East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee Chairwoman Kim Delivers Opening Remarks at Subcommittee Hearing on the CCP’s Role in the Fentanyl Crisis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee Chairwoman Young Kim delivered opening remarks at a hearing titled "Beijing’s Poison Pipeline: The CCP’s Role in the Fentanyl Crisis."
-Remarks-
Today, we mark the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, when the Chinese Communist Party brutally murdered thousands of innocent civilians who dared to demand freedom. Few events more clearly expose the CCP’s ruthless disregard for human life when it stands in the way of the party’s interests.
Today's hearing will examine how that same regime has shown a similar indifference to American lives. The People's Republic of China is the primary enabler of the fentanyl epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. While Mexican cartels manufacture and traffic the final product, the deadly supply chain starts and is engineered in China. Chinese companies produce the precursors that are required to make fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Those chemicals are then shipped to Mexico, where cartels turn them into deadly narcotics and flood American streets with poison, leaving devastation, addiction, and death in their wake.
This is not happening without Beijing’s knowledge. The Chinese government subsidizes the export of at least 17 deadly chemicals that have no legal use. Shanghai provided export credits to one opioid producer, and at least two fentanyl producers are owned by the PRC government. Chinese criminals have become the de facto bankers and money launderers of choice for Mexican cartels, to which Beijing has turned a blind eye.
And despite U.S. Indictments of six fentanyl traffickers in March, the PRC authorities have not arrested those involved. Whenever Beijing announces restrictions on one precursor, chemical manufacturers simply pivot to another. This is not a shadowy operation hidden in underground laboratories. In China, much of this activity is carried out by legitimate companies in broad daylight.
Why does Beijing allow these factories of death to remain open? Because the Chinese Communist Party sees strategic value in Americans suffering. It has repeatedly chosen geopolitical leverage over human life.
I applaud President Trump and his administration for forcing Beijing to the table and refusing to accept empty promises while Americans continue to die. The president has demonstrated a willingness to impose real consequences when the CCP refuses to negotiate in good faith, and Congress must ensure he continues to have the tools necessary to confront this crisis. That is why I'm leading an effort to reauthorize fentanyl sanctions, which are set to expire this year. If we let these sanctions expire, China would have no reason to negotiate with the United States over this critical issue.
I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Trump administration to end this state-sponsored trafficking network and ensure Beijing can never profit from the loss of American lives again. Under President Trump, I'm confident we can cut off this poison pipeline.
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