China accuses US of fentanyl ‘blackmail’ after latest tariff threat

BEIJING – Beijing accused the US on Feb 28 of exerting “tariff pressure and blackmail” after President Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose

an extra duty of 10 per cent

on imports from China, citing a continued flow of fentanyl into the US.

The fresh China tariffs, in addition to

a tariff of 10 per cent

levied on Feb 4, coincide with the start on March 5 of China’s annual parliamentary meet, a set-piece political event at which Beijing is expected to roll out its 2025 economic priorities.

Washington “used the fentanyl issue to insist on tariff pressure and blackmail”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a daily news briefing.

“It has created a serious impact, pressure, coercion and threat to the dialogue and cooperation between the two sides in the field of drug control,” Mr Lin said of the tariffs, and warned that they would backfire.

“Remarkable results have been achieved,” he added, from China’s anti-drug cooperation with the US, saying China was the world’s first country to officially control fentanyl-like substances.

On Feb 27, Mr Trump said his proposed 25 per cent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods

would take effect on March 4

, along with the extra duty of 10 per cent on Chinese imports.

The announcement leaves Beijing less than a week to publish countermeasures, as Mr Trump’s administration shows signs of a hardening stance towards its strategic rival despite backing down on the threat of tariffs of up to 60 per cent when he took office.

In an interview with Fox News on Feb 27, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused China of waging a “reverse” Opium War over fentanyl, suggesting Beijing may be “deliberately” flooding America with the synthetic opioid.

He was referring to the two 19th-century Opium Wars China lost to Britain and France, after which it was forced to buy large volumes of the drug and concede parts of its territory to colonial Western powers.

Earlier on Feb 28, China’s Commerce Ministry said it has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug policies, and highlighted the risks new tariffs would bring to global supply chains.

US tariff threats are “purely ‘shifting blame and shirking responsibility’, which is not conducive to solving its own problems”, it added.

Analysts say Beijing still hopes to strike a deal with the Trump administration.

But with trade talks not having materialised yet and the White House ramping up signs it is preparing for a wider economic decoupling from China, the prospect of a rapprochement between the world’s top two economies is fading, they added.

“There has been a lot of motion, but it is still not clear exactly what the Trump administration’s fundamental goal is with respect to China,” said Mr Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics.

China hopes for talks

China’s Commerce Ministry said it hopes to return to negotiations with the US as soon as possible, warning that failure to do so could trigger retaliation.

Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Feb 27 he decided to add the extra tariffs on China and stick to the March 4 deadline for Canada and Mexico, given what his administration sees as insufficient progress on curbing fentanyl flows into the US.

On Feb 28, China’s Public Security Ministry said it has placed seven new precursor chemicals to a domestic control list and 24 new precursor chemicals to an export control list.

It said that it cracked 151 cases of drug-making materials, of which it seized 1,427.4 tonnes in the past year, although without saying if these were related to fentanyl.

Both the White House and officials in Beijing appear to be preparing for another four years of bruising trade tension.

State media said top Chinese Communist Party officials met on Feb 28 and vowed to take steps to prevent and resolve any external shocks to China’s economy.

The Politburo meeting comes a week after the White House released an America First investment memorandum that placed China on a list of “foreign adversaries”.

It also accused Beijing of seeking to exploit investments in US firms to steal cutting-edge technology and fund military development.

In February, Mr Trump nominated China hawk Landon Heid to a key Commerce Department post overseeing the design of AI chip export controls targeting China and other countries. REUTERS