Foreign Affairs

Biden-Harris Admin Adds China To Illicit Drug Watchlist After Touting Cooperation In Fighting Fentanyl Crisis

Flickr/Official White House Photo by Carlos Fyfe

The Biden administration added China to its illicit drug watchlist on Monday, despite previously touting cooperation with Beijing on countering the growing fentanyl epidemic in the U.S.

To deal with the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S. — which China has historically played a significant role in — the Biden administration created a “working group” with Beijing earlier this year, building on an agreement between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. But China still needs to do more to keep its end of the bargain, adding the country to its “Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2025″ list released Monday.

Though the list is not a “sanction or penalty,” it is meant to designate countries that act as “major drug transit or major illicit drug-producing countries,” which include “countries that are a significant direct source of precursor chemicals used in the production of certain drugs and substances significantly affecting the United States,” according to the White House. Other countries named in the 2025 list include Afghanistan, Venezuela, Mexico and India.

China has been responsible for producing a substantial amount of the fentanyl ingredients that are trafficked overseas, including to Mexico and Central America, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Those ingredients are packaged into a final product and smuggled over the U.S. southern border.

While claiming that some “significant steps” have been taken by China to stem the flow of ingredients out of its mainland, “sustained enforcement and regulatory action will be necessary to significantly reduce the [People’s Republic of China’s] role as a source of precursor chemicals used in the production, sale, and trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs significantly impacting the United States,” a statement from the White House reads.

Prior to designating China as an illicit drug trafficker and producer, the Biden administration has at several points promoted its new “working group” with Beijing and claimed that progress was being made in countering the fentanyl epidemic. But an investigation by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) earlier this year found that there was “no evidence” that China was cracking down on illegal fentanyl production or trafficking inside the mainland.

Instead, China is an active enabler in the crisis because it “directly subsidizes” the production and export of ingredients and fails to prosecute those responsible, according to the investigation.

“This failure — when combined with new evidence establishing that the [People’s Republic of China] incentivizes the export of illegal drugs abroad and holds ownership stake in companies doing the same — casts doubt on the veracity of the PRC’s claims that it will act to stem the massive export of illicit fentanyl materials and other dangerous synthetic narcotics,” the investigation report reads.

Some Republican lawmakers feel the administration could also do more by preventing the flow of fentanyl over the southern border.

“If President Biden were actually taking the problem of fentanyl trafficking seriously, he would have already shut down the border and with it, points of entry for drug smuggling,” Republican California Rep. Michelle Steel previously told The Daily Caller. “The Biden Administration’s border crisis has been a key catalyst in the explosion of fentanyl into the U.S.”

“We continue to press for the [People’s Republic of China] to schedule all precursor chemicals that are controlled at the international level, in line with their treaty obligations,” A State Department spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our cooperation is laser-focused on driving action that save lives. This work will continue as we press for continued enforcement action and regulation to halt this deadly flow.”