Beijing says there is not enough evidence to support allegations that most of the illicit drug in epidemic is made on its soil
A Chinese official on Friday disputed US President Donald Trump’s claim that the deadly opioid fentanyl that is flooding the United States is mostly produced in China.
The rejection comes just days before a visit by Trump at which he has said he will make China’s role in the crisis a major theme of his discussions.
Wei Xiaojun, deputy director general of the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said China did not deny that some fentanyl produced illicitly inside the country was contributing to the epidemic.
However, according to the intelligence the two countries had exchanged, “the evidence isn’t sufficient to say that most fentanyl or other new psychoactive substances come from China”, Wei said.
Trump last month said the US was stepping up measures to “hold back the flood of cheap and deadly fentanyl, a synthetic opioid manufactured in China and 50 times stronger than heroin”.
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He said he would mention it to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next week. “And he will do something about it,” Trump said.
Both the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy have pointed to China as North America’s main source of fentanyl, related drugs and the chemicals used to make them.
