Beijing weighs fentanyl offer to US to start trade talks, WSJ reports

Reuters via MSN ^ | 05/05/2025

[SeekAndFind]

Beijing is considering ways to address the Trump administration's concerns about China's role in the fentanyl trade, potentially providing an off-ramp from hostilities to allow trade talks to start, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The paper cited unnamed people familiar with the matter as saying that Chinese Minister for Public Security Wang Xiaohong had been inquiring in recent days about what the Trump team wants China to do when it comes to the chemical ingredients used to make the potent drug fentanyl.

The report said part of Beijing’s thinking involved dispatching Wang to the U.S. to meet with senior officials of President Donald Trump's administration, or to have him meet with U.S. officials in a third country.

It cited the sources as cautioning that the discussions remained fluid and that Beijing would like to see some softening of Trump's trade offensive against China.

The White House and China's Washington embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The report came after the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it was evaluating an offer from Washington to hold talks over Trump's 145% tariffs on China, although it warned the U.S. not to engage in "extortion and coercion."

Trump has linked the U.S. trade war with China, which has roiled global markets and upended supply chains, to the fentanyl crisis killing large numbers of Americans.

Washington says Chinese chemical manufacturers and exporters provide most precursor chemicals used by drug cartels to produce synthetic opioids, the cause of nearly 450,000 U.S. overdose deaths. China has long defended its tough drug laws and record of cracking down on smugglers, and says the U.S. must get a handle on its own addiction woes.

Trump said on Wednesday he believed there was a "very good chance" his administration could do a deal with China...

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; China; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; fentanyl; tariffs; trade

[BipolarBob]

[PGR88]

So China is admitting that fentanyl IS an issue?

[BipolarBob]

It’s a bargaining chip. The dirty commies.

[monkeyshine]

There was some talk about China having 10,000+ labs that make fentanyl precursers, under the cover of other chemical compounds they make. I am quite sure that when they sent Fentanyl to Mexico it is not marked as “Fentanyl” the manifest probably says something like “granulated citric acid” or whatever. Being completely synthetic and made in chemical mfg facilities it will require some outside the box thinking to stop.

And because it’s a chemical process it is very likely that was comes in may be perfectly legal and have legitimate industrial uses, and is processed through several steps to make it into fentanyl.

[SaxxonWoods]

Another indicator China will make a deal. China is the touchstone, get China and Trump/America wins YUGE.

[dennisw]

True or not? I read that there are Chinese technicians in Mexico who are working for the cartels. Who help the cartels manufacture their fentanyl, meth and other poisons. To manufacture them into kill pills. That young Americans think they are taking a meth or extasy tablet. But it also has enough fentanyl in it to kill them.

If true this adds to what the CCP is doing to poison Americans

[verum ago]

And because it’s a chemical process it is very likely that was comes in may be perfectly legal and have legitimate industrial uses, and is processed through several steps to make it into fentanyl.

That's exactly the case. The immediate precursors are highly suspicious if discovered (they're pretty much only used to make synthetic opioids), but if you basically back up basically one to two steps on each main precursor you have piperidine and aniline (or an easily made derivative of each), which both have about a zillion legitimate uses. Aniline production worldwide is something like 10 million metric tons annually.

Being completely synthetic and made in chemical mfg facilities it will require some outside the box thinking to stop.

Personally, I think that like most substance abuse problems, the greatest potential reduction is to attack the demand side. As long as people are willing to pay good money to get high, the stuff is just too damned easy to make- someone will step up and fulfill the market demand.

[SeekAndFind]

There is strong and well-documented evidence that Chinese chemical companies and Chinese nationals are deeply involved in supplying precursor chemicals to Mexican drug cartels, enabling them to manufacture fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other synthetic drugs at scale.

These precursors are shipped from China to Mexico, where cartels such as Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation use them in clandestine labs to produce illicit drugs for distribution, primarily to the United States.

See here:

https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2024/10/24/china-based-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-employees-indicted

and here:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-16/chinese-company-charged-with-exporting-fentanyl-xylazine-to-los-angeles

However, based on current public reporting and law enforcement disclosures, there is no direct evidence that large numbers of Chinese technicians are physically present in Mexico working inside cartel-run labs to manufacture these drugs. The documented Chinese role is primarily as:

1. Suppliers of precursor chemicals (the essential ingredients for synthetic drugs)

2. Money launderers and financial facilitators for the cartels, often operating from the US or China, and sometimes Mexico

See here:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/18/politics/us-chinese-money-launderers-drug-cartels

and here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dea-operation-exposes-growing-links-sinaloa-cartel-chinese-organized-c-rcna157676

So far, Recent indictments and investigations have charged Chinese nationals and companies with shipping chemicals and laundering money, but these cases focus on logistics, finance, and supply, not on Chinese chemists or technicians operating labs on Mexican soil.

See here:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/three-chinese-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-five-employees-charged-conspiring

So yes, Chinese chemical companies and nationals are crucial suppliers and financial partners to Mexican cartels. However, There is no substantial evidence that Chinese technicians are physically working in Mexican cartel labs to manufacture fentanyl, meth, or other drugs.

The main Chinese involvement is in shipping precursors and laundering money, not direct on-the-ground drug production in Mexico. The Mexican cartels are able to do it themselves.

[lee martell]

In Old America, (Cold War Era and before) having any foreign country deliberately manufacturing dangerous, illegal narcotics in unknown levels of potency with intentions to sell to Americans would have been considered creating
An Act of WAR!

But, now, in the age of Mutually Assured Destruction, no president of either country can approach full out combat in that same cavalier manner. There is simply too much to lose.

[monkeyshine]

I agree about curbing demand being the best approach. It’s just not something that government knows how to do well, other than sloganeering. We’ve gotten ever more permissive of drug use and personal possession from a law enforcement perspective. We can’t lock up the mentally ill homeless drug addicts. But we know how to smash down doors, slam people on the ground, drive armored vehicles through walls and send SWAT teams to corner a suspect. We fight with the army we have even though we know it’s a failed approach.

If we did take all those drug enforcement dollars and invested them in rehabilitation, I’m not sure they would do a great job of rehabilitation. And I think the people who need rehabilitation will have a hard time - a person can get clean, but if they leave after 30 days and go right back into the environment that drove (for lack of a better word) them to drugs the long term success rate is likely to plummet.

[rfp1234]

Good. The Chicoms already got their revenge for the 19th century Opium Wars, time to knock this fentanyl crap off.

[glorgau]

They think this is some sort of “concession”?

[rfp1234]

Maybe Netanyahu could help us set up another ‘beeper scheme’ in our own hemisphere.

[Truthsearcher]

They’re also doing it through Canada.

[Truthsearcher]

Unlike Chinese propaganda, the Opium War was never about protection their people from drugs. It was about, ironically enough, trade imbalance.
The Chinese government simply wanted the Chinese public to buy opium grown in China, and not import opium from UK (which were cheaper and had higher quality), because of the amount of silver that was flowing out of China.

[dennisw]

Here is what Grok 3 said about Chinese experts and chemists working in Mexico for the cartels for their fentanyl production.

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