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The United States recently repatriated a Chinese national suspected of drug trafficking, a “first” such return in recent years, Beijing’s public security ministry said on Friday.<\/p>\n
China is the primary origin of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, a highly potent opioid underpinning a deadly drug epidemic<\/span> in the United States.<\/p>\n Beijing says it is open to working with Washington on curbing the crisis, although the United States maintains an extra 10% tariff on Chinese goods it says is to limit fentanyl trade.<\/p>\n “This is the first drug-related fugitive repatriated by the United States to China in recent years, marking a new achievement in China-U.S. cooperation on anti-drug law enforcement,” Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on social media.<\/p>\n U.S. immigration authorities followed “clues” shared by China’s narcotics control commission to repatriate a Chinese national surnamed Han, the ministry said.<\/p>\n Han is suspected of “smuggling and trafficking drugs,” the ministry said without elaborating, only saying the handover took place “days ago.”<\/p>\n The ministry did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.<\/p>\n The joint action comes ahead of a scheduled May visit to China by President Trump.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has used tariffs to pressure China to crack down on sellers of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, but he agreed to lower<\/span> fentanyl-related tariffs after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in October. In return, China has pledged to work with the U.S. to crack down on the drug networks.<\/p>\n In March, state media reported that China arrested seven people in an operation targeting traffickers of fentanyl precursors, according to the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n In November, Chinese authorities, acting on intelligence from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, seized 430 kilograms of cocaine from an international shipping container, Beijing’s public security ministry said.<\/p>\n