GOP Senators Urge Biden Admin to Reinstate Sanctions on Chinese Institute Accused of Human Rights Violations

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) listens during a press conference on border security at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Sept. 27, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A group of Republican senators urged the Biden administration to bring back economic sanctions on a Chinese regime entity accused of human rights violations, saying America shouldn’t “beg or negotiate” with its adversary.

The letter, led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), called on the Commerce Department to reinstate its sanctions on the Institute of Forensic Science that were lifted under the agreement between China’s communist regime and the United States to combat the fentanyl crisis.

Ms. Blackburn and three other Republican colleagues called for tough actions on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which they suggested was responsible for the fentanyl crisis that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.

“This deeply misguided decision to lift sanctions on the CCP—as China continues to indoctrinate our children through social media and poison Americans with fentanyl—will only embolden President Xi,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter released on Dec. 4, referring to the CCP’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

“When America’s adversary poisons and kills United States citizens, we should not beg or negotiate.”

The Commerce Department and the White House didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by press time.

‘Unthinkable Evil’

The U.S. government has been years seeking to stop the flow of fentanyl from coming into the nation, with the State Department saying has become the biggest killer of Americans aged 18 to 49.

The global fentanyl supply chain, according to U.S. officials, often started from chemical manufacturers in China. Drug cartels in Mexico purchase raw materials, known as precursors, from China and synthesize the chemicals into pills before selling them on U.S. soil.

The Biden administration considers fentanyl, among others, as a potential area for cooperation with the Chinese regime, despite the broader tensions between the two countries.

In the letter, the GOP senators suggested Beijing has no intention to curb the flow of fentanyl.

“The CCP is one of the most repressive regimes in the world,” the lawmakers wrote.“If they had any desire to curb the production of fentanyl precursors in their country, they would have already taken action.”

On Nov. 15, President Joe Biden and Xi met in San Francisco. One of the deals struck at the conference was that Beijing agreed in principle to curtail the shipment of chemicals used to produce fentanyl. On Nov. 16, the Biden administration dropped the sanction placed on the Chinese police institute.

The Republican senators said they agreed that getting the CCP to crack down on the exportation of fentanyl is “paramount and long overdue,” but they criticized the Biden administration’s move to lift economic penalties levied on the Chinese entity before Beijing takes any action.

The Institute of Forensic Science under China’s Ministry of Public Security was added to the Commerce Department’s entity list in 2020 over its complicity in the regime’s human rights abuses against Uyghurs in the far-western region of Xinjiang.

“The CCP—and the Institute for Forensic Sciences—subjects the Uyghurs to unthinkable evil,” the lawmakers wrote. More than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities have been detained in Xinjiang, where they have been subjected to forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, and other abuses. The United States, as well as several other Western countries, have designated the regime’s actions against Uyghurs amount to “genocide.”

The senators noted it’s important for the United States to continue to stand for human rights, calling on the administration to “take a strong stance against the genocidal CCP regime.”

The GOP senators argued that President Biden’s border policy also played a role in the American fentanyl crisis. They urged the administration to “hire more border patrol agents, build the wall, and punish the criminal Mexican cartels who have partnered with the Chinese to poison Americans with fentanyl.”

The letter was co-signed by Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).

A photo of 14-year-old Alexander Neville who died after accidentally taking fentanyl is displayed at a news conference with Orange County officials in Irvine, Calif., on April 28, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Fentanyl Crisis

The letter came as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine, is driving the deadliest drug crisis America has ever seen.

From 2016 to 2021, drug overdose deaths involving the highly addictive fentanyl more than tripled, according to a May report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fentanyl-related death rate increased from 5.7 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 21.6 per 100,000 in 2021, it said. National overdose deaths hit a new record in 2022. The CDC recorded over 100,000 overdose deaths, with nearly 70 percent linked to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

About 2 milligrams of fentanyl can cause overdose. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, it only takes one pill to cause deadly consequences.

However, what makes fentanyl so dangerous is the fact that many victims took pills without knowing that fentanyl was added. In the United States, fentanyl is often found combined with street drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

To combat the illicit synthetic drug supply chains, U.S. officials have stepped up pressure on the Chinese regime. On June 23, the Justice Department unsealed the first-ever charges against Chinese entities and nations, accusing four chemical makers and eight Chinese nationals of trafficking precursor chemicals directly into the United States. In the following months, dozens of Chinese entities and nations were blacklisted by the Treasury Department as part of the broader efforts to address the opioid crisis.

The regime’s officials have sharply criticized Washington’s move. A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington warned in May that U.S. sanctions against Chinese entities and citizens will “add more obstacles to China-U.S. counter-narcotics cooperation.” Reports suggested the Chinese regime has used the U.S. removal of the Chinese police institute from its entity list as a precondition for resuming talks on the fentanyl issues.

“The CCP is using American lives as a bargaining chip to achieve sanctions relief for its human rights abuses,” a separate group of U.S. lawmakers said in an August statement. “We must be careful not to compromise on our values of basic human rights in exchange for empty promises.”