China’s Hubei province arrests 7, shuts down websites in fentanyl crackdown

Beijing — A Chinese province has launched a crackdown on the fentanyl trade – a contentious issue in US-China relations – arresting seven people and shutting down more than 200 websites in recent months, state media reported Thursday.

The announcement comes shortly after US President Donald Trump said he would postpone a much-anticipated trip to China because of the Iran war. Trump has used the tariffs to pressure China to curb exports of fentanyl precursors — the chemicals that go into synthetic opioids that cause tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually in the US.

The Hubei Daily News online report said a fentanyl precursor task force established in December had investigated 22 cases in Hubei province as of February. Apart from the seven arrested, a dozen other people have been subjected to “coercive measures”, including summonses or detention. Four companies have been fined, the paper said.

The official Xinhua news agency carried a similar report. It said the task force was set up to follow the direction of China’s Ministry of Public Security. China followed through on a deal in late October to take steps to halt trade in the precursor in return for halving to 10% fentanyl-related tariffs on US imports from China.

In one case, information from the US Drug Enforcement Agency helped police in the provincial capital Wuhan discover that a company was selling precursor chemicals and stimulants, the Hubei Daily News said. The man who controls the company was arrested in early December in cooperation with police in another province, Shandong, the newspaper said.

In another case, two arrested, the suspects set up shell companies to sell drugs and chemicals that could be used to manufacture drugs abroad, the report said.

Trump, citing the fentanyl issue, imposed a 10% tariff on China soon after taking office last year and later raised it to 20%. They imposed additional tariffs on China and other countries from April. China faced tariffs of its own in the escalating back-and-forth. After Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in late October, the two sides announced a one-year deal and an agreement to roll back fentanyl-specific tariffs to 10%.

Plans are underway for a second in-person meeting in Beijing early next month, with Trump saying earlier this week that his administration is working to reschedule a meeting with China and that he will go in about five or six weeks, which would be in late April.