"America must face its own problems."
This is how the Chinese government responded this Thursday to a letter in which the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked for help to combat fentanyl trafficking.
Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that "there is no so-called illegal trafficking of fentanyl" between the two countries.
López Obrador had asked his counterpart Xi Jinping to take action to restrict the production of the synthetic drug in Asia "for humanitarian reasons", in a document released last Tuesday.
"China firmly supports Mexico in defending its independence and autonomy," read an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
China, a geopolitical and commercial rival of the United States, has refused to assume any responsibility for the opioid consumption crisis that is plaguing the North American country, behind more than 107,000 deaths in 2021, according to official figures.
“The fentanyl abuse problem in the US is rooted in itself, and the problem is entirely American-made,” Mao retorted.
The expression he used is that the crisis is “completely
Made in the USA
[hecha en Estados Unidos]”.
Instead, the spokeswoman urged Washington to "take more substantive steps to tighten regulation within its borders and reduce demand."
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning during a conference in April 2023XW (CHINA FOREIGN AFFAIRS)
In recent weeks, senators and congressmen from the radical wing of the Republican Party have blamed Mexico for the fentanyl trade and insisted that the López Obrador government has not done enough in the fight against drug cartels.
The Mexican president has dismissed the accusations as a strategy to take advantage of the elections in the United States next year.
China took advantage of the letter to throw a dart at the United States and condemn "the hegemonic and harassing practices against the Mexican side," although it did not mention names.
López Obrador said this week that he sent the letter to Xi after the visit of a delegation of US legislators, who arrived in Mexico City to maintain channels of dialogue between the two countries amid the friction of recent weeks.
The most conservative leaders of the Republican Party have revived a proposal to name the Mexican cartels as terrorist groups and give the Executive powers to undertake military actions in Mexican territory.
Antony Blinken, Joe Biden's Secretary of State, has not closed the door on the initiative, which also caused friction with the Mexican president, who has denounced the proposal as an interventionist policy and outside international law.
The proposal was considered during the Administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but it never materialized.
"We are not asking for your support before these rude threats, but for help for humanitarian reasons to control this traffic," reads the two-page letter that López Obrador sent to his Chinese counterpart.
"Such approaches are in themselves disrespectful and an unacceptable threat to our sovereignty," he adds.
"Mexico was forged by resisting invasions and acts of arrogance and we know how to face them with courage, patriotism and dignity," said López Obrador.
The president, who has also taken advantage of the lawsuit to champion a nationalist discourse ―and primarily for domestic consumption―, maintains that fentanyl is not produced in Mexico and that those ultimately responsible for the expansion of the drug are American traffickers.
From his perspective, the main trafficking route originates from Asia, where the precursor chemicals to make the drug are produced and then shipped directly to the US or Canada.
"Only 30% of what is consumed enters our border," said the Mexican president in his letter.
“Mexico's efforts on fentanyl are the most important in the world.
No country fights trafficking like Mexico," said Marcelo Ebrard, the secretary of Foreign Relations, at the president's press conference last Tuesday.
At Mexico's request for China to report who is sending the drug shipments and in what quantities, the Xi government responded that it has not been notified of any seizures from its country.
In recent years, criminal organizations have fought over control of the ports in the Mexican Pacific, the country's gateway to trade with Asia, and in 2020 the López Obrador government ceded surveillance of customs and port terminals to the Army and Navy.
A man takes fentanyl in Tijuana, Mexico, in 2022. The Washington Post (The Washington Post via Getty Im)
The letter to Xi Jinping was an unexpected turn in the midst of the media controversy between Mexico and the United States with fentanyl trafficking as a backdrop.
“The two countries have a smooth channel of counternarcotics cooperation,” Mao said, in a response that was also surprising.
"The Chinese government takes a firm position in the fight against drugs," he said, in response to international pressure for the Asian giant to assume greater leadership.
In Beijing's perspective, it is the United States that has not done enough, although it also asked the Latin American country for greater efforts.
“We hope that Mexico will take stronger measures in the fight against drugs,” he states in an extended version of the response.
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