China says US owes ‘big thank you’ on Fentanyl, urges talks

China said it has forcefully cracked down on the fentanyl trade and condemned President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as the world’s two largest economies remain at odds over the conditions for any talks to cool tensions.

Officials from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Public Security said in a briefing on Wednesday the country has achieved success in controlling the drugs and done all it can for the US. The officials asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters.

A Foreign Ministry official said Beijing has done the US a favor and Washington should have said a “big thank you” instead of slapping levies on Chinese imports. He also called on the Trump administration to return to dialogue and expressed willingness to continue working with the US.

Talks between the US and China on trade and other issues are stuck at lower levels, with both sides failing to agree on the best way to proceed. Beijing said the US hasn’t outlined detailed steps they expect from China on fentanyl in order to have the tariffs lifted, Bloomberg News reported citing people familiar with the issue. A person familiar said Trump’s team rejected the assertion, saying the White House had sent messages to China through diplomats in Washington.

In an executive order hiking tariffs on China last week, Trump said Beijing had done too little to alleviate the drug crisis and called the alleged flow of drugs into the US “an unusual and extraordinary threat.”

China in turn accused the Trump administration of using the issue as a pretext to raise tariffs, and published a white paper outlining its efforts to control fentanyl and related substances. Chinese officials handed out copies of the document to reporters Wednesday and largely reiterated its commitment to fighting drugs.

Trump “really cares” about fentanyl and isn’t just using it as an excuse for tariffs,” according to Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “I think for China to take this seriously — and not just try to fix it with white papers and offers to have dialogue, but actual crackdowns and regulatory changes to get to the root producers — that’s the only way to take this chip off the table,” he said.

2019 Convictions

In late 2019 China sentenced nine people for smuggling fentanyl to the US, the first convictions to arise from joint investigations with American law enforcement into the flow of the highly addictive painkiller. However, cooperation fell off after that, and didn’t formally restart until last year.

The two nations had a working group that met regularly from January 2024 to discuss how to cooperate on the problem. As part of that effort, China took various actions including arresting a money launderer working with a Mexican drug cartel and scheduling more precursor chemicals to better control exports, the Biden administration said in August.

In the Wednesday briefing, the Chinese officials said that some of the information the US provided on alleged illegal activity hasn’t been accurate, giving examples of American intelligence that led to a bankrupt catering firm and a maker of bicycle parts and toys. Since the beginning of 2023, the US has sanctioned and indicted 40 Chinese companies and 59 individuals over the fentanyl issue. But the officials said most of these firms were found to have never engaged in the trade of scheduled chemicals.

For indicted individuals, the US should provide evidence that they have violated Chinese laws, an official said. If that’s the case, they would be punished in accordance with the law, he said.

In a separate statement, China’s National Medical Products Administration said authorities will strengthen the supervision of fentanyl-related drug production and enforce strict export approval process to prevent diversion into illegal channels.

Illicit fentanyl has contributed to a rise in overdose deaths in the US over the past decade. A 2021 report by a congressional panel said China was the primary country of origin for the drug and related substances trafficked into the US.