First appearance on Fox: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is calling on the Biden administration to classify fentanyl as a biological and chemical weapon and to sanction China for its role in fueling the U.S. drug crisis.
“The Chinese Communist Party is the largest police state in the world. If they wanted to stop fentanyl from coming within their borders to drug cartels in the United States and Mexico, they could do it overnight,” Banks told Fox News Digital. “Instead, they are delivering this deadly opioid that kills tens of thousands of military and working-age Americans every year and destroys our communities and economy at a level only seen with weapons of mass destruction.” They must take responsibility.”
His bill would amend the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991, which requires the president to impose sanctions on foreign companies that knowingly contribute to the possession or use of chemical or biological weapons by other countries. .
China is driving the US fentanyl crisis, House panel report reveals
Congressman Jim Banks (left) is calling on the Biden administration to classify fentanyl as a biological and chemical weapon. (Getty Images)
This came shortly after the House Select Committee on China, of which Banks is a member, released a bombshell report accusing China of exacerbating the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the United States.
The committee found that China’s Communist government provides subsidies to companies that produce fentanyl precursors and other synthetic drugs as long as those products are sold outside China.
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A bombshell House report accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of overseeing a government subsidy program for companies that produce fentanyl precursors. (Lauren Dechka/Getty Images)
The program has been in place since 2018 and was not suspended even after President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2023. In fact, the committee found that China increased these subsidies during discussions with U.S. officials in 2019 and 2020.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose death rates in the United States quadrupled from 2002 to 2022. The highest number of deaths in 2021 and 2022 were among adults aged 35 to 44, according to the data.
U.S. authorities are grappling with lethal doses of fentanyl being mixed with other illegal recreational drugs and coming in from the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere.
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A bundle of blue pills containing fentanyl was seized at the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
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Nate Moreling, executive vice president of Indiana-based addiction treatment center Allendale Treatment and a fentanyl survivor himself, blamed the Chinese government for directly fueling the crisis.
“Some of our nation’s brightest people have had their precious lives cut short because of the Chinese Communist Party’s greed and negligence,” Moreling told Fox. “Sanctions against China would be a great first step.” News Digital. “This is not a red or blue issue.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
