The Chinese regime’s top diplomat has been reaching out to members of the House Intelligence Committee to deflect responsibility for the flow of illicit fentanyl into the United States, according to a Republican lawmaker.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), a member of the Doctors Caucus and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is among many lawmakers who have voiced concern about how Chinese traffickers are sending fentanyl precursors to Mexico for cartels to convert to the end product and send across the border.
Chinese ambassador Qin Gang has recently reached out to Wenstrup to meet with him, the congressman told “Capitol Report,” a program on The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD.
Qin was defensive toward Wenstrup about the fentanyl issue, insisting that Beijing was “getting blamed for the fentanyl surge in the United States of America,” Wenstrup said.
“He said, ‘We’re just selling legal products.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but those legal products combined are making fentanyl, and you’re doing nothing to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands,’” he added.
“If you look at the surge and the number of deaths from fentanyl, and the danger that it poses in such a small amount, to me, it’s a weapon of mass destruction,” he said. “It’s already killing so many Americans, and it has the potential to kill many more if we don’t do something about it.”
Wenstrup said he’s open to working with Beijing and the Mexican government as well as the military on the issue.
But some other lawmakers such as Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) have doubts about Beijing’s sincerity.
“They don’t talk to me for obvious reasons. But it’s all propaganda. It’s all based on deceit and lies,” he said.
“If they were serious, they would stop stealing our technology or intellectual property.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about the lobbying effort.
“The Houston consulate shut down for a reason,” McCaul said.
Besides inflation, constituents have been sharing their worries about the “wide open” border of his state, said McCaul, who previously chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security.
“Now, fentanyl is the biggest human trafficking event in my lifetime,” McCaul said.