Fentanyl Is China's Revenge?

Fentanyl is a huge problem in America right now.

At one point, fentanyl was claiming the lives of 200 Americans every single day.

The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.

China is the leading nation for the production of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.

Ray Donovan, the former DEA chief of operations, stated that if China wants to do something more to regulate fentanyl precursor chemicals, they certainly can, but China is not in a hurry to help.

China's current leader, Xi Jinping, frequently reminds people of the tragedy of the Opium Wars and places direct blame on Western nations.

At the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping stated that after the Opium War of 1840, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, suffered greater ravages, endured intense humiliation, and its people were subjected to great pain.

By the early 19th century, China's population had passed 300 million, while Britain had only around 16 million people.

During the early 19th century, the Qing dynasty ruled China, reaching the height of its power with borders surrounded by sea, mountains, and desert.

In 1756, China almost completely banned trade with Europe, restricting all foreign trade to a single port, Huang Shu (Canton), and through one official organization, the Kohhung, a system known as the Canton system.

In 1792, King George III sent diplomat George McCartney to China to propose opening new ports and changing tax rules, but Emperor Qianlong refused.

The East India Company took over the plan to offer opium instead of silver for Chinese goods, growing opium in India and auctioning it to private merchants in Kolkata who then smuggled it into China.

The Treaty of Nanjing's clause, which automatically extended any privileges granted to other foreigners to Britain, allowed other European nations and the US to immediately seek similar treaties, marking the beginning of China's century of humiliation.

Hong Xuan, a humble village school teacher who had failed imperial exams multiple times, founded the God Worshipping Society in 1843 after strange visions convinced him he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ.

Britain, the US, and France sent advisers and weapons to help the Qing dynasty crush the Taiping Rebellion because the Taipings opposed the opium trade, which threatened Western profits.

On October 25th, 1860, the Treaty of Beijing was signed, ending the Second Opium War and granting Britain new ports, legal opium trade, and the right to send Chinese workers to Europe and colonies as cheap labor.

The Treaty of Beijing included a clause allowing China's population to be used as cheap labor, leading thousands of Chinese people to end up in Europe and its colonies, bringing their culture and opium habit.

In 1804, German pharmacist Friedrich Zer Turner extracted morphine from opium, a substance several times stronger than its source.