Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr blamed America’s fentanyl crisis solely on communist China during congressional testimony this week.
Barr made the remarks while testifying on Tuesday in front of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party on a 64-page report titled, “The CCP’s Role In The Fentanyl Crisis.”
Barr said that the death toll in the U.S. every year from drug overdoses was higher than the number of Americans killed during the bloodiest year of World War II.
“The [People’s Republic of China] is the source of the fentanyl that is slaughtering Americans,” he said. “China produces nearly all the illicit fentanyl precursors used and the fentanyl introduced into the United States. These are the indispensable ingredients that drive the fentanyl trade.”
“There is no practical alternative for anywhere near the volume of precursors necessary to fuel this trade,” he continued. “Simply put, without China’s production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors, there would be no fentanyl crisis in the United States and the mass slaughter would effectively stop.”
“We are now sustaining a casualty rate from drug overdoses that exceeds the death toll we suffered in waging a world war.
We have long known that the PRC is the source of the fentanyl that is slaughtering Americans.” — Former AG William P. Barr pic.twitter.com/6UCgWUNBB8
— Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) April 16, 2024
Barr said that the Chinese Communist Party was not just a “bystander” in the entire ordeal — they are prime movers.
“They are knee deep and actively sponsoring, encouraging, and facilitating the production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors for distribution in the United States,” he said. “First, the committee’s investigators have found a hidden [Chinese] government website currently fully active that offers complete tax rebates incentivizing the export of all fentanyl analogs and precursors, as well as other synthetic narcotics — drugs that are illegal in the U.S., illegal in China, and have no legitimate purpose.”
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He said that the tax incentives offered to Chinese companies “allow companies to effectively operate tax free when they export fentanyl precursors.”
He added that the investigation found evidence that shows China “provides grants and awards to companies that are engaged in open and notorious synthetic narcotic manufacturing and drug trafficking.”
“The CCP are not just bystanders. They are prime movers.
They are knee-deep in actively sponsoring, encouraging and facilitating the production and export of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors for distribution in the US.”— Former AG Bill Barr pic.twitter.com/jLYlXICWmx
— Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (@committeeonccp) April 16, 2024
Barr said that there was evidence that China was intentionally engaged in this activity and that the U.S. should not expect China to operate in good faith or to have “goodwill” toward the U.S.
“The key point here is that the PRC and the CCP have the capacity to shut this down,” he said. “This is not taking place in the rain forests of Burma. This is taking place among a manageable number of companies in industrial parks in a modern surveillance state. The Chinese can push a button with a keystroke find somebody in one of their cities within less than a minute, know exactly where they are. They know what’s on the internet. There’s no question they’re aware of what’s happening.”
He also said that since President Joe Biden met with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping that he has not been aware of any changes that China has made in its malicious behavior flooding the U.S. with fentanyl.
