WSJ reports that China is looking for potential assistance to take energetic measures against fentanyl trade in North America as a possible pretext to begin the commercial negotiations of China-United States. Fentanyl overdose takes the lives of boxes of thousands of people in the United States and Canada annually. China is a key player in the North America Fentanyl market.
According to unidentified sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, China can propose cooperation in the fentanyl crisis as a “disaster outside hostilities” to encourage dialogue with the Trum administration. Potntiaty, China has an resource to address the fentanyl problem of North America, since its role in this crisis and market is essential. As reported, Chinese chemical companies export fentanyl precursors and provide consultations with Americans who wish to synthesize the medication in online forums.
China can wait for dialogue as the role of the fentanyl was explicitly summoned by Donald Trump when he motivated the targets of tariffs in China, the only country was not granted a pause of the 90 -day rate. The dialogue between China and the United States is not impossible, as a recent Trump said, “it is natural to ask”, referring to asking China to help resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Fentanyl crisis statistics
Terms such as “fentanyl crisis” and “fentanyl epidemic” are not exaggerated. The word “tragedy” also fits.
Fentanil is a synthetic opioid used as anesthetic but much more powerful than heroin or morphine. In the 2010, the recreational use of fentanyl exploded in North America, which resulted in hundreds of overdose deaths daily. In the peak in 2022, fatal overdose in synthetic opioids (mostly fentanyl) reached almost 80,000 in the United States.
In Canada, with its lowest 5x population, numbers are not as high as in the United States, for example, 2023, marked with around 6,000 deaths related to fentanyl. However, if we observe the deaths per 100,000 of the population, we will see that Canada is close to the United States
Most overdose victims are under 45 years old, but the number or other places between fentanyl casualties are increasing. The crisis affected both men and women of all ages, including preschool.
These numbers may seem too large to realize the tragedy scale. To have a more vivid and surprising idea of the death of this epidemic, we can think that at the top, he was killing a person per hour in Canada and a person every seven minutes in the United States.
Altheghe after 2022, both the United States and Canada saw a fall in the mortal overdose of fentanyl, the epidemic scale is still condemnatory. The Foreign Relations Council indicates that Fentanilo 2022’s death count is 10 times larger than the total of the US Army. UU. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. Comparisons with wars do not seem out of place. The death toll in the Fentanyl crisis is in line with the number of deaths in the most dismayers of the 2020 decade: in Sudan, Gaza, Yemen and Ukraine.
Somehow, North America reached the point where you have casualties at a war scale, while it does not separate in a war. Except for the United States trade war. Two countries subjected to the toughest tariffs are the key players in the Fentanyl trade in the United States: China and Mexico. Another country that faced high rates is Canada. The fentanyl of the Laboratories of Valerianos Canadian was also part of the problem.
Fentanyl trade: China, Mexico and cryptocurrency
In 2022, the drug application agency called China the main fentanyl source that kills Americans. The drug is sent to North America from China by mail or by Mexico. Two years later, a Congress Committee said that China is subsidizing the production of fentanyl precursors that then converts to illicit drugs in North America. The report says:
“The PRC representative (People’s Republic of China) programmed all fentanyl analogues as controlled substances in 2019, which means that the export of drugs that are illegal under the law of the Republic of Vervency subsidizes. [Some of the substances] Legal use is not known worldwide. “
Chinese authorities deny the responsibility of the crisis and claim to have cooperated with the application efforts of the United States to suppress traffic.
AG Pam Bondi sounds the alarm: “People in China don't get addicted to fentanyl because they're shipping it to our country to kill 18-34-year-olds… It is a weapon of mass destruction in my opinion… They're killing our kids and it's got to stop.”pic.twitter.com/ehrO54syDN
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) May 5, 2025
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency is playing a double role. A chainysis report of February 2025 highlighted how digital assets both facilitation and expose the fentanyl trade. In Darknet markets, fentanyl and its precursors are sold for Bitcoin or Monero.
Chainysis said that some buyers and vendors do not anonymize their activity, which allows analysts to map traffic networks. The cryptocurrency allows the purchase of remote medications and money laundering, but also provides transparency that Cash Doesssn.
“While the poster may have benefited from the speed, the low transaction rates and cross -border efficiency, its dependence on the block chain has allowed researchers to track these transactions more easily than it would have been possible with money laundering based on traditional cash.
That is a discreet way in which cryptography facilitates drug trafficking and helps interrupt illicit substance markets at the same time.
Conclusion
If China is really willing or can dismantle its transcontinental fentanyl supply chain remains an uncle. Even so, it is a powerful negotiation chip as trade speaks with the Trump administration loom. In 2019, the United States assistant prosecutor, Matt Cronin, expressed it without surroundings: “It is a fact that if the Popular Republic of China wanted to close the synthetic opioid industry, they could do so in one day.”
