The leader of the Democratic majority in the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, today accused Chinese companies from Shanghai of “fueling the fentanyl crisis”, which caused the death of thousands of people in his country, three weeks after the The White House will add the Asian giant to the list of transit countries and drug producers.
“It’s not about the (Chinese) government but about Chinese companies,” said Schumer, after landing in the Chinese economic capital, leading a delegation of US Republican and Democratic senators.
Chinese companies “fuel the fentanyl crisis that poisons communities throughout the United States,” denounced the senator, according to the AFP news agency.
In mid-September, the United States added China to the list of drug transit and producing countries and urged it to strengthen “supply chains” and “prevent their diversion.”
The inclusion of China was possible thanks to the United States changing legislation to add the countries of origin of chemicals used to produce drugs.
The modification was made based on fentanyl, a synthetic opioid responsible for a good part of the more than 109,000 overdose deaths in 2022 in the country, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the majority of chemical precursors come from China and end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
This trip by the US delegation to China occurs at a time when both powers are trying to ease bilateral tensions and after yesterday the US president, Joe Biden, raised a meeting with his counterpart Xi Jinping during the summit as a “possibility”. of APEC, the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation forum, in mid-November in San Francisco.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, which welcomed the delegation’s trip, had expressed on Wednesday that it hoped that “this visit will allow the US Congress to understand China objectively.”
According to the Bloomberg news agency, the delegation hopes to meet with Xi in the coming days in Beijing.
Schumer anticipates that other issues will be addressed, in addition to the “flow of deadly chemicals, such as fentanyl, from Chinese companies.”
Last May, several US senators, including the Democratic majority leader, announced a plan to address growing Chinese influence in the world.
This initiative aims to limit the flows of investment and cutting-edge technology to the Asian giant, and to dissuade Beijing from any aggression against the island of Taiwan, which China considers a rebellious province.
This trip is part of a rapprochement that has occurred in recent months between the United States and China, which resumed high-level dialogue with a series of visits by senior American officials to Beijing, including the head of diplomacy, Antony Blinken, last June.
However, the bilateral relationship remains tense due to several trade disputes, criticism of Beijing’s strategy in the South China Sea and the Taiwan question.
In August of last year, then-Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, traveled to Taiwan, a visit that China considered a provocation and to which it responded by announcing four days of military exercises.
The White House distanced itself from Pelosi’s controversial trip to the island that China claims as its own, arguing that the leader makes her own decisions.
The United States diplomatically recognizes China over Taiwan, but maintains de facto relations with Taipei and supports the island’s right to decide its future.
China considers Taiwan – where Chinese nationalists fled after their civil war defeat by the Communists in 1949 – a province that must be reunified.
Source: Ambito
