Photo: CFP

China and the US have made significant progress in drug control cooperation in various areas, and both sides will continue to communicate and exchange in the future, Yu Haibin, deputy director general of the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Ministry of Public Security, told the Global Times during an exclusive interview on August 29.  

At the end of August, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi held a new round of strategic communication with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Beijing. The two sides had candid, substantive and constructive discussions, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The two sides agreed to continue carrying out cooperation on drug control, law enforcement, repatriation of illegal immigrants and climate change response.

Significant results

Chinese and US heads of state reached an important consensus during their San Francisco meeting in November last year on setting up a working group and carrying out cooperation on drug control, and agreed that law enforcement agencies in the two countries should work together to implement the agreement.

Since then, the two countries have made significant progress in drug control cooperation in various areas.

Yu said the two countries had frequent exchanges in 2024, including online and offline meetings between Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong and Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in the first half of this year. Wang also had a meeting with Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in Beijing in June.

On July 31, China and the US held a senior official meeting as part of the Counternarcotics Working Group in Washington, DC.  

Yu said the July meeting was a great success, with the Chinese delegation receiving a high-level reception from the US side. "China's anti-drug work has also been highly praised by multiple departments including the White House, State Department, and Department of Justice." 

Yu said China's scheduling of substances is one of the notable achievements from the two countries' cooperation. Since June, China added 46 new psychoactive substances as controlled drugs, making it the most comprehensive and largest increase in recent years. With this addition, China will have a total of 234 controlled psychoactive substances. 

In early August, China also announced the control of three precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl.

The two sides also made substantial progress on intelligence exchange and collaboration in solving cases. Following a US tip on drugs and money laundering, Chinese police launched an investigation into a case involving illegal foreign exchange transactions, China's Ministry of Public Security said in June. 

Yu, who has been deeply involved in China-US anti-drug cooperation for a long time, said China-US cooperation in drug control has always been a highlight of law enforcement collaboration between the two countries. He stated that both sides agree to further strengthen dialogue and communication in the field of drug control based on "mutual respect, managing differences, and mutually beneficial cooperation," to jointly promote the development of China-US drug control cooperation, working together to address global drug issues.

China actively responds to US appeals

Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as an analgesic (pain relief) and anesthetic. It is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic, according to US Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Yu said the US has made various appeals to China for help in controlling drugs. 2015 was a key point as the US faced a public health crisis, with deaths from drug overdoses reaching a record high that year.

US law enforcement agencies raised concerns to China in 2015 about the illegal manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl-like substances, said Yu. "To be frank, at that time there were cases showing that the US had seized fentanyl-like substances that came from China, but the quantity was not large. Yet China still actively supported the US demands by conducting assessments and expert consultations."

In 2015, the "Measures for the Administration of Non-Medical Use of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances" were introduced by the Chinese government, and scheduled 116 new psychotropic substances, including six types of fentanyl analogues. In 2017, the Chinese government controlled four fentanyl-class substances. In 2018, China added two fentanyl precursors to the controlled substance list.

After 2018, drug control cooperation between China and the US moved from law enforcement cooperation to the diplomatic level, said Yu, noting that it was also during this time that the US proposed that China schedule the entire classes of fentanyl-like substances.

On May 1, 2019, the Chinese government implemented classification-based control of fentanyl-like substances and adopted a series of effective measures to combat their illegal production, trafficking, and abuse. China became the first country in the world to officially schedule fentanyl-related substances as a class. The US has not yet implemented a full schedule of fentanyl-like substances.

Yu said that since China recognized fentanyl substances as a class, US law enforcement agencies have not reported any fentanyl-like substances coming from China, and the US has expressed its appreciation for this.

Yu revealed that China's initial intention in supporting US in the field of drug-control is that China has been badly affected by the harmful effects of drugs during its history.

Chinese people suffered from drug problems relating to the Opium War of 1840. "We empathize with the suffering from drugs," said Yu.

He noted that although fentanyl abuse is not a problem in China, the country is willing to strengthen anti-drug cooperation with the US and other countries based on mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit, in accordance with international conventions and domestic laws. It is also willing to protect the international community from the harm from drugs and help the American people overcome the fentanyl crisis, while actively participating in global drug control.

During the interview, Yu repeatedly mentioned "mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit," which undoubtedly serve as an important foundation for China-US cooperation in drug control.

After 2020, the US put forward new demands to China regarding "chemical regulation," mainly involving the monitoring of cross-border transactions of chemicals, single coding, and sharing of related information.

The reason why the US made these demands is that although no more fentanyl-like substances were found to have been exported from China to the US, the influx of fentanyl-like substances from Mexico and other regions into the US has been increasing. 

Therefore, they believe that the chemicals used to produce fentanyl-like substances in Mexico are from China, as China is the world's largest producer and consumer market for chemicals.

Yu refuted such claims. "The logic applied by the US is completely impractical." He explained that chemicals have a dual nature: They may be used by criminals to manufacture drugs, but more often they are used in industrial production and daily life.

Currently, chemicals are classified into controlled chemicals and non-controlled chemicals. For controlled chemicals, the demands of the US are reasonable and can also help to improve China's supervision level for controlled chemicals, said Yu.

He said China has a single customs code, and has also established a closed-loop supervision system that allows tracking throughout the entire process from production and operation, import and export, transportation, to purchase and storage.

Yu stated that China's approach to precursor chemicals aligns with the requirements of the US. However, China opposes the expansion of the requirements applicable to controlled chemicals to non-controlled chemicals. For non-controlled chemicals, neither the World Trade Organization nor the World Customs Organization has a mechanism or conditions for sharing information, said Yu.

The Chinese official said that for non-controlled chemicals, no country can code them, and therefore cannot monitor them throughout the entire process, let alone share information. 

The majority of countries do not regulate the chemical substances used to produce fentanyl-like substances. Even within the US, only a few specific chemicals are subject to regulation, said Yu.

"This is like a war, because of different positions, one can sanction weapons suppliers, then sanction steel suppliers, all of which can be understood. But then the sanction goes to iron ore suppliers. This is the false narrative logic created by the US," Yu pointed out.

The US claims to combat the global drug and synthetic opioids production chain, but it has overlooked the fact that the so-called production chain may be both a drug production chain and a pharmaceutical and biotechnology production chain.

US problem

Over the last two decades, the US has gone through the worst overdose epidemic in its history, with the number of deaths linked to drug overdoses rising almost every year, according to a report by CBS news.

A record 108,000 Americans lost their lives to overdoses in 2022, according to recent government figures. More than two-thirds were linked to synthetic opioids, mainly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin.

Last month, five people were charged for their involvement in the drug-related death of Matthew Perry, the former "Friends" star, media reported. 

The actor, famed for his role as Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends, died in his Los Angeles home in October 2023. A post-mortem examination found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined the "acute effects" of the controlled substance had killed him.

Perry died in October last year due to a ketamine overdose and received several injections of the drug on the day he died from his live-in personal assistant. The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, is the one who found Perry dead later that day, media reported. 

The brief relief from pain led to a long-term addiction, and Perry was plunged into a vortex of substance abuse. Perry's case is a microcosm of the millions of drug abusers in the US. This event vividly illustrates the issue that "the fentanyl problem in the US is not manufactured in China, and China is not the root cause of the fentanyl problem in the US," said Yu.

Contributing factors for the US opioid crisis are a rise in opioid prescriptions, changes in illegal opioid markets, and greater demand for opioids due to worsening economic and social conditions for certain populations, according to a nonpartisan analysis for the US Congress, which was published in September 2022. 

The issue of fentanyl-related deaths is a major concern that cannot be ignored by both parties in the US, and it is also a significant issue of concern for them. 

In 2022, China announced eight countermeasures in response to the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's highly provocative visit to the island of Taiwan, including canceling China-US theater commanders meetings, defense policy coordination talks, and the military maritime security consultative mechanism, as well as suspending cooperation on illegal immigration repatriation, drug control and climate change.

During this period, in response to rampant drug abuse, the US has continuously pressured the Chinese government and shifted blame, even manipulating the situation to internationalize its own domestic drug crisis.

In 2022, the US treasury department announced sanctions against 31 Chinese companies and 39 individuals in what it called a "China-based network responsible for the manufacturing and distribution" of precursors of fentanyl and a number of other illegal drugs.

In September 2023, China urged the US to stop attacking and slandering China, following the release of a US presidential memorandum that identified China as one of the major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries.

Yu said the cooperation between China and the US in drug control is closely related to the overall trend of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and cannot exist in isolation. 

"On the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, we are willing to actively engage in drug control cooperation with the US government. However, if the US continues to ignore China's sincerity and efforts while simultaneously suppressing and pressuring China in various fields, and even infringing upon China's bottom line, we will have no choice but to respond accordingly."