China cracks down on fentanyl as drug control talks with US restart after Xi-Biden summit

by Liu Zhen at scmp.com

China says it is gradually resuming narcotics control talks with the United States and has carried out campaigns against fentanyl production.
Drug control agencies of the two countries had resumed regular contact, in keeping with an agreement reached between the US and Chinese presidents last month, the foreign ministry in Beijing said on Friday.

“Since the Americans have withdrawn their sanctions on relevant Chinese law enforcement departments, China has recently promoted some special operation on fentanyl-type substances and their precursor chemicals,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The US removed the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science from a trade blacklist a day after the November 15 summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping outside San Francisco. The institute, comprising a national network of crime labs, was blacklisted in 2020 over China’s alleged human rights violations against the Uygur Muslims and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.