FBI director says China has agreed to help end fentanyl crisis

China agreed to cooperate in halting shipments of fentanyl and precursor chemicals used in manufacturing it during talks in Beijing, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Mr. Patel said fentanyl overdoses pose “a national security crisis of epic proportions,” and the talks earlier this month were the first by an FBI director in 10 years in China, a major U.S. adversary.

“This opioid crisis is going to be turned off,” Mr. Patel said Sunday in an interview with Fox News. “Americans are no longer going to lose their life to manufactured synthetic opioids like fentanyl.”

Mr. Patel in Beijing met Chinese Vice Minister of Public Security Xu Datong and discussed unspecified “law enforcement issues” based on talks between President Trump and President Xi Jinping in South Korea Oct. 30, the FBI said in a statement.

“In his meeting with Vice Minister Xu, Director Patel discussed the implementation of China’s commitment to take concrete actions that will save American lives by stopping the flow of dangerous chemicals fueling the fentanyl crisis,” the FBI said.

“Director Patel also discussed expanding several areas of law enforcement cooperation, including targeting criminals who have stolen billions from both Chinese and American victims through cyberscams and telephone fraud, combating online crimes against children, countering international money laundering, and ensuring violent criminals face justice,” it said.

The visit during the week of Nov. 4 also included stops in Tokyo and Seoul for talks with police and intelligence officials.

In the Sunday interview, Mr. Patel criticized the Biden administration for what he said was a failure to act against fentanyl imports that he noted have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans a year as a result of overdoses.

During the meeting between the presidents, Mr. Xi agreed to control exports of precursor chemicals used in the production of synthetic opioids. In exchange, Mr. Trump agreed to slash U.S. tariffs on China by 50%.

Mr. Trump dispatched Mr. Patel to China to make sure “this deal is solidified,” he said.

Last week, Beijing announced it is imposing restrictions on exports of 13 additional “drug-making” chemicals with links to synthetic opioids. A joint U.S.-China working group also is being set up to address the drug crisis.

An FBI spokesman said the meetings in Beijing included plans for executing a cutoff of precursors and led to the Commerce Ministry announcement of new curbs on the 13 precursors, along with seven chemicals. 

China for years denied any role in fentanyl production and blamed the drug overdose crisis on Americans’ use of illegal narcotics.

Its latest promise to cooperate in halting precursor exports follows an earlier promise to the first Trump administration to crack down on the chemical exports.

In 2017, China added export controls on two major fentanyl precursors, and last year added three more to the restricted exports.

However, Chinese chemical vendors were able to circumvent the controls by selling alternative chemicals.

Also, U.S. intelligence agencies said instead of using direct shipments of the highly potent drug, fentanyl precursors from China were shipped to cartels in Mexico.

“A short period of readjustment, and business was back to normal,” said a recent report by the Australia-based Lowry Institute. “Precursor control is essentially a game of Wack-A-Mole.”

In 2022, China cut off counter-drug cooperation with the U.S. to protest then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Cooperation resumed in 2023.

Mr. Patel noted Chinese espionage and other activities remain a problem but the visit to China represents “a huge step.”

“No one has bothered to engage China. The Biden administration didn’t even do it,” he said.

Unlike cocaine or marijuana, fentanyl is purely chemically produced and if the flow of precursor chemicals is shut off, Mexican drug cartels will be unable to produce the drug, Mr. Patel said.

China’s announced restrictions on 13 fentanyl-related chemicals will shut off the pipeline used by Mexican drug traffickers, he said.

“We went there, and we got the agreement solidified, and it’s already in place, and we’re going to see immediate results, and immediate American lives saved by the hundreds of thousands thanks to President Trump’s brilliant leadership and Attorney General [Pam] Bondi’s care and commitment to this issue,” Mr. Patel said.

A bipartisan report published last year by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party revealed that the party is backing illicit trade in deadly fentanyl by offering tax rebates and other incentives to manufacturers in China.

A committee investigation obtained data from the Chinese internet, revealing extensive links between fentanyl trafficking and the Chinese government, which is under tight control by the CCP.

The government “directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates,” the report states.

The report linked Chinese government support for fentanyl trafficking to a 1999 book by two People’s Liberation Army colonels called “Unrestricted Warfare.”