Senior U.S. and Chinese officials are set to meet this week in Beijing to discuss methods to curb the supply of the fentanyl from China to America.
The meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday will launch the U.S.-PRC Counternarcotics Working Group, a task force that aims to combat global illicit drug manufacturing and trafficking, including the highly addictive and deadly opioid
The objective of the task force is to tackle the illicit production, financing, and distribution of drugs, in addition to supporting bilateral enforcement actions.
Led by Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Jen Daskal, the delegation is made up of high-level officials from the Justice, Treasury and State departments.
Chinese precursor chemicals are primarily responsible for the production of fentanyl in the United States. A significant portion of these chemicals are smuggled to Mexico, where they are manufactured into the drug.
In this regard, the U.S. Treasury Department launched a similar task force in Mexico last month.
The Biden administration has been working with China to stamp out fentanyl smuggling from China since November 2020.
