Washington, June 5 : A congressional hearing on Thursday sharply focused on China's role in the global fentanyl supply chain, with Republican lawmakers accusing Beijing of failing to curb the flow of precursor chemicals that fuel America's deadly opioid crisis, while witnesses called for stronger enforcement, sanctions and international cooperation.

The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific convened a hearing titled "Beijing's Poison Pipeline: The CCP's Role in the Fentanyl Crisis" to examine what lawmakers described as China's continuing role in supplying chemicals used by Mexican cartels to manufacture fentanyl.

Opening the hearing, Representative Young Kim, chair of the subcommittee, said the People's Republic of China remains "the primary enabler of the fentanyl epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year."

"While Mexican cartels manufacture and traffic the final product, the deadly supply chain starts and is engineered in China," Kim said, arguing that Chinese companies continue to produce precursor chemicals that are later transformed into fentanyl and smuggled into the United States.

Kim also alleged that Beijing had failed to act against individuals and companies linked to fentanyl trafficking despite US indictments and sanctions. "Why does Beijing allow these factories of death to remain open? Because the Chinese Communist Party sees strategic value in Americans suffering," she said.

Ranking member Representative Ami Bera, a physician by training, urged a broader approach to the crisis. While supporting efforts to disrupt supply chains, Bera stressed that prevention, education and treatment were equally important.

"This is not a partisan issue. It's an issue that is impacting tens of thousands of Americans' lives every day," he said.

Among the witnesses, Steve Yates of the Heritage Foundation argued that China's role in the fentanyl trade remains "central and ongoing."

"The PRC remains the primary global source of precursors and pill pressing equipment for the Mexican cartels," Yates told lawmakers. He contended that Beijing had taken only limited steps while continuing to allow precursor chemicals and related financial networks to operate.

Yates, whose daughter died after consuming fentanyl-laced pills in 2023, described the crisis as "a national security emergency" and urged Congress to strengthen sanctions and reduce US dependence on Chinese pharmaceutical supply chains.

David Luckey, who helped inform the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy, said China remains "the primary source of precursor chemicals" in the global synthetic opioid supply chain. He called for greater bilateral and multilateral cooperation, improved monitoring of chemical exports and stronger action against money laundering networks linked to drug trafficking.

However, Zongyuan Zoe Liu offered a more nuanced assessment. She said there was no evidence that Beijing deliberately directs illicit fentanyl shipments into the United States, but described the problem as "a serious supply chain governance failure in China."

"The point is not that China created American demand," Liu said. "The problem is that China-linked chemical, logistics and financial networks help make illicit fentanyl easier to produce, cheaper to scale, and harder to stop."

/IANS