China Restricts Fentanyl Precursor Chemical Exports To North America After Trump-Xi Talks

One week after President Donald Trump’s China summit with President Xi Jinping, where the two superpower leaders focused on issues ranging from bilateral trade to the Hormuz chokepoint, there appears to be measurable progress on one key ‘MAGA’ issue: the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into North America.

Bloomberg reports Friday morning that China imposed new export controls on three chemical compounds shipped to the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, targeting key precursor ingredients used to make fentanyl.

Beijing’s announcement now requires special export licenses for the restricted chemicals and signals growing cooperation between Xi and Trump on narcotics enforcement.

“The Presidents also highlighted the need to build on progress in ending the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States, as well as increasing Chinese purchases of American agricultural products,” the White House wrote in a readout of the summit last week.

The Trump team continues to maintain a 10% tariff on Chinese imports tied to Beijing’s years of failure to stop the flow of fentanyl precursor exports into North America.

Beijing has dismissed Washington’s accusations over the opioid epidemic that, at one point, was killing 100,000 Americans every year.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated early in Trump’s second term that Beijing may be “deliberately” flooding America with fentanyl in a “reverse” form of the mid-1800s Opium Wars that weakened China’s international standing.

Ahead of Trump’s trip last week, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine spoke with White House Counterterrorism Director Sebastian Gorka about how China weaponized fentanyl to weaken America from within.

“They see our ‘city on a hill’ as the newest version of the British Empire, and it is now payback time for the Opium Wars,” Gorka said. “Many have said that, and I think there is something to that.

Here’s the fentanyl supply chain: Chinese chemical suppliers → Mexican cartels → fentanyl production in Mexico → smuggling into the U.S.

Between 2015 and 2024, the U.S. recorded about 815,100 drug overdose deaths, a death toll larger than many U.S. wars combined. And, in fact, China didn’t even have to fire a shot.

Simultaneously, while the drug epidemic fueled by cartels and China-sourced precursor chemicals ravaged communities and cities nationwide, Democratic-led cities accelerated the crisis by pushing forward with nation-killing progressive policies that enabled open-air drug markets, weakened enforcement, and allowed the public-health emergency to spread. Why?