Fentanyl crisis triggers U.S.-China trade war

Fentanyl, a pain killer used in US hospitals that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, caused the death of 75,000 in the US in 2023. The US is now in the grip of the worst drug crisis in its history. (Source: Vantage Firstpost YouTube “Israel promises to attack….time code 25:44). Drug enforcers are helpless to contain the situation for several reasons explained below.

Fentanyl’s deadly effect is due to its capability to hook a user and cause an overdose instantly even on the first use. Thus, it achieved epidemic proportions rapidly on the streets of San Francisco, where on one block alone users are seen frozen zombie-like in bizarre positions.

A fentanyl overdose requires immediate life-saving emergency attention. The drug slows down or stops breathing instantly, causing hypoxia, then possible death. Users go on a stupor or lose consciousness. Paralysis sets in in the limbs and causes slurred speech. Users become unresponsive to where they are and to the people around them. (Source: American Addiction Centers)

Fentanyl emerged in the US as “China White” in the 1970s. It brought huge windfall profits that drug cartels and drug producers in China and Mexico could not refuse. They did not have to market it because it was extremely attractive to first-time users, highly addictive and in great demand.

When the growing fentanyl epidemic drew the attention of drug enforcers during the first term of Trump, he threatened China with trade sanctions, which made China put it in their drug watch list. But this was all on paper. The imports from China kept growing.

When the US DEA started monitoring fentanyl more closely, making smuggling more difficult, the Chinese producers and the Mexican cartels changed tactics. Instead of smuggling the finished product, they resorted to smuggling the innocent-looking raw chemicals, which were invisible to the DEA. These were assembled in Mexican labs before they were smuggled into the US. So the flow not only continued, it grew rapidly. The trade route was China to Mexico to the US.

In a dialogue between Xi and Biden, China falsely blamed the unstoppable growth of the fentanyl epidemic to the US, arguing that it was a US problem that it had to solve, to alleviate the blame on China. The blame game did not work. It made Trump more resolute to stop fentanyl.

Trump announced a 200-percent tariff on all imports from China. The sanctions included banks facilitating the drug business and firms involved in the drug trade clandestinely, which were attacked in an intense cyber war. China panicked from the sanctions. But the flow continued. It was unstoppable and the Chinese bureaucrats were suspected of doing an inside job. Then Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, which angered Xi, who suspended all drug control rules.

Today, Trump reiterates his threat to impose double tariffs on all Chinese imports. Xi’s people warned that this will destroy US-China trade relations in the trillions of dollars. This is how much Trump is risking to contain the biggest drug crisis in US history.

In truth, fentanyl can destroy the economies of the US and of China, which would affect the global economy. The Sword of Damocles hangs over the world economy because of fentanyl.