Fentanyl was one of the topics brought up during talks with the Chinese official, Sen. Steve Daines said.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) met with the Chinese communist regime’s vice premier, He Lifeng, on March 22, becoming the first U.S. politician to travel to China since the start of President Donald Trump’s second presidency.
In a brief readout about the meeting, Daines’s office said the senator “voiced President Trump’s ongoing call for China to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors and expressed the hope that further high-level talks between the United States and China will take place in the near future.”
Daines, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Beijing on March 20, after a stop in Vietnam where he met with top Vietnamese leaders.
On March 21, Daines met with Chinese vice foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu.
The trip was made under the backdrop of ongoing tensions between China and the United States. Earlier this month, Trump imposed 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and 20 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods, saying the trade measures were a response to their handling of fentanyl, which has been smuggled into the United States in large quantities.
In retaliation, China announced additional tariffs of up to 15 percent on some U.S. agricultural goods.
According to China’s state-run media Xinhua, the Chinese vice premier told Daines that China “is willing to engage in candid dialogue with the United States” and added the two sides “have many common interests and broad space of cooperation.”
Before leaving for China, Daines noted on social media platform X that he had talked with Trump about China.
“We discussed my upcoming trip to China, and he is pleased that I’ll be carrying his America First agenda and discussing the flow of deadly fentanyl into our country, protecting and growing American jobs, and establishing fair trade between the U.S. and China,” Daines wrote on March 14.
Drug overdose (notably fentanyl poisoning) is the leading cause of death for 18- to 45-year-olds in the United States. Most commonly, the raw materials for illicit fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico, where the finished product is made and smuggled across the border.
By Frank Fang
