While it doesn't encompass the entire issue, China's involvement in the fentanyl (and other US drug crises) should be mentioned more often. America needs to wake up and do something—anything—about this asymmetrical warfare attack.
Heroin is close to fent in lethality, and oxycodone is next in line [2].
[1] https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/prescript...
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_09-508.pdf - Figure 1.
In 2019, Indian companies were a major source of precursors as well [0], yet Indian authorities cracked down on this path [1]. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities turned a blind eye [0].
That said, China is semi-federal as well, and depending on which Province the companies are from, it might be difficult to crack down, especially given that Chinese organized crime has transnationalized in Myanmar and Cambodia [2]
None of this can actually work at scale without financing and ease of operation, and the fact that authorities in multiple countries are turning a blind eye and sometimes actively using Organized Crime as a hybrid tool of power projection (eg. Triads in the Chinese diaspora, Punjabi Organized Crime in the Indo-Canadian Diaspora, the Russian and Caucuasian Vorys, etc)
That's how you have a DoJ lead brothel crackdown in DC and Boston that was because they were being used as an attempted honeypot [3]
[0] - https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-...
[1] - https://www.deccanherald.com/india/ncb-arrests-tamil-nadu-ba...
[2] - Highly recommend Peng Wang's research at HKU (https://sociology.hku.hk/people/wang-peng)
[3] - https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/08/high-end-brothels-serviced-e...
https://museum.dea.gov/exhibits/online-exhibits/cannabis-coc...
> To fund their ever-increasing desire for Chinese produced tea, Britain, through their control of the East India Company, began smuggling Indian opium to China. This resulted in a soaring addiction rate among the Chinese and led to the Opium Wars of the mid-1800s. Subsequent Chinese immigration to work on the railroads and the gold rush brought opium smoking to America.