According to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, fentanyl is being produced by private enterprises in China.
Biden’s envoy to China said Thursday that the Communist Party is not supplying the United States with fentanyl.
In response to claims that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is “contributing” to the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, Ambassador Nicholas Burns dismissed those claims. According to him, private Chinese businesses are importing the medicine to the United States.
“Is there anything we can do about fentanyl? On Thursday, Burns assured Politico that the Chinese government is not contributing to the crisis in Beijing.
He said, “But underground Chinese businesses are, and they’re sending precursor chemicals to Mexican and Central American drug cartels.” Cartels manufacture fentanyl, a powerful opioid that is often blamed for the overdose deaths of Americans, using these compounds.
According to the Department of Justice, fentanyl is responsible for over 200 deaths each day in the United States. There is evidence that the People’s Republic of China is the primary source of illicit fentanyl, yet Americans cannot legally pursue legal action against Chinese distributors.
As a result, we’d urge the Beijing government to do everything it can to cut off the supply of raw materials from these shadowy Chinese businesses to the criminal gangs’ fentanyl production facilities. That was a challenging discussion. Burns told Politico, “But we have to keep going.”
Fentanyl precursor compounds are generally produced first in China.
The chemicals are sent to Mexico, where they are used to produce fentanyl, which is subsequently distributed mostly by criminal organizations in the states of Sinaloa and Jalisco.
According to Customs and Border Protection, over 14,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl were found between March 2022 and March 2023. Two milligrams of fentanyl is equivalent to 500 divided by a box of Sweet-N-Low, and that’s all it takes for someone to overdose.
The fentanyl epidemic has made unintentional overdose fatalities the leading cause of mortality for Americans aged 18 to 45.