During the 19th century, opium was British India's most valued export and China its most lucrative market. So much so that in 1858 Britain went to war not to prevent drug trafficking, but to promote it. Faced with widespread addiction, rising crime, and social unrest, the Qing dynasty began destroying opium and executing drug dealers. The emperor even wrote to Queen Victoria asking if she really understood the damage being done to China by this illicit trade.
The answer was the Second Opium War, a British invasion of China, the sacking Peking and finally the forced legalization of opium exports to China. The economic and territorial concessions wrung from the humiliated emperor were not forgotten. Now, taking a page from Britain's playbook, China has turned the tables and is fostering an opioid epidemic in the United States.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which is both cheaper to manufacture and easier to transport than heroin. It is also much more powerful and addictive than either morphine or heroin. Often mixed with other narcotics such as cocaine or methamphetamine, fentanyl frequently leads to accidental overdoses resulting in fatal respiratory failure. This synthetic narcotic has sent the number of addictions and overdose deaths in the United States soaring. In fact, more Americans have died from fentanyl overdoes than in the entire Vietnam War.
Think about that: More dead Americas than in the Vietnam War.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram has stated that "Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered... It is everywhere. From large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison."
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, this prolonged epidemic has endangered not only public health, but also economic output and national security. Testifying before the U.S. Senate in 2017, then-Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen linked the opioid epidemic to declining labor-force participation among "prime-age workers."
Since 2013, China has been the principal illicit source of this deadly narcotic flooding the United States. Both the Obama and Trump administrations pressured China to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and in 2019 China did ban unlicensed fentanyl exports. However, this has not stemmed the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Due to its extreme potency and light weight, fentanyl continues to be shipped via mail or courier service from China directly to the United States. Faced with these new regulations, Chinese pharmaceutical companies 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.-Mexican border by drug cartels that have become deeply involved in its manufacture and distribution.
China can control illicit drugs. In the 1950s Chairman Mao Zedong's government ruthlessly stamped out the widespread use of opium. More recently, China has cooperated effectively with Australia to limit methamphetamine trafficking. Chinese exports of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals to the rest of the world are minimal and most significantly there is no fentanyl problem in China. Still Beijing refuses to accept any responsibility for the overdose epidemic impacting the United States.
There is no single cause for the fentanyl epidemic. Over prescription by physicians, overproduction by pharmaceutical companies, unemployment and the Covid 19 epidemic have all played a role. Whether China is waging a sophisticated, asymmetric campaign against the U.S. intended to cause serious social and economic damage or is merely using narcotics as a bargaining chip in other negotiations is unclear, but the problem is getting worse. According to preliminary data from the CDC, deaths form fentanyl overdoes rose from 57,00 to 71,000 between 2020 and 2021. According to a Brookings Institution study, counternarcotics cooperation between the United States and China has deteriorated along with the overall bilateral relationship, while Chinese-Mexican cooperation on controlling the export of fentanyl precursors remains minimal.
It is unrealistic to expect that China will improve counternarcotics cooperation while the overall bilateral relationship remains strained. Yet unlike the Qing dynasty, the U.S. possesses the means to respond to its opioid crisis. Last month the journal Pharmaceutics published promising preliminary results on a fentanyl vaccine being developed, at the University of Houston. In the meantime, the most effective measure would be to immediately strengthen the southern border. This could be achieved by building additional physical barriers, improving border surveillance technology, and increasing the number of Border Patrol personnel at major ports of entry. Another effective measure would be enhanced screening of international mail and express cargo from high-risk countries. Finally, expanded use could be made of Treasury Department sanctions against Chinese fentanyl producers. Fentanyl is causing far more deaths than school shootings, drunk driving or the war in Ukraine. It deserves more attention from our media and political leaders.
David H. Rundell is the author of Vision or Mirage, Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads and a former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former Political Advisor to the U.S. Central Command where he was involved in counternarcotics efforts.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
