Bill Barr Says China Is Responsible For Fentanyl Crisis, Deaths

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr said this week during a congressional testimony that communist China is solely to blame for America’s fentanyl crisis.

During testimony given to the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, Barr asserted that China is “the source of the fentanyl that is slaughtering Americans” and that the Chinese Communist Party are “prime movers” in the ordeal.

“China produces nearly all the illicit fentanyl precursors used and the fentanyl introduced into the United States. These are the indispensable ingredients that drive the fentanyl trade,” he continued, adding, “There is no practical alternative for anywhere near the volume of precursors necessary to fuel this trade. Simply put, without China’s production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors, there would be no fentanyl crisis in the United States and the mass slaughter would effectively stop.”

Discussing the Chinese Communist Party’s involvement in the trafficking and distribution of fentanyl into the U.S., Barr said, “They are knee deep and actively sponsoring, encouraging, and facilitating the production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors for distribution in the United States. First, the committee’s investigators have found a hidden [Chinese] government website currently fully active that offers complete tax rebates incentivizing the export of all fentanyl analogs and precursors, as well as other synthetic narcotics — drugs that are illegal in the U.S., illegal in China, and have no legitimate purpose.”

According to Barr, the tax incentives given to Chinese companies allow them “effectively operate tax free when they export fentanyl precursors.” In addition to the tax incentives, China also reportedly “provides grants and awards to companies that are engaged in open and notorious synthetic narcotic manufacturing and drug trafficking.”

Pointing to evidence of the above and evidence of China’s intentional engagement in fentanyl distribution in the U.S., Barr urged the U.S. to not expect operation in good faith or “goodwill” from China, as he insists that the Chinese government “have the capacity” to shut down the activity.

“This is not taking place in the rain forests of Burma. This is taking place among a manageable number of companies in industrial parks in a modern surveillance state. The Chinese can push a button with a keystroke find somebody in one of their cities within less than a minute, know exactly where they are. They know what’s on the internet. There’s no question they’re aware of what’s happening,” he stated.

Barr also presented the extent of the death toll caused by drug overdoses in the U.S., saying that the number is higher than the number of Americans killed during the year with the highest death toll in World War II.

“The CCP are not just bystanders. They are prime movers.

They are knee-deep in actively sponsoring, encouraging and facilitating the production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors for distribution in the US.”— Former AG Bill Barr pic.twitter.com/jLYlXICWmx

— Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) April 16, 2024

China’s embassy in Washington has denied allegations that China has anything to with the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., claiming that the country has been open with U.S. authorities in their drug control cooperation.

In an email obtained by Reuters, embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said, “It is very clear that there is no fentanyl problem in China, and the fentanyl crisis in the United States is not caused by the Chinese side, and blindly blaming China cannot solve the U.S.’ own problem.”