Biden’s big China retreat in the war on fentanyl
Team Biden is thinking of lifting some sanctions against China to get President Xi Jinping to reopen talks on efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl, which has been flooding over the US border at alarming rates.
Hello? If President Joe Biden simply shut the border, he could stop a great deal of it — without the need to lift any sanctions.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump slapped the penalties on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science over allegations it was participating in a mass surveillance campaign against Uyghur Muslims.
Yet China has not changed its appalling behavior toward Uyghurs one bit since then.
Lifting any sanctions is a sell-out.
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas has seized “more than enough” of the drug “to kill all Americans,” more than 422 million doses since 2021.
A record number of Americans — more than 109,000 — died of drug overdoses in 2022, and fentanyl was the primary cause.
Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, the supply of the deadly drug comes mainly from across the southern border; the chemicals used by Mexican cartels to produce it come from (you guessed it) China.
And consider: Though border patrol agents are seizing record amounts of fentanyl, there’s plenty more getting through — along with the thousands of migrants crossing illegally every day.
Instead of lifting sanctions on China just to start talks on getting its help with the drug (which it can’t be trusted to provide even if it agrees to provide it), Team Biden should be threatening even more sanctions if China refuses stop pushing it.
And it should be moving to close points of entry so it won’t even need China’s help stopping the inflow.
![A BART police officer displays Fentanyl](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013898462.jpg?w=1024)
Instead, Team Biden is actively working against Abbott: Last week, his Justice Department announced it’s suing him, and Texas, for installing a floating barrier on the Rio Grande to discourage migrants from trying to cross, claiming the state doesn’t have proper authorization.
Does Biden want to stop fentanyl from coming in or not?