Experts Raise Doubts About China’s Promise to Crack Down on Fentanyl Chemicals

China has agreed to resume cooperation against counternarcotics with the United States, while cracking down on chemicals flowing to clandestine fentanyl labs overseas, but policy experts remain skeptical that China’s pledge will make a lasting dent in the global supply chain for illicit drugs, David Ovalle and John Hudson report for the Washington Post.

Experts question whether Beijing will follow through, or that it is even capable of rooting out shady players within China’s vast chemical industry who use encrypted communications and cryptocurrency while peddling precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers. Some experts worry that other cheap, synthetic drugs may begin replacing fentanyl or that sales of the precursor chemicals will simply migrate to other countries, such as India. U.S. law enforcement has increasingly targeted Chinese companies and brokers suspected of supplying precursor fentanyl chemicals sent by ship and through parcels to Mexico. The agreement between the two nations represents an about-face from China, which stopped cooperating with U.S. law enforcement more than a year ago amid deteriorating relations