In 2019, some 71,000 people in this country died from drug overdoses. More than 70% of those deaths involved opioid prescriptions, heroin and synthetic opioids – a.k.a. fentanyl.
In response, the US Department of Treasury has proposed the use of sanctions to target the global fentanyl supply chain. Nevertheless, a Mexican-based cartel continues to traffic a significant volume of fentanyl entering the US which drives our overdose epidemic.
Ironically, according to an ABC news report, “the Mexican government is using video of homeless people and open-air drug users in Philadelphia’s embattled Kensington neighborhood in a national ad campaign to try to scare young people away from drugs.”
As record numbers of migrants continue to enter the US from Mexico, on Nov. 12, US Customs and Border Protection chief Chris Magnus resigned his position at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Yet, contradictorily, days later Mayorkas testified before Congress that the southern border is secure in spite of 2.38 million migrant encounters in the past fiscal year that ended in September.
On Nov. 14, some 9,000 miles away in Bali, Indonesia, after a face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden commented to the press that he does not foresee an imminent attempt by China to invade Taiwan.
Afterward, a White House readout made no mention of the two leaders discussing either deadly fentanyl exports from China or the origins of COVID-19, two perils that have killed more than one million Americans in recent years.
I can’t help but wonder how President Xi truly regards the US as he studies our nation’s struggles with issues like illegal immigration and drug addiction. The fact that the conversation in Bali was effectively “cordial and candid” jargon with Biden offering no real challenge to Xi’s subversive influences toward the US leaves me with a view that China looms as more than a competitive adversary. President Xi is capable of great dissimulation and may well be planning an invasion of Taiwan within the next two years.
Peter Wibell, Rutledge