U.S. and Chinese officials will hold high-level talks next week in Beijing about limiting fentanyl from entering the United States as the nation is experiencing record numbers of overdoses during its worst drug crisis, according to senior Chinese officials.
"I believe through this collaboration, both countries can enhance their law enforcement capabilities," Yu Haibin, one of China's top narcotics control officials, told NBC News. "We will achieve remarkable results in combating fentanyl substances, including precursors."
U.S. officials say China is the main source of precursor chemicals used by Mexican drug cartels to make fentanyl.
China denies culpability in the U.S. drug epidemic while offering its cooperation with the United States to help stem the crisis.
Yu, the deputy director general of the Ministry of Public Security's Narcotics Control Bureau and deputy secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said the "roots" of the problem are in the United States.
Details about the counternarcotics meeting in Beijing have not yet been publicly announced, and the White House Friday declined confirmation on the event.
More than 80,000 people in the U.S. died from overdoses involving opioids in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with almost 88% of those cases involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
However, just two years later, fatal overdoses climbed to more than 112,000 deaths in 2023, hitting young people and people of color hardest, reports NPR.
The United States says China is complicit in the crisis, and the meeting, expected early next week, is part of efforts to improve fractured relations between the two countries.
Such talks had been made contingent by China based on the United States lifting sanctions against the Chinese Ministry of Public Security's Institute of Forensic Science, a government lab that examines evidence and issues reports for court proceedings.
Both countries say the lab is essential for the control of fentanyl. It was sanctioned over China's alleged abuses against Uyghurs and Muslim minority groups.
The sanctions were lifted after President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November met for the first time in a year.
Yu said China does empathize with the drug crisis in the United States, recalling that it was flooded with opium from the British in the mid-19th century and was later forced to legalize it.
China says the United States must tighten its stance on drugs and take measures to stem the growing demand for narcotics.
The U.S. Justice Department, meanwhile, wants to prosecute several Chinese companies and individuals on charges of crimes related to fentanyl.
Yu, however, said that while law enforcement agencies have cooperated on fentanyl-related cases before, the substances were not regulated by the United States, China, or the United Nations, so there was no evidence that the individuals had violated Chinese law.
"If there is a violation of Chinese law, China will take stringent measures," he told NBC.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.