China, the U.S., and the War on Drugs

A Beyond the Headlines Event

More than 109,000 Americans died last year from drug overdoses. More than two-thirds of these deaths involved fentanyl and related synthetic drugs. Though China banned the sale of fentanyl in 2018, it remains the largest supplier of the drug’s precursor ingredients. These ingredients supply Mexican drug cartels that then smuggle finished fentanyl into the United States. Fierce competition and tensions between the US and China have stalled counter-narcotics cooperation. Recent agreements may signal progress in this arena, but will they be enough to stem the US overdose epidemic? What needs to be done to stop the influx of fentanyl? Do we need to comprise on other US priorities to gain China’s cooperation?

 Dr. Katherine Palmer Kaup is James B. Duke Professor of Asian Studies and Politics and International Affairs at Furman University. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Committee on United States-China Relations.  Her research focuses on ethnic minorities, rule of law, and human rights developments in China as well as on US-China relations. She is the author of Creating the Zhuang: Ethnic Politics in China and several articles and chapters on ethnic minorities, and is editor and contributor to the textbook Understanding Contemporary Asia (2nd edition 2021). She has served as special adviser for Minority Nationalities Affairs at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yunnan Minzu University, Visiting Scholar at the Guangxi Ethnic Affairs Commission, and PI/Program Director for several federally-funded Chinese language programs and for the Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment. She speaks Chinese and regularly leads university and Congressional staff delegations to China. She holds a BA from Princeton and MA/PhD from the University of Virginia in Government and Foreign Affairs.

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