{"id":20938,"date":"2024-08-05T00:07:32","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T07:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=20938"},"modified":"2024-08-05T00:12:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T07:12:56","slug":"the-new-opium-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2024\/08\/05\/the-new-opium-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Opium War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;During the 19<sup>th<\/sup> Century, the United Kingdom fought the Opium Wars to ensure that opium, one of the most lucrative commodities for the British that century, would be traded to the Chinese, despite the objections by the Chinese to the destructive consequences of this trade to the Chinese people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The current Communist Chinese regime seems to have learned this lesson well, and is pushing it\u2019s own opoid trade. However, instead of a direct confrontation, they are working through proxies in Latin America\u2014primarily through America\u2019s neighbor Mexico.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20939\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/girl-smoking-opium-half.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"218\" srcset=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/girl-smoking-opium-half.jpg 640w, https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/girl-smoking-opium-half-300x204.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A bipartisan report from the House Select Committee on the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is <a href=\"https:\/\/selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/select-committee-unveils-findings-ccps-role-american-fentanyl-epidemic-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blunt<\/a> about the facts:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe PRC, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ultimate geographic source of the fentanyl crisis. Companies in China produce nearly all of illicit fentanyl precursors, the key ingredients that drive the global illicit fentanyl trade. The House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (Select Committee) launched an investigation to better understand the role of the CCP in the fentanyl crisis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThis investigation involved delving deep into public PRC websites, analyzing PRC government documents, acquiring over 37,000 unique data points of PRC companies selling narcotics online through web scraping and data analytics, undercover communications with PRC drug trafficking companies, and consultations with experts in the public and private sectors, among other steps.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe Select Committee&#8217;s investigation has established that the PRC government, under the control of the CCP:<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates. Many of these substances are illegal under the PRC\u2019s own laws and have no known legal use worldwide. Like its export tax rebates for legitimate goods, the CCP\u2019s subsidies of illegal drugs incentivizes international synthetic drug sales from the PRC. The CCP never disclosed this program.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gave monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics. There are even examples of some of these companies enjoying site visits from provincial PRC government officials who complimented them for their impact on the provincial economy.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Holds ownership interest in several PRC companies tied to drug trafficking. This includes a PRC government prison connected to human rights abuses owning a drug trafficking chemical company and a publicly traded PRC company hosting thousands of instances of open drug trafficking on its sites.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fails to prosecute fentanyl and precursor manufacturers. Rather than investigating drug traffickers, PRC security services have not cooperated with U.S. law enforcement, and have even notified targets of U.S. investigations when they received requests for assistance.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Allows the open sale of fentanyl precursors and other illicit materials on the extensively monitored and controlled PRC internet. A review of just seven e-commerce sites found over 31,000 instances of PRC companies selling illicit chemicals with obvious ties to drug trafficking. Undercover communications with PRC drug trafficking companies (whose identities were provided to U.S. law enforcement) revealed an eagerness to engage in clearly illicit drug sales with no fear of reprisal.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Censors content about domestic drug sales, but leaves export-focused narcotics content untouched. The PRC has censorship triggers for domestic drug sales (e.g., \u201cfentanyl + cash on delivery\u201d), but no such triggers exist to monitor or prevent the export of illicit narcotics out of the PRC.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Strategically and economically benefits from the fentanyl crisis. The fentanyl crisis has helped CCP-tied Chinese organized criminal groups become the world\u2019s premier money launderers, enriched the PRC\u2019s chemical industry, and has had a devastating impact on Americans.<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yet far too many seem to want to <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/It8kK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downplay<\/a> this, purportedly for diplomatic reasons. For others who wish for American foreign policy to be more limited to defending the homeland, this is a reminder that foreign powers far away can and do <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2024\/03\/27\/defending-americas-borders-begins-abroad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">run amok<\/a> within the United States of America\u2014the interests of America\u2019s enemies are our immediate, not peripheral, interest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more-->&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This is also a reminder that Communist China, along with its allies\/minions, are already at war with the United States. Oh, this may not be a <em>de jure<\/em> military war against the United States in a direct fashion when most people thing of war, but a <em>de facto<\/em> war being waged against America <em>via<\/em> commerce and criminal proxies, including those in a neighboring country with reach directly into the entirety of the United States. Unlike in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century, the economics for it now is just a bonus to the Communist Chinese goal to undermine America.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Countries like Communist China already see as enemies to destroy, and whether the United States recognizes that or not does not change that they are, and by their own choice and intent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The full report can be read <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2024\/07\/26\/firing-line-friday-where-is-the-gop-headed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, or below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\"><meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PoliticHatblog\"><meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePoliticalhat\"><meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The New Opium War\"><meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"During the 19th Century, the United Kingdom fought the Opium Wars to ensure that opium, one of the most lucrative commodities for the British that century, would be traded to the Chinese, despite the objections by the Chinese to the destructive consequences of this trade to the Chinese people.\"><meta name=\"twitter:image:src\" content=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/girl-smoking-opium-half.jpg\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;During the 19th Century, the United Kingdom fought the Opium Wars to ensure that opium, one of the most lucrative commodities for the British that century, would be traded to the Chinese, despite the objections by the Chinese to the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2024\/08\/05\/the-new-opium-wars\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20938"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20955,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20938\/revisions\/20955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}