Allen: ‘China is also complicit in allowing unrestricted access to the compounds that go into making’ fentanyl
Washington,
January 17, 2023
By State Newswire Report
Congressman Rick Allen (R-GA) supports the creation of the new House committee on China that will work to hold China accountable for supplying fentanyl to Mexico, which is brought over the border with the help of President Joe Biden's policies. “Joe Biden’s pro-amnesty policies have left our southern border in shambles,” Allen said. “On this president’s watch, over four million illegal aliens have crossed our border, and over a million of those are ‘got-aways’ who have evaded law enforcement altogether. We’ve seen drugs pouring over the border, spurring an unprecedented crisis that is wreaking havoc on communities across our great nation. China is also complicit in allowing unrestricted access to the compounds that go into making these drugs, which is why House Republicans brought forward and passed legislation today to establish a select committee that will, in part, investigate China’s role as a supplier and producer of fentanyl.” On Jan. 10, House Republicans established a Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which will investigate the CCP's role in supplying and producing fentanyl and allowing it to be shipped out of the country, according to a blog post on the House GOP website. The blog post said that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized enough fentanyl to kill every American in 2022, and for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49, fentanyl overdose is the No. 1 cause of death. Approximately 107,000 U.S. residents died from drug overdoses in 2021, and two-thirds of those deaths involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, according to the DEA. Depending on a person's drug tolerance, as little as two milligrams of fentanyl can lead to death. In 2018, the U.S. praised China for regulating two common fentanyl precursors that were being purchased by Mexican cartels, used to produce fentanyl and then brought into the U.S., but since then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August, China has refused to discuss taking further action to combat the flow of fentanyl, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rep. David Trone (D-MD), who served as co-chair on a recent federal commission on opioid trafficking, said all talks about the drug between China and the U.S. State Department and Drug Enforcement Agency have been cut off. Spokesman Wang Wenbin said in an August press briefing, "In disregard of China’s stern warnings and repeated representations, Nancy Pelosi visited China’s Taiwan region. This has dealt a heavy blow to the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. The Chinese side announced eight countermeasures including suspending China-U.S. counternarcotics cooperation." Wenbin called on the U.S. to "seriously reflect on the underlying reason" for its narcotics consumption, saying that there is no "large-scale fentanyl abuse in China." In fiscal year 2022, a record-breaking 2.76 million people attempted to enter the U.S. illegally through the southern border, NBC reported. In January 2021, investigative journalist Sara Carter reported on a Houston-area Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) facility “reportedly holding $10 million in narcotic contraband” seized from illegal immigrants and Mexican drug trafficking cartels. A TXDPS agent told Carter, "We are seeing counterfeit pills that are being manufactured by drug traffickers. We know the precursors are coming from China into Mexico — and then the cartels manufacture that drug and move it across into our states." Allen has represented Georgia's 12th Congressional District since 2014, according to his website. Prior to being elected, Allen worked as a small businessman for more than three decades, founding the construction company R.W. Allen & Associates. |