Cornering the World Market on Fentanyl : Beijing's Industrial Complex

"We're looking to collaborate with China, because it's not an indictment against the Chinese government, per se."

"It's companies, chemical companies in China, that are engaged in this kind of conduct -- and the Chinese government has taken a lot of action in terms of regulating and prohibiting various [fentanyl] precursors."

"There's very little north-south movement of produced fentanyl across the borders [U.S./Canada/Mexico]."

"Even if [there's 0.01 of a pound or percent going across, my uber-focus -- while I suppose to a degree aspirational -- has been to lower that to zero, and to eliminate fentanyl the best as I can from a supply perspective, but also reduce demand in this country."

"[U.S. officials expressed] strong acknowledgment of the efforts being made and encouragement to continue on this path [tackling fentanyl, if not necessarily] satisfaction." 

Kevin Brosseau, Liberal government 'fentanyl czar'

 

 

In line with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to visit China next year to confer with President Xi Jinping over trade issues primarily linked to poisoned diplomatic relations over the past several years when Beijing's hostage-diplomacy went a long way to alienating its regard in Canada, along with China's penchant for industrial piracy and cyber espionage as well as blatant interference in Canadian politics, a move is underway to collaborate with China for the purpose of putting a halt to the chemicals pouring into Canada used in the production of the synthetic opioid that has caused an overdose epidemic in Canada. 

 

Under successive Liberal governments, business and trade with China has always been seen as a high priority. This, despite China's investing in Canadian universities to launch China-friendly studies, and its record of criminally taking possession of industry and government blueprints to enhance and speed China's own industries at a cost to those whose successful systems, mechanisms and techniques made them world leaders in the world of  high tech. The end result has been China perfecting its rival industries and those from whom production expertise was surreptitiously taken saw their own collapse.

 

Canada's liberal governments were always able to overlook these inconveniences in favour of smoothing over differences and getting on with what they considered to be the more important work of benefiting from trade and cooperation with the world's industrial colossus. Years ago the United States managed an agreement with Beijing to help ensure that opioid-type drugs and their chemical precursors would be monitored in an effort to stop the carnage in human lives they cause as they flood into the West. The situation has persisted and continues to take its toll.

 

 

 

To believe that the Chinese Communist Party is incapable of fully controlling the flow of fentanyl and its precursors produced by chemical producers in China, is to disregard the total control it has over its industries, many of which have direct ties to the government or to the Peoples' Liberation Army. China monitors its population carefully and closely, thanks to face recognition technology and the ubiquitous presence of closed circuit cameras and apps Chinese must download to their iphones. To assume it has little knowledge of fentanyl production and trade is naive. It is just another industrial production that Beijing nurtures in control of a lucrative market.

 

The punitive tariffs that the Trump administration has slapped on trading partners throughout the world has made strange bedfellows in any event. U.S. President Donald Trump, in his insistence that the United States would no longer be taken advantage of through what he claims is uneven trade, has upended the world economy as a struggle ensued to plead for a more moderate tariff toll on those who consider themselves allies of the U.S. who have been  hit just as hard as those the United States considers adversarial countries.

 

Donald Trump in talks with Xi Jinping (Daniel Torok/White House Photo)

 

Citing illegal migration crossing the border from Canada into the U.S. as well as large fentanyl shipments entering across the border, the tariffs imposed on Canada as punishment for presumed laxity in those areas has been a stinging blow. Seizures of fentanyl at or close to the border with the U.S. are minuscule from Canada, averaging 3.5 pounds monthly over the past three years. In comparison those drug seizures with Mexico averaged slightly over 1,500 pounds per month. But even 3.5 pounds of a deadly opioid has catastrophic consequences. 

 

Citing China as "the primary source country for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals" as well as pill-pressing equipment, U.S. intelligence agencies named India as second in line; the drug itself, acknowledges Brosseau, is produced now "largely" within North America. Adding that the US. produces its own fentanyl as well as what comes across its border from Mexico. Canada, on the other hand, is responsible for its own fentanyl production. In the background, President Trump signed one of his famous 'executive orders' classifying fentanyl as a "weapon of mass destruction".

 

Barrels of fentanyl production precursor materials displayed to the media in Pasadena, Ca, September 2025 / Getty Images 

 

And so Much for Sanctions...

"Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine, against Ukrainians."

"The supply of Iranian missiles enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Iranian ballistic missiles are displayed during the ceremony of joining the Armed Forces, in Tehran, Iran, August 22, 2023. Iran's Presidency/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/

Iran has been formally placed on notice by the United States and Britain, accusing the Islamic Republic of supplying Russia with short-range ballistic missiles for use in its war with Ukraine. They made it clear that their intention is to take measures that those involved would be punished.

During a trip to London, speaking alongside British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken stated that Iran had chosen to ignore warnings against the transfer of such weapons, representing a profound escalation of the conflict.

The United States, Britain and Germany issued a joint statement soon afterward, characterizing the missile transfers as "a direct threat to European security", earning penalties to be imposed on Iran, that would include cancellation of bilateral air services agreements and sanctions on anyone involved in its ballistic missile program.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran, Iran July 19, 2022. President Website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

 

"We will also work toward imposing sanctions on Iran Air", they added. Economic sanctions have been imposed on people and companies based in Iran, China, Russia, Turkey and other nations that officials identify as being connected with Iran's drone program development, in the past several years. As far back as November 2022, sanctions on Iranian drone production tied to Russia's invasion of Ukraine were issued in spite of Iran's denials of having sent drones to Russia.

 

Kyiv, anxious to persuade the United States and other weapons donors toward its challenge of Russia's invasion, hopes that these Iranian missile accusations will help it finally persuade its benefactors to allow the Ukrainian military to use the donated West-sourced missiles to be launched deeper into Russian territory. At least to allow Ukraine to target the aerial launch sites in Russia from whence the missiles are shot deeply into Ukrainian territory. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Kyiv on Wednesday, 11 Sept. 2024   Reuters