Tensions between China and the United States over the fentanyl crisis continue to rise. Beijing on Thursday expressed its "dissatisfaction" and "firm opposition" following the inclusion of 17 Chinese individuals and companies on the so-called "blacklist" of the Treasury Department. The message of rejection came through the embassy of the Asian country in Mexico, just a day after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposed "a truce" to world powers and insisted on preponderating cooperation against drug trafficking and not the exchange of reproaches and accusations. "The United States imposes new sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals and attempts to blame China for its own fentanyl problem, in an attempt to mislead the public and deflect blame for its inaction," the embassy said in a statement.
Washington unveiled a new wave of economic sanctions earlier this week, arguing that China is the epicenter of synthetic drug manufacturing and as part of a strategy to weaken the financial structures of Mexican cartel suppliers. The punishments focused on companies that trade in pill prey and other equipment that allow criminal groups to create "pirated versions" of drugs adulterated with fentanyl. "Fentanyl-contaminated contraband pills are the leading cause of overdose deaths, devastating thousands of American families each year," said Brian E. Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Intelligence and Terrorism. The White House warned that it would not back down and would use "all means at its disposal" to attack the drug supply chain.
"Unilateral sanctions will not solve America's own problems, but will only create more obstacles to cooperation," China said. Xi Jinping's government said it would defend the legitimate interests of its citizens and said the illicit use of the products was the responsibility of importers. "A knife can be used to cut vegetables or to kill a person. If someone were to attack others with a knife, who should be held accountable? The one who used the knife or the one who made it? The answer is clear," Mao Ning, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a news conference on Wednesday.
One of the main difficulties in combating fentanyl is that it can be made with everyday equipment and substances, and that there are dozens of different recipes for its manufacture. At issue are the limits of regulation and who is responsible for illegal uses of traded products. Last weekend, the Chinese Embassy in Mexico issued another statement in which it described the alleged link between the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, one of the largest in the world, with Mexican drug cartels as "a plot in the style of Hollywood movies."
Lopez Obrador was optimistic just a day earlier. "There is a very good attitude on the part of the Government of China, we have been asking China for collaboration because the raw material of fentanyl comes from Asia, we are not going to say China, from Asia," said the Mexican president. In the midst of the clash he has had with several political sectors in the United States, the president has exchanged correspondence in recent months with the Chinese authorities, in an attempt to leave behind the claims and to tackle the problem between the countries involved. The Asian country has insisted that the problem is "made in the USA" and that it has nothing to do with the global transfer of drugs.
"China attaches great importance to its anti-drug cooperation with Mexico," the embassy said, adding that the joint work was "excellent" and "professional." In last weekend's statement, Beijing condemned "the thuggishness of the United States against Mexico under the pretext of the fentanyl issue" and expressed its support for the defense of the "sovereignty and dignity" of the Latin American country.
In early May, the Mexican Navy seized a suspicious shipment that had passed through the Korean port of Busan and the Chinese city of Qingdao, reviewed by López Obrador as proof that the drug is not manufactured in Mexico and that it is a transit territory. The Asian country said it was open to laboratory analysis confirming whether the substance involved was fentanyl to follow up on that case. Everything indicates that the "truce" will have to wait.
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