US sanctions on Chinese entities accused in fentanyl trafficking ‘unreasonable’

The latest round of US sanctions against Chinese entities for their alleged roles in fentanyl trafficking were “unreasonable”, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, warning that such actions could create “obstacles” for further cooperation with Washington to tackle the crisis.

On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions against seven entities and six individuals based in China, as well as one entity and three people in Mexico.

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They were accused of manufacturing and selling equipment such as pill press machines and die moulds used to produce counterfeit pharmaceutical tablets laced with fentanyl for shipment to the US, the department said.

The latest move followed similar sanctions introduced in April against two Chinese companies and four nationals for allegedly supplying precursor chemicals used for fentanyl production to drug cartels based in Mexico.

“These are common commodities, which are not controlled both at home or abroad,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Wednesday. “[T]he importer is responsible for preventing related equipment from flowing into drug production channels.

“If someone commits a crime with a knife, it is very clear whether the person who wields the knife or the manufacturer of the knife should be sanctioned and punished,” she added.

Fentanyl has been a primary driver in what the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has called an “opioid overdose epidemic”. The drug is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year – with the numbers continuing to rise.

Between 2016 and 2021, the rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled from 5.7 per 100,000 people to 21.6, according to a CDC report released earlier this month.

The US Treasury Department said one of the newly sanctioned Chinese companies – Shenzhen-based Yason General Machinery Co – had sold equipment to a Mexican-based supplier with connections to the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organisations.

The department also accused pill press supplier Youli Technology Development Co, based in the southern city of Huizhou, of shipping products using methods meant to “evade law enforcement scrutiny.”

Before 2019, China had been considered the primary source of illicit fentanyl entering the US. But according to a December 2022 report by the US Congressional Research Service, since China imposed controls on fentanyl that year, production of the drug has largely shifted to Mexico.

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However, the report added that the primary materials continued to be sourced from China, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration has said it believes there has been increased cooperation between Chinese drug traffickers and the Mexican cartels.

“We remain committed to using all authorities against enablers of illicit drug production to disrupt this deadly global production and counter the threat posed by these drugs,” said US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brian E. Nelson.