Crime & Justice

Beijing condemns US sanctions on Chinese companies over fentanyl production

Beijing, June 6 (EFE).- Beijing on Tuesday condemned the United States’ recent sanctions against seven Chinese entities and six individuals that Washington accuses of selling machinery to drug trafficking organizations that use them to manufacture counterfeit tablets laced with fentanyl.

Fentanyl and other opioids are fueling one of the worst drug crises in the history of the US, with drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl increasing by 279 percent from 2016 to 2021, according to the US National Center for Health Statistics last month.

“China has always strictly enforced drug control, and has done its best to help the US deal with the fentanyl issue in a humanitarian spirit,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website Tuesday.

“In disregard of the facts, the US imposed sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals on the grounds that the tablet presses and mold equipment sold to the US and Mexico could be used to manufacture fentanyl, in an attempt to confuse the public, mislead the public, and shift responsibility for its own poor governance.”

It also “firmly opposed” this and assured that it will “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and individuals.”

In recent months, Mexico and the US have been locked in an exchange of declarations assuring that the chemical precursors of fentanyl come from China.

Even Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed to have “proof” that illegal shipments of the opioid are coming from China.

In mid-May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of allowing the shipment of precursor chemicals to Mexico that are then used to manufacture the fentanyl that is trafficked into the US.

In this regard, the embassy of the Asian country in Mexico said that China “has been vigorously carrying out international anti-drug law enforcement cooperation under the framework of the United Nations Anti-drug Convention.”

In addition, China’s foreign ministry asserted in April that “the root cause of the overdose lies in the US itself” and that the country “needs to face up to its own problems, take more substantial measures to strengthen domestic regulation and reduce demand.” EFE

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