In the late 1800s, European countries seeking to rectify a trade imbalance began smuggling opium into China. In a golden era of wealth and international glory, the Chinese were unprepared. It wasn’t long before a large portion of the Chinese population was hooked on the drug, leading to a social crisis of huge proportions. This led to the Qing Emperor banning the import of opium and cracking down on European smugglers, which in turn infuriated the European countries, particularly Britain, and instigated a war [1].
Now, it seems that China is getting revenge.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin and much cheaper to produce [2]. It has been legally used to treat patients post-surgery or with severe chronic pain since the 1960s, but lately, has been making headlines in America for causing over 200 overdose deaths a day, becoming one of the leading causes of death for Americans aged 18-45 [3]. It first appeared on the illegal market around 2013 [4].
Until 2019, China was the largest source of illicit finished fentanyl on the US black market [5]. Following pressures from the previous Trump administration, China put fentanyl on its list of banned narcotics. But the rise of fentanyl deaths didn’t stop, as China had left a loophole, banning only finished fentanyl.
Chinese companies making finished fentanyl simply switched to providing Mexican drug cartels with the precursor chemicals. These are then made into finished products and smuggled into the US. US-China relations with the Biden administration deteriorated to the point where there was no cooperation between the two countries to resolve the fentanyl crisis.
The lack of cooperation with China was not the only issue; Biden’s open border policy presented the perfect smuggling environment for Mexican drug cartels. Fentanyl is odorless, and only small amounts are needed due to its potency, making detection and seizures at the US border extremely difficult. The rise of fentanyl distributed through e-commerce has faced similar detection issues [6].
The Canadian border has also been a source of illegal fentanyl, though much less than the southern border. For comparison, during the last fiscal year, U.S. customs agents confiscated 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border, while 21,100 pounds were seized at the Mexican border [7].
Trump’s proposed tariffs toward Canada, Mexico, and China are all related to fentanyl, in addition to a host of other US interests. Following Mexico committing 10,000 National Guard troops, and Canada spending over a billion dollars on updating its border security, Trump has stalled the tariffs.
But China, ever interested in saving face, has refused to budge, arguing that they are not responsible for the ills of Western culture. However, not much has changed since China’s 2019 ban; opioid deaths have increased and fentanyl still makes it across the border. China says that it cares, yet refuses to monitor the distribution of precursor chemicals.
This is all because China seeks to replace the US as the greatest world power. It has taken a page out of Britain’s playbook and used fentanyl to create the same societal issues that plagued China long ago.
The United States has repeatedly urged the CCP to take action, but the Chinese government says all the right things and takes none of the right actions. For instance, although they committed to addressing online drug networks, they have not followed through. Similarly, they were asked to regulate chemical companies and inform them that drug trafficking violates Chinese law. Yet, a public notice was only issued after President Biden intervened, long after the request was made [9]
The Chinese government pleads that there is nothing more that they can do, but I find it hard to believe that the world’s largest surveillance state cannot control who Chinese companies and criminal organizations sell fentanyl precursor chemicals to. Instead, China has become a primary instigator in the American opium crisis, and if history stands to repeat itself, the world’s third Opium War may be on the horizon.