China's central role in worsening the United States' fentanyl crisis has come under the spotlight once again thanks to President-elect Donald Trump's threat of imposing greater tariffs on the communist nation until it steps up to prevent the international trafficking of the highly addictive drug.
Trump has vowed to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on any goods coming into the U.S. from China – over and above any tariffs he has already pledged to impose on Chinese products.
Trump has warned that the tariffs will come almost immediately as soon as he enters office and that they would stay in effect until China, along with Mexico and Canada, take stronger measures to curb the illegal drug trafficking of fentanyl into the United States. (Related: Unveiling the Chinese money-laundering network driving America’s fentanyl crisis.)
In a series of posts on social media last Nov. 25, Trump has said that one of his first actions after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025, would be to sign executive orders imposing the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as China.
"Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before," Trump wrote. "Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10 percent Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.”
Fentanyl claiming hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the U.S.
In the U.S., fentanyl is a Food and Drug Administration-approved synthetic opioid used to treat severe pain, such as in open-heart surgery or epidurals for mothers in labor. While technically being legal, its use without a prescription has proliferated and is responsible for the deaths of many Americans.
Illicit fentanyl is often mixed with other drugs – and illegal drug-makers are increasingly producing analogs, or drugs similar to fentanyl, with small molecular changes that can make the drug up to 100 times more deadly.
Reports link the deaths of nearly 400,000 in the U.S. to illicit fentanyl and its deadlier analogs since 2016, and the federal government has had trouble dealing with the massive amounts of fentanyl coming in across the border.
In 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 80 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder, representing 390 million lethal doses, more than the population of the United States.
This is why Trump feels forced to place massive tariffs not just on China, but also on Canada and Mexico, from where Chinese-funded operatives help move the fentanyl across the border. Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee to be Treasury Secretary, noted how Trump's threat of tariffs as a leverage is helping him achieve his foreign policy objectives.
"Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role," he wrote.
Watch this clip from Fox News featuring Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) warning about how China is "guilty of murder" for how much it fuels America's fentanyl crisis.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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