Reporter's Note: The CCP ( China Communist Party ) Created Fentanyl That Worsens the US Drug Crisis
On the second day after his inauguration, Trump immediately announced plans to impose a 10% tariff on all commodities imported from China, and a 25% tariff on commodities from Canada and Mexico. The main demands of this policy are closely related to an issue that has been repeatedly emphasized by the US government in recent years, namely that the Chinese Communist government has allowed fentanyl to enter the United States through neighboring countries, which has caused the drug crisis in the United States to worsen.
Development of the Fentanyl crisis
Over the past decade, my coverage of the fentanyl issue has seen how this crisis has gradually grown from a fringe issue to a central focus of Sino-US relations.
In 2015, New York Senator Chuck Schumer called for $100 million in funding to curb the spread of “China White” (a common name for fentanyl) in the United States. At that time, the name “China White” impressed me because it contained the word “China”. This was also the first time I paid attention to the connection between fentanyl and the Chinese supply chain.
In 2019, a CBS TV producer traveled to Shanghai, China with a US search warrant to meet face-to-face with a Chinese drug kingpin. Due to the specific nature of the incident, the author is reporting this.
A special report from the Brookings Institution in 2020 allowed me to better understand that China is the main source of illegal fentanyl in the United States, with the city of Wuhan even once called the “fentanyl capital.”
Behind the name lies an entire transnational supply chain: China produces fentanyl precursor chemicals, which are shipped to simple drug labs in Mexico and Canada, and then the finished product is smuggled into the United States by drug trafficking gangs.
In 2023, the United States has issued millions of dollars in bounties for the arrest of at least 5 Chinese citizens. This once again highlights how the Chinese supply chain plays an important role in the fentanyl trade in the United States. Among them, there is a person accused of being the "leader of the largest fentanyl drug production", namely Chuen Fat Yip from Wuhan, Hubei. The United States Narcotics Agency (Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA) has offered a reward of USD 5 million for his arrest. This number is the third largest in the world on the wanted list issued by the DEA.
Among the wanted people on the DEA's USD.1 million bounty list, at least 3 people are from Wuhan City and one person is from Suzhou.
In the DEA reward list, Chuen Fat Yip from Wuhan (top left), and 3 other people respectively are Kun Jiang (top right) from Suzhou, Huatao Yao (bottom left) and Yaqin Wu (bottom right) from Wuhan. (DEA official website)
Over the past decade, the core problem of the fentanyl supply chain has remained the same: Produced in China, it is the United States that is at risk. For years, the struggle between law enforcement actions and corporate interests, morality and legal loopholes has continued.
Chinese fentanyl supply chain probed by New York court
Recently, the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York heard a case involving the fentanyl supply chain. The author met for the first time with 2 supply chain representatives from Wuhan, China – Qingzhou Wang, owner of Hubei Jingao Company, and Yiyi Chen, marketing manager of the company.
In contrast to the “cold and arrogant” image of drug lords, 37-year-old Qingzhou Wang wears a white shirt and black suit every day, acting polite and polite. Meanwhile, 33-year-old Yiyi Chen is more like the girl next door, with the dimples at the corners of her mouth visible when she purses her lips. It was Qingzhou lawyer Wang who showed the jury a photo of Hubei Jingao Company's office while asking everyone: "How is it different from a normal office?" The subtext is the same as the chemicals they sell—they are normal and seemingly harmless.
However, according to the indictment, such chemical companies had no trouble bypassing China's firewall and posted ads selling “pharmaceutical intermediates and precursors” on Google's website, even affixing labels such as dog food to the packaging of their products, and hiding illegal drugs in fake packaging to trick inspectors. After Mexican and Canadian drug traffickers buy them and process and synthesize them, the illegal drugs are smuggled into the US.
In 2022, the DEA seized more than 57 million counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl, and more than 1.3 trillion pounds of fentanyl powder, equivalent to 410 million doses enough to kill the entire US population.
For drug traffickers, fentanyl is attractive because of its low price, highly addictive properties, easy transportation and large profits. Evidence at trial revealed that undercover agents using $45,000 could sell the chemical in quantities sufficient to make 55 kilograms of fentanyl, and produce a dose capable of killing 25 million Americans. Which shows that fentanyl has great economic temptations and dire consequences.
How do Chinese companies avoid lawsuits?
In a conversation with a DEA undercover agent, Qingzhou Wang explained that he could sell 7 tons of chemicals to Canada and the United States every month, even 10 tons was not a problem. He stressed: “We are not worried about any problems in China. There are no problems in China. What if we are inspected by US Customs?” This reckless attitude highlights the reality in China.
Although in 2019 the Chinese government announced that all fentanyl-like substances would be controlled, drug traffickers have always been able to circumvent the ban by perfecting their chemical structures. Listening to experts explain this, I thought that it was like a synthesis of the number 5, which could be achieved using 2+3 or 6-1. If the government banned 2 and 3, then drug dealers could use 1+4 instead. The synthesis routes are unlimited, which means that regulation is always one step behind.
In court evidence in New York, Yiyi Chen acknowledged that the company would develop new, unregistered products and would continue to update production technology and synthesis routes to address law enforcement risks. He said bluntly: “We have to innovate, because state policies on fentanyl are always changing, and our engineers can develop new products to circumvent the new policies.” This is the basic reason why fentanyl is difficult to contain. —Drug cartel strategies are always able to circumvent the law.
The attitude of the Chinese government
The Chinese Communist government has consistently blamed the United States for the fentanyl problem, claiming that it is the United States' own social problem. According to CNN, the Chinese Embassy to the United States also accused US law enforcement agencies of “enforcing the law by framing Chinese nationals” before the trial, and demanded that they be “immediately released.”
However, according to the report of the Special Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government still provides tax incentives to companies that export fentanyl raw materials, and state-owned companies are also involved in this. Although the Chinese Communist Party continues to deny any knowledge of this illegal drug trade.
How to curb the circulation of fentanyl?
The Hubei Jingao case is undoubtedly an important step for the US in the fight against fentanyl, but whether it can serve as a deterrent to other Chinese chemical producers remains to be seen. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), China has around 40,000 to 100,000 pharmaceutical companies.
A reporter present at the hearing told the author that many Chinese companies have now learned how to avoid the risks of law enforcement, claiming that they “only need to make money” and “never ask customers how to use the product”, they try to avoid responsibility by claiming “ignorance”.
Under such circumstances, it may still be difficult to eliminate fentanyl from circulation. This is not only a legal issue, but also a moral issue. When corporations' sole goal is to make money, without regard for the impact their products have on human lives, society faces greater challenges. The unstoppable circulation of fentanyl has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 Americans. Will China's chemical industry change as a result of the fentanyl case going to trial? Questions worth pondering.
Source :
https://etindonesia.com/2025/02/11/catatan-reporter-pkt-menciptakan-fentanil-yang-memperburuk-krisis-narkoba-as/
