In the nineteenth century, opium was British India’s most valuable export and China its most lucrative market. So much so that in 1858 Britain went to war not to save the drug trade, but to publicize it. In the face of widespread addiction, emerging crime, and social unrest, the Qing dynasty began destroying opium and executing drug dealers. The emperor even wrote to Queen Victoria asking if she understood the harm caused to China through this illicit trade.
The answer was the Second Opium War, a British invasion of China, the sacking of Peking and, despite everything, the forced legalization of opium exports to China. The economic and territorial concessions wrested from the humiliated emperor are not forgotten. A page from Britain’s playbook, China has changed course and is fomenting an opioid epidemic in the United States.
Fentanyl is an artificial opioid that is less expensive to manufacture and less difficult to ship than heroin. It is also much more potent and addictive than morphine or heroin. Often combined with other narcotics such as cocaine or methamphetamine, fentanyl causes accidental overdoses that lead to fatal respiratory failure. This artificial narcotic has skyrocketed the number of addictions and overdose deaths in the United States. In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl abuse than in the entire Vietnam War.
Think about it: more America dead than the Vietnam War.
Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Anne Milgram said, “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug risk our country has ever faced. . . It’s everywhere. From giant metropolitan spaces to rural America, no network is immune to this poison. “
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, this widespread outbreak has only endangered public health, but also economic output and national security. During his testimony before the U. S. Senate. in 2017, then-Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen connected the opioid epidemic to declining hard work. force participation among “workers of productive age”.
Since 2013, China has been the main illicit source of this fatal narcotic that has flooded the United States. The Obama and Trump administrations have insisted that China crack down on fentanyl trafficking, and in 2019, China banned unlicensed fentanyl exports. failing to stop fentanyl from entering the United States. Due to its excessive potency and lightness, fentanyl continues to be mailed or couried directly from China to the United States. Faced with those new regulations, Chinese pharmaceutical corporations have begun shipping fentanyl ingredients to Mexico, where the drug is then manufactured. According to the DEA, large volumes of fentanyl are smuggled across the U. S. -Mexico border through drug cartels that have cared deeply about its manufacture and distribution.
China can illicit drugs. In the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong’s government brutally eliminated the widespread use of opium. More recently, China has cooperated well with Australia to curb methamphetamine trafficking. Chinese exports of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals to the rest of the world are minimal and, more importantly, maximum, there is no fentanyl challenge in China. Beijing still refuses to settle for any duty over the overdose epidemic plaguing the United States.
There is no single cause for the fentanyl outbreak. Over-prescribing through doctors, overproduction through pharmaceutical companies, unemployment and the Covid 19 outbreak have all played a role. It is unclear whether China is waging a complicated and asymmetrical crusade opposed to the US. With the aim of causing serious social and economic damage or if they are just narcotics as a bargaining chip in other negotiations, however, the challenge is getting worse. According to initial CDC data, the number of deaths from fentanyl overuse increased from 57,000 to 71,000 between 2020 and 2021. According to a study by the Brookings Institution, counternarcotics cooperation between the United States and China has deteriorated, as have bilateral relations in general, while cooperation between China and Mexico to control the export of fentanyl precursors remains minimal.
It is unrealistic to expect China to improve its counternarcotics cooperation while bilateral relations in general remain tense. However, unlike the Qing dynasty, the United States has the means to deal with its opioid crisis. Last month, the journal Pharmaceutics published the promising initial effects of a fentanyl vaccine being developed at the University of Houston. In the meantime, the maximum effective measure would be to reinforce the southern border without delay. This can be achieved by building more physical barriers, better generation of border surveillance, and expanding the number of border patrol workers at major access points. Another effective measure would be to strengthen the control of foreign mail and explicit sending from high-risk countries. Finally, the use of Treasury Department sanctions against Chinese fentanyl producers may be expanded. Fentanyl causes far more deaths than school shootings, driving, or war in Ukraine. It deserves more attention from our media and political leaders.
David H. Rundell is the one from Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads and former chief of mission at the U. S. Embassy. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former political adviser to U. S. Central Command. He was involved in counternarcotics efforts.
The perspectives expressed in this article are those of the authors.
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