Bipartisan Senate Bill Seeks to Curb Flow of Fentanyl Into the US From China

China has not done enough to curb the export of these chemicals to criminal groups across Mexico’s borders,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said.

A bipartisan law aimed at stopping the flow of fentanyl and its precursor to the US, recently introduced in the Senate, aimed at holding Chinese entities accountable for the export of these drugs.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and Ranking Members, Secretary Jim Riche (R-Idaho) and Jeanne Shaheen (DN.H.), each introduced “dissolving suspicious transactions under the fentanyl law” on March 6th. Although this Act is not related to tariffs, it is intended to grant the President of the United States the authority to include financial or financial personnel, including ownership of the fiscal state. It contributes to fentanyl trafficking.

“With the support of the Chinese government, China remains the largest source of fentanyl and synthetic opioid precursors for Mexican cartels,” Riche said in a statement. “These opioids kill more than 100,000 Americans each year, across our southern border. This needs to be finished, and the perpetrators need to be accountable.”

Shaheen said the US “needs to use all tools at will to block the flow of fentanyl.”

“China is a major supplier of fentanyl precursors that drive this epidemic and has not done enough to curb the exports of these chemicals to Mexican transnational criminal groups seeking to exchange fentanyl for the US,” Shaheen said.

She added that the law strengthens the US’s ability to “hold Chinese businesses accountable and disrupt the supply chain that will enable this crisis.”

Under this Act, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General must submit a joint report to the appropriate Congressional Committee. The report includes topics such as future US steps to urge China to fight fentanyl and synthetic opioid production and human trafficking, and to make efforts to address the financial system and financial organizations associated with the issue.

The Secretary of State and the Attorney General must also provide a briefing classified into the US Congressional Committee to obtain US approval to establish the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) office in two Chinese cities, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

If enacted, the law encourages identifying Chinese individuals and groups engaged in drug production and trafficking, and targeting Chinese financial institutions that engage in drug production and trafficking, allowing them to wash their drug revenues, according to a press release.

On March 4, President Donald Trump imposed a 25% onboard tariff on Canada and Mexico, 20% on all Chinese products, and the trade measures are a response to fentanyl handling, which is smuggled in large quantities into the United States.

A few days later, Trump announced a month’s resignation for certain Canadian and Mexican imports.

Last April, the House Selection Committee on the Communist Party of China released a report that Beijing directly subsidized the production of illegal opioid analogs used by human traffickers to make medicines outside of China.

In May 2024, the DEA announced its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, saying that Mexico-based Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartel “rely rely on Chinese chemical companies and pillpress companies to supply precursor chemicals and tablet presses.”

“Drug traffic organisations based in Mexico and South America use the China-based underground banking system as their primary money laundering mechanism,” the report said.

Chinese citizens were sentenced to 10 years behind bars last December for washing $62 million in illegal drug revenue on behalf of Mexican drug traffickers.

Two House bills, China’s Fentanyl Act (HR747) and the Staffing Fentanyl Money Laundering Act (HR1577)) await the House vote after moving forward with the Financial Services Committee on March 6th.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.