President Joe Biden met with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on Monday, but there was no public mention of Chinese-manufactured fentanyl, a scourge in the United States.
China provides fentanyl to Mexican drug cartels, who in turn smuggle it into the United States, where it has a devastating impact on communities across the nation.
More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly two-thirds of them linked to fentanyl.
Biden has acknowledged the problems of fentanyl in American communities but has failed to make it a significant priority for his administration.
“We’re going to impose tougher penalties for deadly fentanyl trafficking that’s poisoning communities across this country,” Biden said at a campaign event in Pennsylvania in August.
The president has spent more time blaming assault weapons for deaths in the U.S., repeatedly vowing to ban them nationwide.
In September, Democrats blocked an attempt by Republicans to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, making it permanently illegal to sell them.
In December 2021, Biden announced sanctions against four Chinese pill manufacturers to “disrupt” the fentanyl supply chain, but it has failed to make a significant impact on the crisis.
China responded by denying its role in the crisis, instead blaming Americans’ addictions to opioids.
“We urge the U.S. to respect the facts, look more to itself for the causes of the fentanyl abuse problem, and objectively and fairly evaluate the efforts made by China, rather than blaming other countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a press conference about the issue.
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