U.S. misusing fentanyl crisis as pretext for additional tariffs on Chinese goods unwise, unethical

On Feb. 1, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 10-percent tariff on goods imported from China, citing the so-called reason that "the illegal fentanyl they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country, which has killed tens of millions of Americans".

This baseless pretext revealed the U.S.' poorly conceived and unethical attempt to deflect responsibility.

The abuse of fentanyl in the U.S. has grown increasingly severe in recent years, and it is inextricably linked to a complex mix of America's long-standing drug culture, the profit motives of pharmaceutical companies, and the political dysfunction within the country.

The root cause lies in a combination of inadequate governance, and the irresponsible spread of misinformation.

Opioid abuse has been a problem in the U.S. for over three decades. In the early 1990s, some pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. hired experts to peddle the myth that opioids were harmless. Meanwhile, doctors and pharmacies aggressively promoted these drugs, gradually fostering a culture of painkiller use and abuse in American society.

As a result, many people became dependent on opioid painkillers, and the death toll from overdoses steadily increased.

By 2010, the cheaper and more potent opioid, heroin, had become the drug of choice, exacerbating the crisis.

In recent years, a shift to another opioid, fentanyl, has further worsened addiction and death rates from opioid abuse.

Today, the U.S. is the world's largest producer and consumer of fentanyl, with just 5 percent of the world's population consuming 80 percent of global opioid drugs.

It shouldn't have been so difficult to solve the problem. Had the U.S. truly sought to address this issue, it could have cut off illegal supply chains and strictly regulated relevant prescription drugs.

However, U.S. politicians, driven by their own political interests, have failed to prioritize real solutions. Instead, they have manipulated public opinion, shifted blame, and adopted superficial measures that cannot tackle the root causes.

Worse still, there is evidence of behind-the-scenes collusion between U.S. politicians and the country's pharmaceutical industry, where big pharmaceutical companies lobby Congress with hefty donations.

Nine out of 10 members of the House of Representatives and all but three of 100 senators have "taken campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies seeking to affect legislation on everything from the cost of drugs to how new medicines are approved," pointed out a report by British newspaper The Guardian.

Although both Democratic and Republican lawmakers acknowledge the severity of the fentanyl crisis, partisan gridlock prevents any meaningful progress when it comes to legislating real change.

In May 2023, the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted on the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, with 133 members voting against it, 132 of whom were from the Democratic Party.

The truth is undeniable: the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. is a domestic problem, and it has nothing to do with China.

China is one of the countries with the strictest drug control policies and the most rigorous enforcement in the world.

Despite the absence of widespread opioid abuse domestically, China, out of humanitarian goodwill, took the lead globally in officially scheduling fentanyl substances as a class in 2019, at the U.S.' request.

However, the U.S. has yet to implement permanent and comprehensive regulation on fentanyl.

Furthermore, China has continued to refine its regulatory measures, ensuring that new variants of fentanyl are swiftly controlled and monitored.

The Chinese government has established a regulatory system covering the full spectrum of fentanyl-related substances and has implemented strict controls over the production, trade, import and export of relevant products.

China has also engaged in extensive and in-depth counternarcotic cooperation with the U.S., achieving significant results in areas such as substance control, intelligence sharing, case collaboration, removal of online ads, and the exchange of drug testing technology.

Despite this, instead of expressing gratitude, the U.S. has responded by unfairly blaming China for its fentanyl crisis.

The U.S. government seems to be using the fentanyl crisis as a political tool, leveraging public concern about the issue to justify additional tariffs and gain favor with the public.

However, American citizens are not so easily fooled—they know what's really going on.

Not long ago, a survey of Americans' perceptions of the opioid crisis, commissioned by PAX sapiens, a nonprofit foundation in the U.S., and conducted by a polling agency, revealed that the majority of respondents believed the U.S. government, criminal cartels, and the users themselves should be primarily blamed for the opioid crisis—rather than China.

Instead of reflecting on the root causes and finding a solution from within, the U.S. has focused its efforts on imposing additional tariffs on imports from China under the guise of addressing the fentanyl issue.

This approach is counterproductive and will only exacerbate the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. Moreover, the unilateral bullying measure will further damage the U.S.' international reputation and moral standing.

The U.S. government needs to reflect on and correct its wrongdoings, and stop engaging in harmful, self-sabotaging policies that serve no one's interests—not even its own.

(Zhang Siyuan is an observer of international affairs.)