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Do more to cut demand for fentanyl, China tells United States | South China Morning Post

Chinese foreign ministry says that as the worldā€™s biggest consumer of the opioid, the US should stop trying to pin the drug problem on others.

Source: Do more to cut demand for fentanyl, China tells United States | South China Morning Post

The United States consumes 80 per cent of the worldā€™s opioids, according to Chinaā€™s foreign ministry. Photo: Reuters

The US government can do more to reduce demand for fentanyl and should stop shifting the blame onto others, China said on Monday, in another riposte to Trump administration criticism that China is not helping resolve the drug problem.

US officials say China is the main source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances that are trafficked into the United States, much of it through international mail. China denies that most of the illicit fentanyl entering the US originates in China.

US President Donald Trump this month accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of failing to meet his promises to crack down on the deluge of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues flowing into the United States. China labelled that ā€œblatant slanderā€.

China accuses US of using fentanyl as a political weapon as Donald Trump orders shipping firms to step up checks
Fentanyl is a cheap, relatively easy-to-synthesise opioid painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin that has played a major role in a devastating US opioid crisis.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the government was playing a positive role in tackling the global drugs issue, and outlined the steps China had taken to control it.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on three Chinese men accused of illegally trafficking fentanyl, acting three weeks after Trump accused China of reneging on pledges to stem the flood of the highly addictive synthetic opioid into the US.

The dispute over fentanyl comes as the United States is in the middle of a major trade dispute with China.

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