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Tag: China

  • US, Canada Issue Travel Advisory For China After Controversial Drug Smuggling Case

    US, Canada Issue Travel Advisory For China After Controversial Drug Smuggling Case

    China has shot back by issuing a travel advisory warning of their own against Canada.

    Canada has warned its citizens to “exercise caution” while in or visiting China after a Chinese court sentenced a Canadian citizen to death for allegedly smuggling drugs.

    The travel advisory, issued on January 14, came on the heels of a similar warning to US citizens from the Department of State on January 3. Both actions have been linked in the media, though not by any of the three countries, to the arrest of a Chinese business executive in Canada on alleged fraud related to US sanctions on Iran, which was followed by the detainment of two high-profile Canadians in China amidst angry salvos and fraying diplomatic relations between all three countries.

    China has shot back by issuing a travel advisory warning of their own against Canada, advising Chinese citizens to “fully evaluate risks” of traveling to the north American country.

    Seemingly at the center of this flurry of activity is Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a 36-year-old Canadian who had been sentenced in 2016 to 15 years in prison for his alleged role in a methamphetamine smuggling operation.

    Schellenberg, who claimed that he was a tourist who had been framed by Chinese criminals, earned a retrial from an appeals court in December 2018. But in a one-day trial on January 14, 2019, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court declared him a “principal culprit” in the smuggling scheme and imposed the death penalty. Schellenberg is expected to appeal the ruling.

    Canada’s Global Affairs noted that approximately 200 Canadians are currently being held in China for a “variety of alleged infractions.” That number has largely remained stable, according to the department, until the arrest of Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on December 1.

    Meng, who is the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, was apprehended at the request of the United States for her alleged role in fraudulent activity related to violation of US sanctions against Iran.

    President Donald Trump has said that he would intervene in the case in the name of preserving US relations with China.

    Nine days after Meng’s arrest, former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor were arrested in China on allegations of “endangering national security,” which the South China Morning Post said was a term used by China to allege espionage. 

    As both The New York Times and Business Insider noted, the ruling has been viewed by foreign policy experts as an attempt to influence Canada’s decision to extradite Meng to the United States.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on January 14 that Schellenberg’s sentence was “of extreme concern to us as a government, as it should be to all our international friends and allies, that China has chosen to begin to arbitrarily apply [the] death penalty.”

    Hours after Schellenberg’s sentencing, Canada’s Global Affairs issued the travel warning – the second such advisory from a world power against China in less than a month.

    The United States warned citizens, and in particular, US-Chinese or Americans of Chinese heritage to be aware of “exit bans,” which Beijing can use to “compel US citizens to participate in government investigations, to lure individuals back to China from abroad and to aid Chinese authorities in resolving civil disputes in favor of Chinese parties.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Trump Calls For China To Use Death Penalty For Fentanyl "Pushers"

    Trump Calls For China To Use Death Penalty For Fentanyl "Pushers"

    “If China cracks down on this ‘horror drug,’ using the death penalty for [fentanyl] distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!” Trump said on Twitter.

    President Trump said that one of the highlights of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is that fentanyl will now be classified as a controlled substance in China, meaning that people who manufacture and distribute the drug could face the death penalty. 

    “One of the very exciting things to come out of my meeting with President Xi of China is his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly fentanyl coming into the United States. It will now be considered a ‘controlled substance.’ This could be a game changer on what is […] considered to be the worst and most dangerous, addictive and deadly substance of them all,” Trump tweeted, according to CNN.”Last year over 77,000 people died from Fentanyl. If China cracks down on this ‘horror drug,’ using the Death Penalty for distributors and pushers, the results will be incredible!”

    A release from The White House called the reclassification of fentanyl “a wonderful humanitarian gesture.”

    “President Xi… has agreed to designate Fentanyl as a Controlled Substance, meaning that people selling Fentanyl to the United States will be subject to China’s maximum penalty under the law,” the release said. 

    In China, the maximum penalty is death, CNN reported. 

    President Trump has in the past praised capital punishment for people who traffic and sell drugs. 

    “He often jokes about killing drug dealers… He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them,’” a senior White House official said in February. 

    Another source confirmed that. 

    “[Trump] says that a lot,” the source said. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty.’” 

    While he was campaigning, Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire, a state that has been heavily affected by opioid abuse, that the death penalty should be considered. 

    “If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we are wasting our time,” he said. “And that toughness includes the death penalty.”

    Trump justified this position by saying dealers “will kill thousands of people during their lifetime” but won’t be punished for these deaths. He said the death penalty would only be used against the “big pushers, the ones who are really killing people.”

    Trump has also congratulated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for his anti-drug campaign that involved killing thousands of people. 

    “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Trump said to Duterte in a phone call in 2017. “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Bill Targeting Opioids Sent By Mail Up For Senate Vote

    Bill Targeting Opioids Sent By Mail Up For Senate Vote

    The STOP Act will require the U.S. Postal Service to collect electronic data on packages being shipped into the country.

    The Senate will likely pass a bill this week that aims to reduce the number of fentanyl shipments coming into the country via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). 

    The STOP Act, which stands for Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention, will require the postal service to collect electronic data on packages being shipped into the country, including the sender’s and recipient’s addresses and the contents as described by the sender.

    Right now, only private courier services like FedEx, UPS and DHL require this information, which means that people can send opioids through the postal service and be virtually untraceable. 

    Illicit fentanyl can be easily made in China and shipped to the United States, since a small volume is immensely powerful and profitable. 

    “We are being overrun with fentanyl,” Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who led an 18-month study of illegal imports, told the New York Times. “It is 50 times more powerful than heroin. It is very inexpensive. It is coming primarily from China and coming primarily through our U.S. Postal Service, if you can believe it.”

    In addition to requiring that the postal service gather additional information on packages, the bill would make is possible for the government to levy fines to the postal service if it does not comply. The postal service would also have the authority to block or destroy packages that have not been properly identified.

    Right now, the postal service must “obtain a warrant to inspect the contents of suspect parcels,” according to William Siemer, acting deputy inspector general of USPS, who testified before Congress this year.

    President Trump supports the measures, taking to Twitter to voice his enthusiasm. 

    “It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China,” he wrote last month in a tweet. “We can, and must, END THIS NOW! The Senate should pass the STOP ACT—and firmly STOP this poison from killing our children and destroying our country.”

    The STOP Act has been languishing after it was introduced nearly 18 months ago, allowing shipments of opioids to continue. However, the House passed a similar initiative over the summer, prompting the Senate to move on the issue.

    In addition to addressing the dangers of opioid shipments, the bill would also expand access to treatment for infants born dependent on opioids, implement more stringent packaging requirements for some medications, and accelerate research into non-addictive painkillers that could potentially replace opioids. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Fentanyl Changed The Opioid Crisis

    How Fentanyl Changed The Opioid Crisis

    The prevalence and potency of illicit fentanyl has changed the course of the opioid crisis for the worse. 

    While prescription painkillers were previously attributed to the most deaths in the opioid epidemic, they no longer do. Instead, the leading cause of death in this context is now illegal fentanyl, according to a recent Bloomberg editorial.

    The National Center on Health Statistics states that in 2017, illegal fentanyl played a role in 60% of opioid deaths, in comparison to 11% of opioid deaths five years ago. 

    Fentanyl was created in 1960 and was used as a treatment for cancer pain. Illicit fentanyl has become common in the black market because it can be easily manufactured in a lab. Its potency also means it can be put into very small packages that are easy to conceal. 

    “Drug labs in China fulfill online orders from American users, or from traffickers in the U.S. and Mexico who add the fentanyl to heroin and other drugs to boost their effect, or press it into phony prescription-opioid pills,” the editorial reads. 

    Because of this, the editorial states, addressing the issue of illegal fentanyl needs to be focused first on China, which U.S. law enforcement officials claim is the source of nearly all illegal fentanyl. 

    The editorial states that the Obama administration had reached out to the Chinese government to ask for help in policing producers of fentanyl. But, with the Trump administration in place, that cooperation appears to have fallen by the wayside. 

    “What’s needed is a steady and purposeful diplomatic push, along with expert support for fortifying China’s capacity to inspect and regulate its thousands of drug labs,” the editorial board writes. 

    When fentanyl is exported from China, it mainly comes through the mail to both users and dealers. While Congress has allotted Customs and Border Protection more chemical-detection equipment, it is not possible to scan all packages entering the country. 

    “The task would be easier if Congress passed pending legislation to require the U.S. Postal Service to obtain basic identifying information from senders—including the name and address of sender and a description of package contents—as private parcel services do,” the editorial board writes.

    In addition to being sold on the dark web, fentanyl can also be found on regular websites, the board says. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has spoken out about the need for internet companies to put more effort into taking down those listings. 

    While this all has to do with the supply, the aspect of demand must also be addressed, the board says. The more than 2 million Americans struggling with opioid or heroin use disorder need access to treatment, specifically medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and behavioral therapy.

    “Fentanyl and other opioids are killing more than 130 people a day. The crisis demands a thorough, well-coordinated national response. What the White House and Congress have come up with so far falls short,” the board concludes.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Trump To Jeff Sessions: Sue Drug Companies For Opioid Crisis Role

    Trump To Jeff Sessions: Sue Drug Companies For Opioid Crisis Role

    The Attorney General said he would take action on Trump’s requests. 

    President Donald Trump has instructed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file a federal lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies in Mexico and China, claiming that they have played a role in the US opioid epidemic.

    Last week, according to the New York Post, the president threw blame at China and Mexico for their roles in the opioid epidemic, claiming the countries had manufactured some of the illegal opioids coming into the United States.

    “In China, you have some pretty big companies sending that garbage and killing our people. It’s almost like a form of warfare. I’d like you to do what you can legally,” Trump said to Sessions.

    Fox News reports that Trump’s remarks came during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Aug. 16. Fox notes it was somewhat unusual that Trump asked for a new “major” lawsuit to be filed, rather than asking Sessions to join existing lawsuits filed by various US states. 

    “I’d also like to ask you to bring a major lawsuit against the drug companies on opioids,” Trump stated at the meeting, according to Fox. “Some states have done it, but I’d like a lawsuit to be brought against these companies that are really sending opioids at a level that — it really shouldn’t be happening. … People go into a hospital with a broken arm, they come out, they’re a drug addict.”

    Sessions said he would take action on Trump’s requests. 

    “We absolutely will,” Sessions said at the meeting. “We are returning indictments now against distributors from China; we’ve identified certain companies that are moving drugs from China, fentanyl in particular. We have confronted China about it … Most of it is going to Mexico and then crossing the border, unlawfully, from Mexico.”

    As of now, more than 25 US states have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits against opioid distributors and manufacturers.

    Last week, New York filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, stating the manufacturer of the painkiller OxyContin has mislead medical professionals and patients about the dangers of the medication. Massachusetts also filed a lawsuit against the company in June, accusing the company of a “web of illegal deceit.” 

    According to recent estimates, overall overdose deaths in the US in 2017 were about 72,000 — an increase of 6,000 from 2016’s estimates.

    However, preliminary 2018 data implies that the “numbers may be trending downward in the wake of the Trump administration’s efforts to curb the epidemic.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Chinese National Pleads Guilty To Importing Opioids

    Chinese National Pleads Guilty To Importing Opioids

    The businessman would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them out domestically.

    A Chinese businessman living in Massachusetts has pled guilty to charges of importing opioids. 

    Bin Wang, 42, was arrested in July and charged with importing shipments of carfentanil, fentanyl and other opioids. Wang would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them domestically, including to buyers in Ohio, according to a press release by the Ohio U.S. Attorney’s office.

    On Tuesday, Wang pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to importing and distributing opioids. He will be sentenced on November 13.

    Opioids, particularly powerful synthetics, are reportedly made in China and shipped into the U.S. using couriers like FedEx and even the U.S. Postal Service.

    “Increasingly, the opioids that are killing our friends and neighbors are being sent here from China,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David Sierleja. “Shutting down this pipeline will help in our efforts to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. We will focus on prevention, education, and aggressive law enforcement, both here and around the world.”

    This requires a new approach to intercepting drugs.

    “The importation of opioids and other synthetic drugs from China has played a significant role in America’s current drug use epidemic. Over 60,000 people a year die from drug overdoses in this country, and halting all methods of drug trafficking—including by way of the Internet—is a top priority of the DEA,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon. “This investigation makes clear that geographic and technological hurdles will not stop DEA and our partners from bringing to justice those responsible for the illegal distribution of drugs in the U.S.”

    Despite that tough stance, it is reportedly very difficult to catch opioids coming into the country from China. In part, that is because the shipments are small, and the volume of mail coming into the country makes it difficult to pinpoint suspicious packages. In addition, prosecuting Chinese manufacturers can be difficult.

    Officials first started investigating the drugs that led to Wang in 2016, after a series of fatal overdoses in Ohio. They determined that the drugs were bought online through a Chinese website, and that a Chinese man known as “Gordon Jin” was shipping the drugs to Wang in Massachusetts, who then distributed them domestically.

    Undercover agents purchase opioids from Jin, and were able to track the shipments to Wang, who was operating companies from a warehouse in Woburn, Massachusetts.

    “This investigation is a great example of a collaborative effort of federal agencies and a local drug task force working together to identify and track down people and organizations that are responsible for the ever-increasing shipments of very powerful synthetic opiates into Ohio,” said Don Hall, director of the MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

    China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

    “When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it,” said one Chinese official.

    China’s drug control agency has challenged the U.S. to sharply reduce its demand for opioids, The Hill reported. The agency specifically called out the United States’ role in driving demand for drugs like fentanyl.

    “It’s common knowledge that most new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been designed in laboratories in the United States and Europe, and their deep-processing and consumption also mostly take place there,” said Liu Yuejin, deputy chair of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission. “The U.S. should adopt a comprehensive and balanced strategy to reduce and suppress the huge demand in the country for fentanyl and other similar drugs as soon as possible. When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it.”

    While the U.S. doesn’t deny the situation, a congressional report from 2017 singled out China as the “top source” of all fentanyl in the U.S. The year-long probe found that fentanyl could be easily purchased online from Chinese labs and mailed to buyers in the U.S.

    Last November, on a state visit to Beijing, President Trump said that China and the U.S. would work together to curb the “flood of cheap and deadly” Chinese-made fentanyl from making it stateside. China quickly disputed the claim that it was responsible for the “flood” of fentanyl into the U.S.

    A recent Bloomberg feature called fentanyl “an Internet-era plague,” though fentanyl has been around since 1960.

    At the time, it was the world’s “strongest opioid approved for human medical use,” and intended to treat extreme pain and to help put surgical patients to sleep. Fentanyl is said to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

    In 2014, Bloomberg noted, fentanyl killed 5,000 people in the U.S. By September 2017, the drug was responsible for more than 26,000 deaths, accounting for more than half of all opioid-related deaths that year.

    “China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu insisted. “But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids.”

    China doesn’t deny that some of the NPS in America were manufactured on Chinese soil, but said that “the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself,” The Hill noted.

    Liu contends that Beijing has already taken steps to curb the production and export of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. They have even gone so far as to place fentanyl and 22 other compounds on a controlled-substances list. Liu also said that current political tensions between China and the U.S. wouldn’t affect China’s resolve in putting an end to the manufacture and trafficking of those drugs.

    “The U.S. should strengthen its crackdown on distributors, traffickers and drug-related criminal rings,” Liu argued, adding that it should “investigate and arrest more lawbreakers.”

    Last year, Trump labeled the opioid crisis as a public health emergency (stopping short of calling it a full-scale national emergency), and promised a comprehensive awareness campaign to help deter people from abusing drugs. 

    View the original article at thefix.com