The Fentanyl Crisis: Economic Policy Targeting China Can Help Stop it – Part Two.

by Allison Engle | August 1, 2025 | Opinion

This is the second article in a series examining the fentanyl crisis in America. You can read part one here.

According to a report from The Select Committee on The Strategic Competition Between the United States and The Chinese Communist Party, “The PRC [People’s Republic of China], under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ultimate geographic source of the fentanyl crisis. Companies in China produce nearly all of illicit fentanyl precursors, the key ingredients that drive the global illicit fentanyl trade.”

Despite the fact that China has repeatedly stated it makes efforts to control the drug trade, and the fentanyl crisis is the fault of the U.S., the same report found significant evidence that China:

Directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates.

Gave monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics.

Holds ownership interest in several PRC companies tied to drug trafficking.

The main conclusion from these findings: not only does China make essentially no effort to stop the illegal flow of deadly fentanyl, but it is incentivizing it. Said another way, the CCP has incentivized the deaths of over 450,000 Americans. The devastating impact on our families and communities cannot be overstated.

So, China says it regulates precursor chemicals, but there is significant evidence that clearly says otherwise. Trying to hold negotiations with China based on a mutual desire to see progress, while a nice thought, is destined to fail. Negotiating with deceivers who are clearly very comfortable with the deaths of nearly half a million Americans, obviously, won’t work. In fact, the CCP is complicit in the oppression and deaths of their own people. Just ask the Uyghurs, a Turkic minority ethnic group in China.

The CCP currently has more than 500,000 Uyghurs in internment camps and prisons. As of 2023, an additional 3 million were subjected to forced labor. In 2021, the U.S. State Department issued a statement officially declaring that “the PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups.”

Tariffs

One possible solution to the fentanyl crisis is to apply maximum pressure where it hurts. For China, that’s the economy.

In February 2025, the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14195 which placed a 10% tariff on imports from China. On March 3, an amendment was issued to increase tariffs to 20% after it was determined that China had failed “to act to blunt the sustained influx of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, flowing from the PRC to the United States.”

The pressure put on China by these tariffs are beginning to show positive results. In June,

Chinese state media reported that immigration officials have seized more than 2 tons of drugs and arrested 262 suspects for drug smuggling so far this year. Chinese officials also said they had prosecuted more than 1,300 people and arrested over 700 more nationwide for drug-related money laundering offenses between January and May this year, a 2.1% year-on-year increase.

Additionally, China has added 4-piperidone and 1-boc-4-piperidone, known fentanyl precursor chemicals, to their list of controlled chemicals. It takes effect July 20. Time will tell if more progress can be made.

One goal of tariffs should be to incentivize bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States, so we are not forced to rely on China. A reliance which grants them so much access to ship chemicals to the U.S.

De Minimis

Another promising aspect of Executive Order 14195 can be found in Sec. 2. (g). It is the elimination of China’s ability to utilize the duty free de minimis exception. The de minimis exception allows foreign imports worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. tax and duty free.

In 2024, Minsu Fang, a Chinese national in the United States was arrested for the one of the largest importations of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the United States. How did he do it? The DEA reported,

Fang and his associates shipped over 2,000 kilograms of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China into the United States and on to Mexico in approximately 100 separate shipments between August and October 2023. Fang and his co-conspirators were able to avoid law enforcement interdiction of the shipments by declaring them to have a de minimis value, less than $800, and commingling the boxes containing the precursor chemicals with similarly low valued import items.

While it is a relief that Fang was caught, it is chilling to imagine the amount of chemicals that have evaded detection through de minimis, and the number of needless deaths it has caused.

To be sure, there are those who oppose tariff efforts to curb the fentanyl crisis.

Responding to the Critics

Old Dominion University Economics Chair Bob McNab told NBC News he did not support tariffs as a method of curbing fentanyl because it “is akin to having a fence-line dispute with your neighbor and taking a sledgehammer with you.”

To put it kindly, this is a very poor mischaracterization of the situation.

First of all, this is absolutely not a “fence-line dispute.”

Over 450,000 Americans have died from fentanyl. For context, an estimated 418,500 Americans died in World War II. Remember, “Companies in China produced 97% of illicit fentanyl that entered the United States.”

To equate this crisis and the U.S. response to it with a neighborly dispute is, quite frankly, foolish, and a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who have been impacted.

Second, in case it’s not clear, the Chinese Communist Party is certainly not our neighbor.

It is a bi-partisan consensus that the CCP “Directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates.” McNab would have to have the worst neighbors on planet earth for this analogy to reflect the reality and gravity of the situation.

His argument is also predicated on the idea that fentanyl overdoses have already been on the decline in the U.S., and tariffs could derail previous negotiations. However, the same article by NBC later acknowledges the decline is due to “expanding naloxone distribution and treatment services,” not the CCP’s good faith efforts.

Conclusion

The CCP is not going to engage in negotiations on fentanyl with any actual intention of making progress without a motivating factor. Indeed, they are subsidizing the manufacturing of fentanyl in the first place.

Tariffs and economic pressure could help motivate the action that has been missing. We must work to stop the fentanyl crisis at its source for the sake of our country, our communities, our families, and especially our young people, growing up in an increasingly anxious and dangerous world. We owe it to each other as Americans.

Related articles and resources:

Focus on the Family Substance Abuse and Addiction Resources

Focus on the Family Mental Health Resources

Focus on the Family Drug Addiction Resources

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

The Opiod Epidemic—Think Your Family Is Immune?

Helping Kids Avoid Opioid Addiction

President Trump Imposes ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs: How Families Should Respond

Photo from Getty Images.