> Chinese bureaucrats of the day didn’t do anything about it either, until it was too late. <
Once the danger of opium addiction was realized, the Chinese imperial government tried to stop the flow. And that (among other things) lead to the Opium Wars. China suffered humiliating defeats in those wars. As dfwgator noted, the Chinese have not forgotten that.
They’ve got a score to settle with the West. And they’ve got a score to settle with Japan.
Of course probably at most 1% of Americans even know about The Opium Wars.
Opium first flowed to China from the mideast, Afghanistan and Turkey from the start of the Qing Dynasty (1644) to the point that by 1729, the Yongzheng Emporer had already banned it. But usage and distribution spread throughout society, often among the upper levels of society, with connivance by local governments.
The British didn't join the trade until the early 1770s and even then, the Chinese didn't go to war over it until 60 years later.
For reasons of short-term stability, political maneuvering, local corruption and elite disdain for the lower classes, their bloated and bureaucratic central government also allowed the flow across their borders and did nothing while the problem grew, and society declined and decayed for a century until they were forced to go to war over it, which then only made obvious their humiliation.