the war on drugs or the drug wars.....

The first visit to China by a US congressional delegation since 2019 has begun with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claiming that Chinese businesses are to blame for America’s epidemic of opioid addictions and overdose deaths.

Chinese firms are “fueling the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning communities across the United States,” Schumer said after arriving in Shanghai on Saturday. “Every one of us knows families who have lost young men and women to fentanyl.”The New York Democrat stressed that it’s businesses – not China’s government – that are supplying ingredients for production of fentanyl and other opioids in Mexico.

Schumer leads a bipartisan delegation of six senators who are visiting China amid deteriorating Sino-US relations. They are focused on economic and security issues, and the majority leader has emphasized that Washington doesn’t wish to “decouple” the world’s two largest economies.

The US government this week sanctioned multiple Chinese individuals and companies for allegedly distributing precursor chemicals associated with opioids. Chinese officials have argued that the fentanyl crisis is “rooted” in the US and that Washington shouldn’t try to shift blame for its failure to stop illegal drug use. Nearly 110,000 Americans died from taking illicit drugs, mostly fentanyl, in 2022.

The congressional delegation arrived one day after President Joe Biden’s administration announced new trade restrictions on 42 Chinese companies that allegedly supplied US-derived components to the Russian defense industry amid the Ukraine crisis. The Chinese Commerce Ministry reacted on Saturday by calling the move “a typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying.”

Schumer said he hopes to hold “very productive discussions” with Chinese leaders during his visit. The delegation has sought a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Biden told reporters on Friday that he may meet with Xi during next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. The two governments have clashed increasingly in recent years amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, escalating trade restrictions and alleged US meddling in Taiwan.

https://www.rt.com/news/584281-schumer-blames-china-for-opioid-crisis/

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

By Gus Leonisky at 8 Oct 2023 - 5:07pm
Gus Leonisky's blog
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for the kiddies....

The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭 Yāpiàn zhànzhēng) were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during the mid-19th century.

The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade. [1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860. It resulted in the legalisation of opium in China. [2]

In each war, the superior military advantages enjoyed by European forces led to several easy victories over the Chinese military, with the consequence that China was compelled to sign the unequal treaties to grant favourable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations and territory to Western powers. The two conflicts, along with the various treaties imposed during the "century of humiliation", weakened the Chinese government's authority and forced China to open specified treaty ports (including Shanghai) to Western merchants.[3][4] In addition, China ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong to the British Empire, which maintained control over the region until 1997. During this period, the Chinese economy also contracted slightly as a result of the wars, though the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt had a much larger economic effect.[5]