Editor’s note: This report is the second in a three-part series that examines the role of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the United States. The first report, which you can read here, traced the origins of the fentanyl crisis and its consequences for national security. This report provides evidence of the PRC’s complicity in the fentanyl crisis by describing how its domestic policy and law enforcement efforts fail to adequately undermine fentanyl production and sometimes even facilitate it. The final report will draw parallels between the PRC’s actions and asymmetric warfare, arguing that the United States must take a more concerted, whole-of-government approach to addressing the crisis that recognizes the PRC’s role in perpetuating it.
Publicly and officially, the PRC has made significant gestures of cooperation with the United States in meeting the opioid crisis challenge. Unofficially and illicitly, considerable evidence suggests the PRC actively supports and facilitates the flow of fentanyl into the United States. PRC officials continue to claim a narrative of fentanyl addiction as a US problem. In an interview with China Global Television Network, an international English-language news channel based in Beijing, the deputy secretary-general of the China National Narcotics Control Commission (CNNCC) criticized the United States for its role in creating the fentanyl crisis, attributing it to “its own misuse of prescription drugs.” Despite criticism, CNNCC’s spokesman declared readiness to provide full support in material control, intelligence sharing, law enforcement, and combating transnational crimes. In the words of Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, “It is very clear that there is no fentanyl problem in China, and the fentanyl crisis in the United States is not caused by the Chinese side, and blindly blaming China cannot solve the U.S.’ own problem.” While there is some truth to Pengyu’s statement—the United States must do more to address the problem of addiction—currently, Chinese companies, possibly with the full support or willful blindness of the PRC government, are fanning the flames of this crisis.
Nicholas Dockery is a White House Fellow, Special Forces officer, United States Military Academy graduate, and Wayne Downing scholar. Dockery holds a master of public policy from Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and previously served as a research fellow at the Modern War Institute.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.
Image credit: Shealah Craighead, White House