Todd Heisler / New York Times, file
A billboard reads “Fentanyl Kills” along Interstate-94 in Wisconsin, Dec. 1, 2022. In part to try to get other countries to pressure China to do more to curb the outflow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to lead, on Friday, July 7, 2023, the first virtual meeting of a global coalition of nations aiming to end the threat of dangerous synthetic drugs.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Just four years ago, a joint U.S. and Chinese effort to stem the flow of fentanyl produced in China from reaching the United States appeared set to take off. Beijing had unveiled a new law banning the synthetic opioid, leading the Trump administration to praise China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, for “a wonderful humanitarian gesture.”
Soon, Chinese and American law enforcement agents joined forces to investigate and prosecute fentanyl traffickers in China.
But today, cooperation between the two countries on fentanyl is at an impasse. Mutual efforts to crack down on a narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of drug overdoses in the United States each year have been thwarted by wider geopolitical tensions over trade, human rights, Russia and Taiwan.
In part to try to get other countries to pressure China to do more to curb the outflow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, Secretary of State Antony Blinken led on Friday the first virtual meeting of a global coalition of nations aiming to end the threat of dangerous synthetic drugs.
Blinken said in his opening remarks that nearly 110,000 Americans died of a drug overdose last year; two-thirds of those fatalities involved synthetic opioids, the No. 1 killer of Americans ages 18 to 49.
China was invited to take part and join the initial coalition of 84 or so countries that have agreed to be involved in the effort, but it has not given any indication it plans to participate, said Todd Robinson, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement.
Blinken visited Beijing last month, where he called on China to restart cooperation with the United States on narcotics control. Beijing froze communication with Washington on the issue after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August.
During the Blinken visit, the secretary told reporters the two countries had agreed to “explore setting up a working group or joint effort” to combat fentanyl trafficking. But any prospects for cooperation faded just days later when U.S. federal prosecutors announced the indictment of four Chinese companies accused of trafficking chemicals used by Mexican drug cartels to manufacture vast quantities of fentanyl sold in the United States.
Since then, China has lashed out against the United States over the drug issue, accusing it of shifting blame for its own social problems onto Beijing and denying its own failures in fighting the fentanyl epidemic.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
