Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (center left) announces the launch of the U.S.-China Counternarcotics Task Force with U.S. Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Jen Daskal (center left) at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Jan. 30 on , 2024.
By Han Guan | Afp | Getty Images
BEIJING — The U.S. and China had a “productive” first day of talks in Beijing over the fentanyl crisis, deputy homeland security adviser Jennifer Daskal told NBC News’ Janis Mackey Frayer in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
“We are striving for results and have taken a productive step forward,” Daskal said, but acknowledged the risk that China could use its influence over the fentanyl supply chain as a bargaining chip.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is an addictive drug that causes tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States each year
Reducing illicit supplies of the drug, whose precursors are largely made in China and Mexico, has become an area where Washington and Beijing have agreed to work together.
It comes amid an otherwise strained bilateral relationship.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to set up a drug control task force when they met in San Francisco in November.
In an official readout of the meeting on Tuesday, Wang Xiaohong, director of China’s National Drug Control Commission, said he hoped both sides would bring “more positive energy” to the stable development of US-China relations.
Wang is also Minister of Public Security.
In November, the Biden administration removed the Department of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science of China from a blacklist known as the “entity list,” effectively lifting sanctions against its drug lab.
That distance allows China’s National Narcotics Lab to repair or buy new equipment — mostly made in the U.S. — and reduce delays in research, lab director Hua Zhendong told NBC News’ Mackey Frayer.
Greater bilateral cooperation will allow the two countries to share information on drugs more easily, Hua said.
“Only by sharing information could we know which substance is now a key problem in the United States because it is only evolving.”
“More needs to be done”
The two-day meeting, which began on Tuesday, was billed as the “inauguration of the China-U.S. Counter-Drug Task Force.”
Daskal, head of the White House delegation for this week’s high-level talks, said the diversity of representatives from both sides shows “a real commitment.”
“We will know if it works when we see that the supply of precursor drugs decreases as the supply of pill presses and other equipment decreases,” Daskal said. She noted that Beijing has already sent notices to Chinese companies that produce fentanyl precursors and that incidents are being reported to the International Drug Control Board.
“Clearly more needs to be done,” she said.
It is unclear to what extent Beijing is willing or able to act.
Earlier this month, Yu Haibin, deputy secretary general of the National Narcotics Control Commission, told NBC News that the “root cause” of the fentanyl crisis was in the United States
“Demand needs to be reduced because controlling demand will obviously reduce supply,” Yu told NBC’s Mackey Frayer.
“I would like to emphasize the global nature of drug-related crime. These criminals work very closely together. Our law enforcement agencies must work even closer together than the criminals to ensure a decisive response to these crimes,” Yu said.
He is also the deputy director general of the Drug Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.
Asked about the issue of fentanyl demand in the U.S., Daskal said the two delegations spent most of Tuesday “discussing the fact that this is both a demand issue and a supply issue.”
“We talked about the need to improve the supply of pills, processes and other equipment used to make these deadly drugs, often hiding them and making counterfeit pills that look like they are other things.” [that] It turned out to be deadly fentanyl,” Daskal said.
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2024-01-31 05:40:37
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