sanctions. This tactic, “the U.S. is sick, but China takes the medicine,” is obviously the wrong approach. William Jones, Washington bureau chief for Executive Intelligence Review, has pointed out, “It’s a big problem in the U.S., so many people are dying of fentanyl overdose … It is an epidemic. There are also stories … the press is saying that China is responsible for this … And it’s all really ridiculous because I think on the issue of counter narcotics there is no country that would be more inclined to crack down on that than China.”

Indeed, China has historically suffered greatly from drug abuse. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has had zero tolerance for drugs and has severely cracked down on drug production, trafficking and other drug-related offenses. Chinese law enforcement authorities have investigated several cases of illegal processing and smuggling of fentanyl-like substances to the United States. Domestic and foreign criminals colluded to disguise and hide fentanyl-type substances and send them through international mail to the United States. But since the amounts were quite minimal, they cannot be the primary source of the drug in the United States.

In May 2019, China took the lead globally in officially scheduling fentanyl-like substances as a class, regulating 25 substances and exceeding the 21 types of substances controlled by the United Nations. Since then, there has been close, candid and in-depth cooperation between Chinese and American anti-drug law enforcement agencies with the U.S. side expressing its appreciation many times. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other anti-drug law enforcement agencies, the United States has not seized any fentanyl-like substances from China since September 2019.

We should note that as the country with the most prominent fentanyl problem in the world, the United States has so far failed to formally regulate a whole category of fentanyl-type substances. So, from this perspective, China-U.S. cooperation on narcotics can only help the United States to create the external conditions for solving the problem. To truly eradicate the fentanyl crisis, the U.S. must look to itself for the causes, prescribe the right remedy, fix the loopholes in its system and take tough action.

On a broader level, the resumption of narcotics control cooperation between China and the U.S. is a sign of warming relations between the two countries. Recently, China and the United States have been communicating intensively in several areas, from civil interactions to financial dialogue, from military relations to high-level diplomatic discussions. This shows that the two countries are gradually implementing the consensus reached at the China-U.S. summit in San Francisco between the two heads of state. As long as China and the U.S. correctly pursue a path of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, this momentum can continue, and China-U.S. relations will hopefully continue to stabilize and recover.