America’s Opium War Courtesy of Communist China

"The Faces of Fentanyl" wall, which displays photos of Americans who died from fentanyl overdose, at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Va., on July 13, 2022. Agnes Bun/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

The precise origination of Chinese xenophobia will probably never be known, but certainly the Opium Wars in the 19th century exacerbated Chinese distrust of foreigners. The Chinese are certainly not unique in their xenophobia, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has carried that to the extreme with their ongoing persecuting and “Sinicizing” of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other minority groups in China.

Is long-term Chinese xenophobia and resentment stemming from the Opium Wars an underlying reason for China’s aiding and abetting the United States’ fentanyl crisis in 2023? Is the fentanyl scourge Chinese revenge for the Opium Wars? After all, Europeans (especially the British) exported opium to China in the 18th and 19th centuries for commercial gain while increasing opium addiction among the Chinese. Are they now “returning the favor” by exporting fentanyl to the United States in 2023 for crass commercial reasons, as well as to undermine U.S. national security by addicting Americans to the synthetic opiate? Let us examine the topic.

The Opium Wars

As described by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, opium is a narcotic drug obtained from the unripe seedpods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) that was originally smoked—refer to the “opium dens” caricatured in numerous Hollywood movies—but later intravenously injected in the form of heroin (derived from the morphine resin of poppy plants) and mixed with other drugs to heighten its euphoric effect on people. The drug is highly addictive.

Although opium had been used in Chinese traditional medicine for centuries, recreational use was limited and often banned in China. In the 18th century, British merchants began smuggling large quantities of opium into China, thereby astronomically increasing Chinese domestic use of the additive drug. Because of the rising Chinese demand for opium, the British, French, Americans, and others leveraged that demand (and large quantities of opium sourced from India, Southeast Asia, and Turkey) to balance their trade for highly sought Chinese products, especially tea, silk, porcelain, ginseng, and precious metals.

Alarmed at opium addiction among Chinese people, the Qing dynasty attempted to suppress the opium trade (and the associated smuggling). Eventually, hostilities broke out between British merchant sailors and Chinese police, igniting the First Opium War (1839–42), which ended with the Treaty of Nanjing, wherein China ceded Hong Kong and paid a $21 million indemnity to the British.

Chinese resentment of that treaty subsequently led to Cantonese police boarding the British-registered ship Arrow in Canton in October 1856, whose crew was charged with smuggling. That initiated a British and French military campaign resulting in the occupation of Canton (Guangzhou) and Tianjin (Tientsin) and the negotiation of several treaties that opened several ports to foreign traders, gave foreign emissaries permission to reside in Beijing, and gave freedom of movement throughout China to Christian missionaries. However, the treaties weren’t observed by the Chinese.

As a result, British and French forces eventually captured Beijing in October 1860. The Chinese subsequently signed the Beijing Convention, in which they agreed to observe the treaties of Tianjin.

Bricks of seized opium that were concealed in shipping pallets are displayed at a Canada Border Services Agency facility, in Tsawwassen, B.C., on Dec. 16, 2022. The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

The bottom line of the Opium Wars is that the foreign powers were victorious over China and gained commercial, legal, and territorial concessions from the Qing dynasty, further exacerbating Chinese xenophobia and distrust of foreigners that continues today among the CCP cadre.

Could the United States’ fentanyl crisis be China’s revenge for the Opium Wars after all these years?

America’s Opium War

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is highly addictive and similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. Fentanyl is frequently mixed with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA.

As reported by U.S. News in May, there were 106,000 fentanyl overdose deaths reported by the CDC in the 12-month period ending in August 2022—nearly twice the number of Americans killed during the entire Vietnam War. Fentanyl was also identified by the CDC as the leading cause of overdose death among all ethnic and racial groups in the United States.

Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, in New York City, on Sept. 23, 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

China is directly involved in the manufacture of fentanyl (by the tons) and other synthetic drugs. As noted in this 2019 report, “China produces nearly all of the fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and fentanyl precursors in the world.” An August 2021 report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission notes that “China remains the primary country of origin for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.” In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that “one growth sector [in the Chinese economy during the pandemic] has been the fentanyl trade with the West and the involvement of Chinese crime syndicates and banks in the global money laundering that facilitates this business.”

Is Fentanyl Payback?

The Wall Street Journal further noted that last year, “enough fentanyl to kill the population of North America twice over was seized in California.” The flood of fentanyl sourced in China continues despite China’s having banned production of four fentanyl variations in China in 2017 and implemented fines and other penalties targeted at Chinese drug laboratories that illegally produce and distribute fentanyl and its precursor chemicals.

Were these actions just for show, and did CCP bureaucrats give a wink and a nod to those drug laboratories? Apparently those measures aren’t enforced, as Chinese chemical companies continue to manufacture and sell fentanyl precursors while earning “tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies, according to two blockchain research firms,” as reported by the South China Morning Post in May.

The CCP’s response to U.S. efforts to convince China to strictly enforce its own laws against the illegal manufacture of fentanyl and its chemical precursors is typical of Chinese denials when caught with their hands in cookie jars. On Sept. 21, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted by state-run China Daily saying: “The Chinese government has always been serious about fighting drugs. China has the strictest drug control policy in the world and enforces it in the fullest way.” How is that working when the lion’s share of fentanyl and its precursors entering the United States in 2023 continues to be produced by China?

The CCP probably views the issue similarly to how British and other foreign diplomats viewed Qing Dynasty efforts to ratchet down opium smuggling into 19th-century China. The CCP is making money off fentanyl addiction just as foreigners were on Chinese opium addiction back then. The Opium Wars and the Fentanyl War were/are considered by the suppliers to be a “demand-side problem.”

Is the fentanyl crisis Chinese payback for the Opium Wars? The United States is already losing more than 100,000 people a year in a nonkinetic war. Who would be the loser in a kinetic U.S.–China war over fentanyl? We may find out at some point.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.