Senior officials from China and the United States will hold the first joint meeting in Beijing of a joint working group on fentanyl precursor chemicals on January 30th and 31st. The meeting will formally launch the U.S.-China Counter Narcotics Working Group.
The U.S. delegation will be led by Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Jen Daskal and will include senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Treasury.
The group will allow both China and the United States to enhance cooperation and coordination to tackle the distribution, financing, and production of illegal drugs and to support law enforcement actions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to restart joint cooperation on counternarcotics during their meeting in Woodside, California in November 2023.
It is estimated that approximately 100,000 people die per year in the United States from fentanyl overdoses with the greatest amount of fentanyl related deaths occurring in people between the ages of 18 and 49.
