China-U.S. drug control efforts: Cooperation and bottleneck

Opioids, primarily fentanyl, are the leading cause of U.S. overdose deaths, which have roughly quadrupled over the last 10 years, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that the death toll from opioids surged to 79,770 in 2022.

Since 2017, the United States has been pointing blame at China, accusing it of being a source of opioids, which lead to tens of thousands of deaths in the United States each year.

In China, by contrast, the government has consistently adhered to a rigid drug control policy, enforcing strict regulations over the production and circulation of fentanyl substances. As early as 2019, China officially scheduled all fentanyl-related substances and was the first country in the world ever to do so.

In combating drug crime, China has carried out extensive and in-depth counternarcotics cooperation with the United States, which has been highly productive.

Over the past year, the bilateral cooperation made positive progress on drug control. On January 30, 2024, the two countries launched the Counternarcotics Working Group and carried out cooperation on the scheduling of drug-related substances, joint handling of drug-related cases, technology exchange, multilateral cooperation and removing of online ads.

The two sides agreed to further strengthen dialogue and communication in the field of drug control on the basis of mutual respect, differences management and mutually beneficial cooperation, jointly promote in-depth development of China-U.S. counternarcotics cooperation, and work together to address global drug problems.

A Chinese delegation had exchanges with several U.S. authorities, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The delegation also had discussions on key cases with frontline investigators of the DEA's San Francisco office.

However, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional tariff on Chinese imports due to the fentanyl crisis in the world's largest economy in late November.

In response, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that "China remains ready to continue counternarcotics cooperation with the United States on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect. We hope the United States will not take China's goodwill for granted and work to ensure that the hard-won positive dynamics will stay in the counternarcotics cooperation."

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. released a fact sheet as early as late June 2023, titled "Counter Narcotics Efforts of China and The United States," saying "since the scheduling of fentanyl-related substances, according to the briefing from its law enforcement agencies, the United States has not seized any fentanyl and its analogues originating from China since September 2019."

However, the truth is fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in the U.S. for people aged 18-45, said the DEA.

A House hearing titled "The fentanyl crisis in America: Inaction is no longer an option" called on a bipartisan and jointed cooperation by saying that "combating this poison and those who smuggle, manufacture and sell it should be a bipartisan issue. We need to act together to stop this scourge." 

Multiple media reports showed that the U.S. has not done enough to publicize the harm of drugs, and more than half of the states have implemented "marijuana legalization," which has caused the abuse of fentanyl substances. 

Hua Zhendong, technical director of the National Narcotic Control Commission's National Narcotics Laboratory, told the Global Times that in recent years, the U.S. has experienced a serious crisis of fentanyl abuse, but the root cause lies entirely within the U.S. itself, especially the relaxation of controls over opioid prescription drugs, leading to a large number of addicted individuals.

Nowadays, the U.S., which was reported to have 5 percent of the world's population while consuming 80 percent of the world's opioids, still has not permanently scheduled fentanyl-related substances as a class.