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Beijing pushes back against Trump's fentanyl claims, calls it 'American problem'

The Foreign Ministry recalled that China had offered support for the US’ anti-fentanyl efforts proceeding from humanitarian considerations

BEIJING, November 26. /TASS/. China has one of the toughest drug policies in the world and views the spread of synthetic opioid fentanyl in the United States as a purely American problem, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, commenting on US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose taxes on Chinese goods due to alleged drug smuggling to the United States from China.

"China is a country with one of the toughest and most stringent anti-drug policies in the world," the ministry said. "Fentanyl is an American problem."

The ministry recalled that China had offered support for the US’ anti-fentanyl efforts proceeding from humanitarian considerations and recommended the US "value China’s good will" and preserve the potential of cooperation between the two countries. "China is ready to continue anti-drug cooperation with the US on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect," it emphasized.

US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, citing alleged large-scale drug trafficking from China.

After US President Joe Biden’s talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023, the sides announced the resumption of bilateral anti-drug cooperation to stop flows of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last year that overdose deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl imported from Mexico had increased nearly four-fold from 2016 to 2021. According to the CDC, the United States is in the midst of a large-scale opioid epidemic, which claims up to 100,000 lives every year.

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