Spokesperson Denies Supplying Fentanyl Precursors in Xinhua News Q&A
Expresses "Strong Dissatisfaction" Over Tariff Announcement
China denied on the 3rd (local time) the U.S. claim that it supplies fentanyl precursors to the Americas. Photo by Yonhap News Agency shows bundles of fentanyl and other drugs found at a daycare center in New York in September 2023.
Amid the United States' announcement of an additional 10% tariff on Chinese exports to the U.S., citing issues such as fentanyl, commonly known as the 'zombie drug,' China denied the U.S. claim that it supplies fentanyl precursors to the Americas.
According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 3rd, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the narcotics control agency, stated in a Q&A with reporters the previous day, "The root cause of the U.S. fentanyl crisis lies within the United States itself, and shifting responsibility to other countries does not help solve the real problem."
He added, "China is one of the countries with the strictest and most thoroughly enforced drug control policies in the world," and expressed "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" to the tariff imposition announcement.
China also emphasized its fulfillment of international drug control obligations and cooperation with countries worldwide, including the United States.
The spokesperson said, "Based on humanitarian goodwill, China officially included fentanyl substances in the comprehensive classification (banning all forms of fentanyl) for the first time worldwide in 2019 at the U.S. request, but the U.S. has not yet implemented permanent comprehensive classification management."
He added, "Since China included these substances in the comprehensive classification, we have not received any notification from the U.S. about seizures of such China-origin substances."
The spokesperson also expressed concern that the U.S. announcement would seriously damage the cooperation and trust foundation between China and the U.S. in the field of drug control. According to the Ministry of Public Security, in recent years, China and the U.S. have extensively carried out substantial cooperation in drug control, achieving many visible advances in areas such as substance management and information exchange, individual case cooperation, closure of online sales sites, and exchange of trace detection technologies.
The spokesperson stated, "China urges the U.S. to correct its wrong practices, maintain the positive momentum hard-won in China-U.S. drug control cooperation, and promote stable, healthy, and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), representing Chinese businesses, also expressed deep regret and firm opposition to the U.S. decision to impose additional tariffs in a statement released the previous day.
The CCPIT spokesperson said, "The U.S.' unilateral imposition of additional tariffs seriously violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and many U.S. companies and consumers will have to bear the resulting costs."
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