Chinese FM responds to US President’s fentanyl claim; remarks of Trump aimed at domestic audience: expert

In response to the claims made by US President Donald Trump saying that he thinks China will soon sentence people to death for fentanyl manufacturing and distribution, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Thursday that China has repeatedly made it clear that fentanyl is the US's problem, not China's. It's the US's responsibility to solve the issue.

Trump spoke on Wednesday local time before signing the HALT Fentanyl Act, a law that increases prison terms for drug offenses involving fentanyl-related substances. "I think we're going to work it out so that China is going to end up going from that to giving the death penalty to the people that create this fentanyl and send it into our country," Trump said. "I believe that's going to happen soon," according to Reuters.

"I think China's been helping out," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. 

Despite the goodwill China has shown, the US wrongly slapped "fentanyl" tariffs on Chinese imports. The move has dealt a heavy blow to China-US dialogue and cooperation on counternarcotics, and gravely hurt China's interests, Lin said. If the US truly wants cooperation with China, it needs to face the facts squarely, and seek dialogue with China based on equality, respect and mutual benefit, said the spokesperson.

China National Narcotics Control Commission did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

Bloomberg on Wednesday citing people familiar with internal deliberations as saying that Trump has dialed down his confrontational tone with China in an effort to secure a trade deal with the world's second-largest economy.

Trump imposed 20 percent tariffs on Chinese imports over the issue in February, and they have remained in effect despite a trade agreement reached by both sides in Geneva in May.

The US unreasonably imposed two rounds of tariffs on China under the pretext of fentanyl, and China promptly took countermeasures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests. "These countermeasures remain effective," Lin Jian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in May 14.

Lin said China and the US had reached multiple positive consensuses during the economic and trade meeting in Geneva, agreeing to significantly reduce the level of bilateral tariffs.

"US President Trump's latest claims on fentanyl are primarily aimed at domestic audiences, intended to showcase his 'significant progress' in anti-drug work —a key concern in US society—and to solidify his political support at home," Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

Li also noted that US President's shift in tone may reflect a broader US effort to ease tensions with China. 

When asked about the US twice imposing tariffs on China under the pretext of the so-called fentanyl issue this year, Wei Xiaojun, executive secretary-general of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, said in June that the so-called "fentanyl tariffs" imposed by the US on Chinese products exported to the US are typical bullying behavior that have severely damaged the trust and dialogue foundation between the two sides in the field of anti-drug cooperation.

Wei said that China is one of the countries with the strictest anti-drug policies and most thorough enforcement in the world. It has actively engaged in international anti-drug cooperation with countries around the world and, out of humanitarian goodwill, helped the US address the fentanyl crisis, with tangible results there for all to see. 

Li told Global Times on Thursday that it remains unclear whether US administration's stance on China regarding the fentanyl issue has changed, given the US tendency to flip-flop on many matters. He urged the US to focus on addressing its own issues rather than shifting blame onto China.