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Laura Zhou

US President Donald Trump has linked his tariff war with China to fentanyl smuggling by blaming Beijing for failing to stop the flow of the chemicals needed to make the drug.
Although fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have been a long-standing problem in the United States, Trump’s decision to link it to the trade war has reignited the issue.
The war on drugs is seen as one the few areas where the two countries could cooperate despite their bitter rivalry in most other areas, but there are still sharp gaps in perception over the issue.
Washington has characterised China as the “primary source country”, while Beijing feels it is being unfairly blamed for the US opioid crisis.
And here are some facts about the crisis:
What is fentanyl and why is there a crisis in the US?
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid – some 50 times stronger than heroin – which has legitimate medical uses in treating severe pain, particularly for cancer patients.
However, a 2 milligram dose, equivalent to five to seven grains of salt, is enough to kill an adult of average size.
Opioid overdoses have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the US this century, but the situation has worsened in recent years due to the illegal manufacturing and sale of the drug.


An annual US intelligence threat assessment released on Tuesday said synthetic opioids were “the most lethal drugs” trafficked into the country, causing more than 52,000 deaths in the 12 months to October 2024.
There have been calls for Congress to make a permanent a temporary listing of fentanyl and other related substances on the list of Schedule I drugs, which have no accepted medical use.
The opioid epidemic is also taking a heavy toll on the US economy. According to the most recent estimate by the US Congress joint economic committee, it cost the country nearly US$1.5 trillion in 2020 – the equivalent to 7 per cent of the country’s GDP that year. This was an increase of about a third since the cost was last calculated in 2017.
How is anti-drugs cooperation going?
The US authorities have identified China as the primary source of US-bound illicit fentanyl and its analogues, modified forms of the drug.
During his first term Trump also used tariffs as leverage against China on fentanyl. Months after the two sides reached a trade war truce in late 2018, Beijing moved to ban online advertising, sales and shipments of all fentanyl-related substances.
After that the US Drug Enforcement Administration said there had been a dramatic fall in the number of Chinese fentanyl shipments detected.
Since then, the US has shifted its priorities to target the chemicals used to make the drug and associated equipment. American officials say these are shipped from China to Mexican drug cartels before the finished product is smuggled across the border to the US.
However, there have also been bumps along the way. China has twice suspended cooperation on tackling the issue as a result of disagreements over Xinjiang and Taiwan.
There has been further progress since they agreed to resume cooperation following a meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in California in November 2023.
Beijing has agreed to take action to control the export of pill presses – a vital piece of equipment for making semi-synthetic opioid pills – to the Western hemisphere. It has also said it would step up cooperation on targeting money laundering, which helps facilitate organised crime.


Last year the two sides held several meetings to discuss closer cooperation and law enforcement agencies on both sides have set up anti-drug hotlines to share information.
At the same time, China is also working more closely with Mexico to share information on the precursor chemicals used to make the drug.
What does the US say?
Trump has accused Beijing of playing “a central role” in the influx of drugs into the US, saying it is “not merely by failing to stem the ultimate source of many illicit drugs distributed in the United States, but by actively sustaining and expanding the business of poisoning our citizens”.
He also blamed Beijing for providing support to and a safe haven for underground banking systems that facilitate the production, shipment and sale of illicit synthetic opioids.
Last week Montana senator Steve Daines, a close ally of Trump’s, said it would be difficult to discuss issues such as tariffs and non-tariff barriers until the issue of the precursor chemicals used to make the drugs is tackled.
“I made it clear that President Trump needs to see China take decisive actions to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors, not to slow down the flow but to stop the flow,” Daines told Bloomberg following a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.
What is China’s position?
China has especially strict restrictions on fentanyl prescriptions and this month Beijing said it had only found three cases of illegal fentanyl sales in China since 2016 and none of smuggling.
It has also continually insisted it was not to blame for the US fentanyl crisis, which it said was the result of America’s failures to tackle the problem and regulate the chemicals used to make the drug.
Beijing has reacted cautiously to the tariffs Trump imposed on it, although it did impose retaliatory measures of its own.
However, it also called for countries to work together, adding that tackling the demand for the drugs and strengthening cooperation between law enforcement agencies were the “fundamental solutions”.
Some diplomatic analysts have also warned that there were other barriers to cooperation, such as their different views of the problem.
One such observer, Zhao Minghao, a professor at the Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies, said these also included “information deficits” and “tactical hurdles”, such as evidence-sharing mechanisms and differences in their legal systems.
“It is not a game, not an issue just between the US and China and it actually involves many actors,” Zhao told a forum in Beijing last week.
He added that a further barrier was the “toxic” narrative in the US that China was deliberately launching a reverse opium war, still a hugely emotive topic in the country.
Why is tackling fentanyl so difficult?
While drugs such as heroin and cocaine come from plants, fentanyl is made entirely from chemicals.
Many of these are common industrial chemicals widely used in the legal production of everything from perfumes, rubber to dyes, which can be quickly and easily synthesised to produce fentanyl.
This presents a significant challenge for China, a manufacturing powerhouse with numerous factories involved in the legal production of these raw materials.


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Drugs made using a pill press, a key piece of equipment that China has agreed to further controls on. Photo: Reuters

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While the US introduces tariffs to help stop the deadly fentanyl trade, Chinese scientists have developed a way to identify over a quadrillion different variants of the synthetic opioid. Photo: US Drug Enforcement Administration/TNS

China defends fentanyl controls, dismisses US allegations on drug trafficking as ‘lies’

Steve Filson, whose daughter Jessica died from a fentanyl overdose, listens as Riverside District Attorney Mike Hestrin speaks about the fentanyl crisis in Riverside, California, in 2023. Fentanyl, an opioid painkiller, has become the largest cause of drug overdose in the US. Photo: TNS

News

China

Diplomacy

Synthetic opioids have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and the US President’s actions have brought a renewed focus on the issue


Synthetic opioids have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and the US President’s actions have brought a renewed focus on the issue.


Fentanyl and other opioids

Donald Trump’s China policy

Provide background, definition and detail of a specific topic, helping the reader understand how something works or what has happened in the past.  (Eg. What is Nafta? US and Mexico are on the verge of revising trade deal.)


Explainer

Explainer | Why did Donald Trump link the US fentanyl crisis to tariffs on China?

Synthetic opioids have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and the US President’s actions have brought a renewed focus on the issue

What is fentanyl and why is there a crisis in the US?

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