Global Courant
Just four years ago, a joint US and Chinese effort to stop the flow of Chinese-produced fentanyl to the United States seemed to be underway. Beijing had unveiled a sweeping 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 US law enforcement 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 narcotics responsible for tens of thousands of drug overdoses each year in the United States have been thwarted by wider geopolitical tensions over trade, human rights, Russia and Taiwan. The failure to cooperate with the ban on fentanyl is symbolic of the myriad ways in which the bilateral relationship has stalled.
Partly 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 J. Blinken will lead the first virtual meeting of a global coalition on Friday of countries aiming to end the threat of dangerous synthetic drugs.
China was invited to participate and join the initial coalition of about 84 countries that agreed to be involved in the effort, but it has given no indication that it intends to participate, said Todd D. Robinson, Assistant Secretary of State for International Drugs and Law Enforcement. In contrast, the government of Mexico, another nation critical in the supply chain of fentanyl and other deadly opioids, has pledged to participate.
“The People’s Republic of China, as a global partner, must do more to disrupt illicit synthetic drug chains,” said Mr. Robinson in a briefing on Thursday, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
The issue is also expected to come up in meetings this week in Beijing between Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Chinese officials. This year, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Chinese and Mexican companies suspected of manufacturing fentanyl pills, as part of a broader effort by the US government to address the source of the deadly crisis .
Ms Yellen’s visit follows Mr Blinken’s trip to Beijing last month, where he called on China to resume cooperation with the United States on counter-narcotics. Beijing froze communications with Washington on the matter after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August.
During the Blinken visit, the secretary told reporters that the two countries had agreed “explore setting up a working group or joint effort” to combat fentanyl trafficking. But all prospects of cooperation faded a few days later when US federal prosecutors announced charges against four Chinese companies accused of trafficking chemicals used by Mexican drug cartels to produce large quantities of fentanyl for sale in the United States.
Since then, China has lashed out at the United States over the drug issue, accusing China of blaming Beijing for its own social problems and denying its own failures in fighting the fentanyl epidemic.
“The United States must face its own problems and not shy away from disease,” said a recent commentary in the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. “Attacking and smearing China will not solve the chronic problem of drug abuse in the United States, but will only postpone the problem of drug control in the United States into a greater social crisis.”
China speaks from experience when it comes to drugs, it often says. The country was a victim of Britain’s exploitative opium trade in the 19th century.
“Because of the painful memory of the Opium War, China is the world’s most drug-hating country,” said an editorial in the multiparty tabloid Global Times last month.
Fentanyl has virtually no domestic market in China, and analysts say this has given Beijing less incentive to regulate its precursor chemicals, which also have a range of legal uses in the medical industry.
Instead, Beijing most likely sees the fentanyl crisis as something to rule over Washington at a time when it has grown frustrated with US actions it sees as containment of China. Those include limiting Chinese access to advanced semiconductor technology and strengthening security ties between the United States and China’s neighbors, such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. Analysts say Beijing will want something of value in return for agreeing to help the Biden administration with fentanyl.
Some Chinese analysts blame US domestic politics for the Biden administration’s increasing pressure on China over fentanyl.
“U.S. drug policy has been weak and the year of the presidential election is coming up,” said Wu Xinbo, dean of international studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “That gives the Republican Party an opportunity to attack the Democrats and the Biden administration. That is why we see the US hype this issue.”
China banned all varieties of fentanyl in 2019, fulfilling a promise Mr Xi made to President Trump. As a result, direct exports of fentanyl-related chemicals to the United States plummeted.
But experts say Chinese enforcement grew weaker as Beijing became clear that the Trump administration would not lift the trade tariffs it imposed on China a year earlier. That led to a surge of precursor chemicals being shipped to Mexico, where drug cartels manufacture and ship much of the fentanyl that ends up in the United States.
Analysts say the fentanyl dispute highlights fundamental differences in how Washington and Beijing approach their rivalry. The Biden administration believes it can compete with China on strategic issues such as security and technology, while cooperating on issues of mutual interest such as climate change and drug control.
“China has said, ‘No, we are not interested in that proposal. If you want to get involved in this issue, you have to get involved in the strategic relationship,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on global drug policy. She has urged Washington to work with other countries to pressure China and to consider more punitive measures such as sanctions to get China’s cooperation on the drug trade.
Mr. Wu, the Chinese analyst, said Washington’s approach to China smacks of arrogance as the Biden administration tries to dictate terms of engagement.
“The US believes China should cooperate if it wants to cooperate with China,” said Mr. Wu. “If it wants to suppress China in the name of competition, it can suppress China without worry.”
“Sorry, but this is not possible,” he added.
The fentanyl issue is one area where Beijing sees itself as a lever to make concessions to Washington in other areas, analysts say.
“The Chinese have long viewed cooperation with the US not as a good thing in itself, but as a source of leverage, and today China’s need for leverage is significant and growing,” said Evan Medeiros, a professor at Georgetown University. University who was senior Asia director at the National Security Council in the Obama administration.
Alan Rappeport reported from Beijing.
