OPINION:
Calling China America’s antagonist doesn’t do its conduct justice. Antagonists annoy, but China kills, and not only with its careless spread of COVID-19, which has claimed more than 720,000 American lives. The communist-controlled nation is largely responsible for the fentanyl-caused deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Owing to President Biden’s callous disregard for security at the nation’s southern border, China is teaming up with Mexican drug cartels to keep Americans hooked on the lethal drug, which can kill with one pill.
In Pima County on Arizona’s border with Mexico, fentanyl has overtaken traffic accidents as the primary cause of death for residents aged 20 and younger. Nationwide to date, about 93,000 individuals have lost their lives to fatal drug overdoses — about three-quarters caused by opioids like the synthetic drug fentanyl, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. The DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment named China as “the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”
Although China agreed in 2019 to classify the drug as a controlled substance, Chinese traffickers have circumvented the restrictions by simply shipping its ingredients to third-party nations, primarily Mexico, where they are mixed by cartels and smuggled across the U.S. border.
Chinese nationals are only too happy to launder Mexican drug sales through China’s banking system, thwarting U.S. efforts to cut off profit incentives. Moreover, Chinese authorities resist cooperation with the U.S. in joint drug investigations, according to the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
In response to the carnage in Pima County and elsewhere, the Biden administration launched a national law enforcement campaign to interdict the fentanyl flow in August. With dramatic fanfare, the DEA recently announced it had seized 1.8 million fentanyl-laced pills and enough fentanyl powder to manufacture tens of millions of pills.
That’s noteworthy but not sufficient. Encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border reached a 21-year high in August, mainly owing to Mr. Biden’s campaign vow to welcome newcomers. In his haste to be every aspiring migrant’s friendly Uncle Joe, he may have overlooked the fact that international drug smugglers love him, too.
The human wave surging across the southern border worsens the challenge of interdicting fentanyl. An easily concealable tablet containing a single milligram currently fetches about $195 on U.S. streets, according to Streetrx.com, an anonymously crowd-sourced drug-price aggregator. Fentanyl is simply a smuggler’s dream drug.
Its refusal to take responsibility for millions of coronavirus deaths demonstrates China is no friend of the civilized world. And China’s relentless export of chemicals to manufacture opioid pills that kill, combined with Mr. Biden’s wanton neglect of border security, is adding to the body count.
China must be held to account – not Chinese-Americans who have arrived searching for freedom – but the Asian nation’s communist leadership. It’s the president’s job to do it.
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