英文媒体关于中国的报道汇总 2023-10-04
October 5, 2023 27 min 5660 words
根据您提供的新闻报道,我总结了以下主要内容- 1. 中国作家Can Xue被看好获得2023年诺贝尔文学奖。 2. 中国被指控以多种方式干预台湾大选。台湾国安局长表示,中国可能利用军事压力、经济胁迫或假新闻影响选举。 3. 美国参议院一个跨党派代表团计划访问中国、日本和韩国。参议院多数党领袖舒默表示,此行旨在推进美国在亚太地区的经济和国家安全利益。 4. 欧洲在中美竞争中航行变得更加困难。一些观察人士认为,美国已经在测试世贸组织规则的极限。欧洲面临在美国和中国之间保持开放而付出高昂代价的困境。 5. 中国渔船在南中国海与疑似油轮相撞导致多名菲律宾渔民死亡。菲律宾海岸警卫队正在调查此事。 6. 文章讨论了中美关系的过去、现在和未来,表示双方在贸易、台湾等问题上的分歧日益加剧。专家认为,只有通过谈判才能化解紧张局势。 7. 中国审查了两名运动员比赛号码恰好组成“64”的图片,因为这引起了人们对“六四事件”的联想。 8. 由于印度不允许飞机从西方进入尼泊尔新的机场,导致国际航班无法起降。尼泊尔指责印度限制其领空。 9. 美国对25家中国公司和个人实施制裁,指责他们参与芬太尼等毒品的生产和供应链。中国驻华盛顿大使馆暂未回应。 10. 美国指控8家中国公司及其高管从事芬太尼等毒品前体化学品非法生产和分销。美国官员表示中国政府没有配合调查。 总体来说,这些报道反映出中美之间在多个领域存在复杂的矛盾和紧张局势。報道涉及政治、经济、历史认知等多个层面。我认为,这些报道存在一定的偏见和片面性,过多聚焦两国之间的分歧,而忽视了共同利益。两国应秉持理性与务实,在相互尊重的基础上加强对话沟通,妥善管控分歧,谋求合作共赢。中国在应对这些外部舆论时也应保持冷静和开放,并继续推进改革开放,树立负责任大国形象。
- Chinese author Can Xue favourite to win 2023 Nobel prize for literature
- Taiwan says China has “very diverse“ ways of interfering in election
- Schumer confirms US Senate trip to China, Japan, South Korea
- Choppy waters as Europe navigates China-US rivalry
- Philippine fishers killed after collision with suspected oil tanker in South China Sea
- What is the future of US-China relations? | Podcasts
- [World] Asian Games: China censors 'Tiananmen' image of athletes hugging
- Philippines looking into ramming incident in South China Sea - president
- [World] India-China feud keeps international planes out of Nepal airport
- [World] US sanctions Chinese firms in crackdown on fentanyl supply chain
- U.S. charges Chinese companies, executives with fentanyl crimes
Chinese author Can Xue favourite to win 2023 Nobel prize for literature
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/04/chinese-author-can-xue-favourite-win-2023-nobel-prize-for-literatureCan Xue, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie are among the most likely authors to win this year’s Nobel prize for literature, according to bookies.
Chinese avant garde author Xue, 70, is leading the pack with Ladbrokes giving 8/1 odds of her winning the prestigious literary award.
The winner is due to be announced on Thursday at about noon GMT. “It’s a wide-open field as far as the odds are concerned, but the latest figures suggest punters are fast-growing convinced by Can Xue’s chances,” said Alex Apati of Ladbrokes.
Xue, whose real name is Deng Xiaohua, was previously longlisted for the international Booker prize for her novel Love in the New Millennium, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, and her short story collection I Live in the Slums, translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping.
The prize is awarded to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, according to the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel. This year, the prize money will rise to 11m Swedish kronor (£822,000), from 10m SEK.
Following Xue at 12/1 odds is Japanese writer Murakami, 74, whose novels include Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84. He has long been floated as a possible winner, and in 2013 he was the bookies’ favourite with 3-1 odds, though Alice Munro ended up winning.
After Murakami at 14/1 is Gerald Murnane, 84, the Australian author of novels including The Plains and Inland. His work is often self-referential. In a June essay in the Guardian, Emmett Stinson wrote that “Murnane’s international recognition has been belated”.
Also given 14/1 odds is 69-year-old László Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian novelist and screenwriter. His novels include Sátántangó and The Melancholy of Resistance, and he won the international Booker prize in 2015.
Seven writers have been given 16/1 odds: Lyudmila Ulitskaya (Russian), Atwood (Canadian), Mircea Cărtărescu (Romanian), Pierre Michon (French), Rushdie (Indian-British-American) and Thomas Pynchon (American).
Last year’s prize was awarded to French author Annie Ernaux, whose work is mostly autobiographical. She was the bookies’ favourite to win in 2021.
A total of 115 people have been awarded the Nobel prize for literature since 1901. If Xue wins, she will be the 18th woman to win the prize and the second Chinese resident, after Mo Yan was honoured in 2012. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian won the prize in 2000, but he is a French citizen.
Taiwan says China has “very diverse“ ways of interfering in election
https://reuters.com/article/taiwan-china-election/taiwan-says-china-has-very-diverse-ways-of-interfering-in-election-idUSKBN314098China has "very diverse" ways of interfering in Taiwan's elections in January, from military pressure to spreading fake news, including manipulating opinion polls, a senior Taiwanese security official said on Wednesday.
Ahead of elections, Taiwan routinely flags the risk of interference from Beijing, which claims the democratically governed island as its own, saying China seeks to sway the outcome to candidates who may be more favourable toward the country.
"The way the Chinese Communists interfere in elections is very diversified," Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen told lawmakers during a parliamentary committee session.
China can use military pressure, economic coercion or fake news to create a false choice between "war or peace" in the election, seeking to frighten voters, Tsai said.
"We are paying special attention to the Chinese Communists cooperating with opinion poll and public relations companies for the possibility of manipulating opinion polls and issuing them to interfere in the elections," he added, without naming any companies.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment. China is in the middle of its weeklong national day holiday.
Taiwan Vice President William Lai of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which champions the island's separate identity from China, is the favourite to be the next president, according to opinion polls.
China considers Lai and his party to be separatists and has repeatedly rejected their offers of talks. Lai says that he does not seek to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, but that only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
China has increased military activities around Taiwan since the last election in 2020, and regularly sends warships and fighters into the seas and skies near the island.
Tsai said China's most recent drills close to Taiwan, which started last month and have been described by Taiwan's defence minister as "abnormal", were virtually the same as those in previous years in terms of their focus, such as landing exercises.
But more aircraft and ships were involved this time and there were more practice firings by the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF), which oversees China's conventional and nuclear missiles, he added.
That might be related to Chinese President Xi Jinping seeking to exert his control over the PLARF, Tsai said, a branch of China's military that has come under focus after its two most senior leaders were suddenly replaced at the end of July with outside commanders.
China's defence ministry also did not respond to requests for comment.
Schumer confirms US Senate trip to China, Japan, South Korea
https://reuters.com/article/usa-china-senate/schumer-confirms-us-senate-trip-to-china-japan-south-korea-idUSKBN3130S2A bipartisan U.S. Senate delegation will visit China, Japan and South Korea in October, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office said on Tuesday.
The six-senator group will be co-led by Republican Mike Crapo, whose office said earlier the trip is planned for next week and that the senators hope to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Schumer has repeatedly urged the United States to take a harder line on China, and urged lawmakers earlier this year to begin new legislation aimed at addressing concerns about the world's second-biggest economy. The trip will follow visits by a series of Biden administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in August.
Schumer's office said the trip's goal is to advance U.S. economic and national security interests in the region and will feature meetings with government leaders and business leaders from each country and from U.S. companies operating in each country.
Schumer "will focus on the need for reciprocity in China for U.S. businesses that will level the playing field for American workers, as well as on maintaining U.S. leadership in advanced technologies for national security," his office said.
Other senators on the trip include Republicans Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and Democrats Maggie Hassan and Jon Ossoff.
China welcomes Schumer's visit and hopes it will deepen the U.S. Senate's "objective" understanding of China and facilitate dialogues between the nations' legislative agencies, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Raimondo said in August that U.S.companies had complained to her that China has become "uninvestable," pointing to fines, raids and other actions that made it risky to do business in the country.
"For U.S. business in many cases, patience is running thin, and it's time for action," she said, adding that companies face "exorbitant fines without any explanation, revisions to the counterespionage law, which are unclear and sending shock waves through the U.S. community; raids on businesses – a whole new level of challenge and we need that to be addressed."
Choppy waters as Europe navigates China-US rivalry
https://reuters.com/article/imf-worldbank-europe-china-analysis/analysis-choppy-waters-as-europe-navigates-china-us-rivalry-idUSKBN31407VAt a World Trade Organization event in September, former British prime minister Gordon Brown voiced out loud the fear that has quietly started to echo in the halls of power across Europe.
"Europe does not want to end up squeezed between America and China, either a Chinese colony or an American colony," he said of a scenario in which rivalry between China and the United States could lead to a world of two hostile power axes.
"For even if Europe would always choose America, upon whom its security depends, it also knows that its lifeblood, far more so than for the USA, is trade," added Brown, who since quitting UK politics has taken senior UN roles on global issues.
The fracturing of the rules and bonds tying the global economy together - so-called "geo-economic fragmentation" - seemed implausible only a few years ago. Now, it is a headline topic at the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting of economic leaders in the Moroccan city of Marrakech next week.
Nowhere is it more pressing than for Europe, whose wealth has always relied on trade, from its rapacious colonial history through to its reinvention as self-styled champion of WTO rules.
Together, the 27 countries of the European Union make up the world's biggest trade bloc, accounting for 16% of world imports and exports. That also makes them highly reliant on goods from elsewhere, ranging from critical raw materials to blood plasma.
But tariffs and other trade curbs are rising as governments seek to counter populist rivals who have snapped up the votes of those left behind by two decades of rapid globalisation including China's entry into the global trading system.
Both the United States and Europe have been hardening their stance towards Beijing while stressing the rules of world trade must be fairly applied. But Washington, some observers argue, is already testing how far those rules can be stretched.
"Europe's clear belief in holding to WTO principles in a world where the other two big powers don't really hold to them limits, in some ways, its opportunities for cooperation with the United States," Brad Setser, a trade veteran who has advised the Biden administration, told a Brussels audience last month.
One sign of that was the strain in talks on a U.S.-Europe "green steel" club erecting trade barriers to box out China. The main EU concern is that the U.S. proposals could break WTO rules by discriminating against third parties.
Back in 2020 there was a sigh of relief among most European governments when Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as president. But they now recognise that any U.S. consensus for free trade has long gone and that they must adapt - preferably before a 2024 U.S. election that might return Trump to the White House.
"(European) firms need to be prepared for extreme scenarios in which the US forces them to leave China," warned a discussion paper presented to EU finance ministers last month entitled "Dealing with Europe's Economic (In-)security".
While such aggressive sanctions on China are not current U.S. policy, the EU paper seen by Reuters noted the bloc was "badly prepared for a world of geopolitical rivalry and great power competition" that could create such spillover effects.
Europe's leaders meet in Spain later this week to start sketching out an economic security plan to address the region's vulnerabilities, with a goal of reaching agreement by year-end.
It won't be easy.
On the one hand, countries must agree which technologies should be subject to stronger export controls and screening of outbound investments, in some cases weighing security interests against national commercial benefits.
On the other, EU capitals may have to stump up billions of euros of new money to help local industry develop in yet-to-be-confirmed strategic technologies.
They will do that in the knowledge that any measures could incur the ire of Beijing - with German China-focused exporters, for example, standing to lose more in such a case than others.
Wang Huiyao, president of the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization think tank said Europe should factor in the longstanding cultural ties and commercial interests it has with China in formulating its policy.
"Of course the EU should approach China differently to how the U.S does," he said, arguing that differences on human rights and ideology could be worked through.
Ultimately, however, realpolitik might force Europe's hand.
An IMF analysis this year concluded that, if the world economy split into U.S.-centred and China-focused axes, Europe would fare best by remaining open to both, but noted it "might face heavy costs if such a policy approach significantly raises the possibility of barriers between itself and the U.S.".
Petra Sigmund, a German official who co-authored Berlin's China strategy, noted Europe and Washington did not always see eye-to-eye on China but told a recent think tank event the Biden administration showed "great willingness to sort it out".
"And we really hope ... that after the election in the United States this is going to continue."
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Philippine fishers killed after collision with suspected oil tanker in South China Sea
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/04/oil-tanker-crash-philippine-fishermen-killed-south-china-sea-Three fishers died after a Philippine fishing boat collided with a foreign commercial vessel in the disputed South China Sea, the Philippine coast guard has said.
The coast guard said the incident happened at about 4.20am on Monday in waters off Scarborough Shoal, according to a crew member on board. Ten fishers survived the incident and were able to seek assistance.
The fishers’ mother boat, which was moored for fishing 85 nautical miles north-west of Scarborough Shoal, was submerged, resulting in the death of its three crew members, including its boat captain, the coast guard said.
An incident report released by the coast guard on Wednesday morning said that, after cross-referencing the fishers’s account with marine traffic information, it had found that a crude oil tanker vessel, registered under the flag of Marshall Island, aligned with the descriptions given.
“The PCG [Philippine Coast Guard] will reach out to the flag of the vessel and next port to be visited by the said vessel to be boarded by the port state control officers,” the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said.
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos said he was deeply saddened by the deaths.
“We assure the victims, their families, and everyone that we will exert every effort to hold accountable those who are responsible for this unfortunate maritime incident,” Marcos said. He added: “let us refrain from engaging in speculation in the meantime”.
The 10 crew members who survived the incident transported the dead to Infanta, in the province of Pangasinan, where they arrived at 10am on Tuesday.
According to a survivor’s account cited by the PCG, adverse weather caused particularly dark conditions, and the crew on board the mother boat failed to detect an unidentified vessel approaching, resulting in a collision.
The South China Sea is one of the world’s most fiercely contested waterways, and has been subject of increased tensions over recent months. China claims the water almost in its entirety – although a UN tribunal found this to be without legal basis. The Philippines, as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims.
Scarborough Shoal is claimed by both the Philippines and China, and the latter effectively controls it. Sovereignty has never been established.
Last week the Philippines condemned the Chinese Coast Guard, which it accused of installing a hazardous floating barrier in the waters near to Scarborough Shoal, saying this was a violation of international law. At the time, China defended its actions as “professional and restrained”.
The Philippines carried out a “special operation” to remove the barrier, posing as fishers to enter the shoal, before diving down with snorkels and cutting away at the rope.
What is the future of US-China relations? | Podcasts
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2023/10/03/what-is-the-future-of-us-china-relationsSign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer. You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches*
All is not well in the world’s most important relationship. China and America are at loggerheads over everything from trade to Taiwan.
For a special live show, David Rennie and Alice Su travel to Washington DC to find out how relations between the two superpowers deteriorated and what can be done to improve them.
They speak to Evan Medeiros, a former top Asia advisor to President Barack Obama who is now a professor at Georgetown University. David and Alice also talk to a class of postgraduate students looking at the US-China relationship and find out what this younger generation thinks about the future. Runtime: 40 min
*If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page.
[World] Asian Games: China censors 'Tiananmen' image of athletes hugging
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67002583?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGAA photo of two Chinese female athletes that made an inadvertent reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre has been censored on Chinese social media.
The race numbers for Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni form '64' - a common allusion to the incident which happened on 4 June.
Discussions of the incident remain taboo in China, with authorities routinely scrubbing any mention of the topic from the internet.
In 1989, troops shot dead hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.
It remains unclear how many people actually died that day, but human rights groups' estimates range from several hundred to several thousand killed.
The athletes had embraced each other after a 100m hurdles race at the Asian Games in which Ms Lin won gold. She was wearing her lane number 6 next to Ms Wu's lane number 4 in the photo.
Users had posted on Weibo, one of China's biggest social media platforms, congratulating Ms Lin. However, posts which included the photo were replaced with grey squares.
However, the photo does not appear to have been completely scrubbed off the internet, with some Chinese news articles still showing a photo of the two athletes.
China has won nearly 300 medals so far in the Asian Games, which are currently taking place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. It is due to go on until 8 October.
Discussion of the events that took place in Tiananmen Square is highly sensitive in China - with generations of younger Chinese growing up with little to no knowledge about the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Posts relating to the massacres are regularly removed from the internet, tightly controlled by the government.
Last year, a popular Chinese influencer's livestream, which took place on the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the massacre, ended abruptly after he showed his audience a vanilla log cake which resembled a tank - a reference to a iconic image of one so-called Tank Man, which shows a civilian with shopping bags standing in front of a queue of tanks, attempting to block them.
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Philippines looking into ramming incident in South China Sea - president
https://reuters.com/article/southchinasea-philippines/philippines-looking-into-ramming-incident-in-south-china-sea-president-idUSKBN31402ZThe Philippines is investigating a maritime incident to find out what killed three Filipino fishermen in a ramming incident that sank their boat in the South China Sea, its president said on Wednesday.
"We assure the victims, their families, and everyone that we will exert every effort to hold accountable those who are responsible for this unfortunate maritime incident," Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on the X social media platform.
Three Filipino fishermen died after their fishing boat was rammed by an unidentified foreign commercial vessel while crossing the South China Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred on Monday while the boat was transiting 85 nautical miles (157 km) northwest of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, it said in a statement. Eleven crew members survived when the boat sank.
"The incident is still under investigation to ascertain the details and circumstances surrounding the collision between the fishing boat and a still unidentified commercial vessel," Marcos said.
"Let us allow the PCG to do its job and investigate, and let us refrain from engaging in speculation in the meantime," he added, referring to the coast guard.
Tensions around those waters have recently flared up after the Philippines said it removed a 300-metre ball-buoy barrier installed by China's coastguard near the Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing spot and one of Asia's most contested maritime features.
The strategic shoal, named after a British cargo vessel that ran aground there in the 18th century, is in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone but was seized in 2012 by China, which has maintained a constant presence of coast guard ships and fishing trawlers there ever since.
China has rejected the Philippines' version of events over the barrier, while the United States has weighed in with support behind Manila and vowed to honour its treaty commitments to defend its treaty ally if attacked.
The Philippine coastguard did not elaborate on the incident or provide details of the vessel it said had rammed the Filipino crew.
[World] India-China feud keeps international planes out of Nepal airport
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66425253?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGAThe bright orange hotel sticks out as far as the eye can see - but unfortunately for its owner Bishnu Sharma, there is hardly anyone there to see it.
His hotel offers breath-taking mountain views from the town of Lumbini in Nepal - Buddha's birthplace.
But a hoped-for surge in tourist numbers has failed to materialise, blamed in part on tensions between Nepal's giant neighbours India and China.
Lumbini saw close to a million visitors in 2022, according to the Lumbini Development Trust - and it was this number the government was betting on when it spent $76m (£61m) to build the Gautam Buddha International Airport, which opened in May last year.
Domestic tourists make up most of the visitors, with just less than a third travelling from neighbouring India.
The terminal, also known as Bhairahawa Airport, lets tourists fly directly to Lumbini instead of travelling 250km (155 miles) by land from the capital, Kathmandu.
Yet the anticipated travel boom never materialised, something travel industry experts attribute to a lack of early promotion and incentives to international airlines.
"The government asked us to expand tourism infrastructure saying more international flights would come. But my hotel is two-thirds empty. I am now struggling to repay my loan," Mr Sharma tells the BBC, adding that he is millions of rupees in debt.
Travel industry experts argue tourist arrivals, particularly from overseas, will go up if there are regular scheduled international flights operating out of Bhairahawa airport.
But Nepali officials say Delhi has refused to allow big passenger planes to fly west through its airspace - meaning planes cannot fly over India to reach the Gautam Buddha airport. Access to Indian airspace would mean shorter flights at lower cost.
Some in Nepal also believe that Delhi is wary of the fact that the Gautam Buddha airport was constructed by China's Northwest Civil Aviation Airport.
The airport is also located near Nepal's border with India - west of where the two Asian giants' troops clashed last December in the Arunachal Pradesh region, just seven months after the terminal opened to international traffic.
In 2020, a major encounter between India and China killed at least 20 troops. At the centre of their dispute is an ill-defined, poorly-demarcated 3,440km (2,100-mile)-long border- called the Line of Actual Control, or LAC.
The presence of rivers, lakes and snowcaps means the line can shift. The soldiers on either side - representing two of the world's largest armies - come face to face at many points.
The situation at the border is mirrored by growing political tension, with strained ties between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Observers say talks are the only way forward because both nuclear-armed countries have much to lose. The two countries have fought only one war, in 1962, when India suffered a humiliating defeat.
The Gautum Buddha airport was meant to be the key to Nepal's plan to grow traffic by easing the load of Kathmandu - which has been for years its only international gateway. Kathmandu Airport is heavily congested and was briefly shut down by a powerful earthquake in 2015.
A third international airport located in Pokhara - a town with stunning views of the Annapurna mountains and known for adventure sports - is facing a familiar problem to Bhairahawa.
Since it opened last January, the airport - built with a $215m loan from China - has not welcomed any international flights, save for a charter flight from Chengdu that brought in Chinese officials and tourists.
Currently, Gautama Buddha and Pokhara have a combined traffic of 80-85 domestic flights per day. But experts say the terminals need substantial international traffic to sustain operations.
"I don't think only domestic flights will make these two airports commercially viable. It may be difficult to repay the loan without regular international flights," says Tri Ratna Manandhar, the former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
Pokhara International Airport chief Bikram Raj Gautam says Nepal needs "proactive diplomacy" to convince countries like India to open their airspace to commercial flights that will land in Nepal.
Experts say Nepal can also look at attracting tourists from the east like Thailand, Japan and Cambodia, while Delhi's restrictions choke traffic from the west.
Nepal Airlines has just started a weekly flight from Bhairahawa to Kuala Lumpur - something that should send a positive message to other airlines, Dipak Bajracharya, director of the Gautam Buddha International Airport tells the BBC.
But Nepal's minister for tourism and civil aviation, Gopal Kranti, remains optimistic that there will be a resolution with Delhi - and soon.
"We are in constant touch and dialogue with Indian officials and diplomats," he tells the BBC. "They are very positive."
With additional reporting by Surendra Phuyal in Kathmandu
[World] US sanctions Chinese firms in crackdown on fentanyl supply chain
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67002385?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGAThe US has announced sanctions on 25 China-based firms and individuals allegedly involved in the production of chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Fentanyl, a potent opioid used as a painkiller or sedative, plays a major role in the ongoing US drug crisis.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the drug's supply chain "often starts with chemical companies in China".
China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters news agency.
In April, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said there was "no such thing as illegal trafficking of fentanyl" between China and Mexico.
This came after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on the Chinese government to help stop the alleged flow of fentanyl and its precursors into his country.
The US authorities blame Mexican drug gangs for supplying fentanyl to users across the US.
Fentanyl can be legally prescribed by doctors, but a dramatic increase in opioid addiction in the US in recent decades has led to a rise in illegal production and overdoses.
In 2022, the drug was linked to a record 109,680 deaths.
The US treasury department announced sanctions against what it called a "China-based network responsible for the manufacturing and distribution" of precursors of fentanyl and a number of other illegal drugs.
Officials say companies in the fentanyl supply chain routinely use false addresses and mislabelling to avoid their products being identified by law enforcement.
Those affected by the sanctions include 12 entities and 13 individuals based in China, as well as two entities and one individual based in Canada, the treasury said.
The sanctions will freeze the entities' US assets and bar Americans from dealing with them.
Merrick Garland is due to travel to Mexico with other senior officials for meetings on how to tackle the supply of illegal drugs.
"We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl," Mr Garland told reporters.
"We know that this network includes the cartels' leaders, their drug traffickers, their money launderers, their clandestine lab operators, their security forces, their weapons suppliers, and their chemical suppliers.
"And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China."
The justice department has also unsealed indictments charging eight Chinese companies and 12 of their employees with crimes related to fentanyl and methamphetamine production, the distribution of opioids and sales resulting from precursor chemicals.
No-one has been arrested and the Chinese government did not work with US authorities on the investigations, Mr Garland said.
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Expert: Fentanyl crisis has ‘only gotten worse’
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U.S. charges Chinese companies, executives with fentanyl crimes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/10/03/fentanyl-china-mexico-us/2023-10-03T18:32:10.758ZU.S. officials announced criminal charges Tuesday against eight Chinese companies and 12 of their executives accused of supplying precursor chemicals for the illegal manufacture of fentanyl, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs.
The charges were the second major set of indictments the Biden administration has unsealed since June accusing companies in China with supplying Mexican drug cartels and fueling a U.S. overdose epidemic that is killing more than 100,000 Americans a year. Most of the deaths have been linked to fentanyl, the synthetic opioid 50 times as potent as heroin.
Undercover U.S. agents ordered the chemicals from online sellers in China who openly advertised their ability to skirt U.S. detection by using fake shipping labels and deceptive delivery procedures, U.S. officials said.
“We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Justice Department news briefing describing the charges, adding, “And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.”
Garland said he will travel to Mexico City on Wednesday with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss fentanyl and anti-narcotics cooperation with Mexican officials and military commanders.
The fentanyl crisis has become the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, and a growing public outcry has added more strains to U.S.-China relations.
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One alleged supplier in China offering to ship chemicals to Mexico asked an undercover U.S. agent, “Do they need fent?” — using an abbreviation for the drug — and said that “all Mexico customers buy it,” according to Garland.
The shipper sent 43 kilograms of precursor chemicals, enough to manufacture 15 million doses of fentanyl, the attorney general said.
Biden administration officials did not say whether any of the individuals, who were charged in the Middle and Southern districts of Florida, are in U.S. custody. The Chinese government did not assist in the investigation, officials said.
Treasury Department officials separately announced sanctions on 28 individuals and entities allegedly involved in the global trafficking of xylazine, an animal tranquilizer often mixed with fentanyl, as well as another form of synthetic opioids known as “nitazenes.”
Homeland Security Investigations agents have infiltrated Chinese chemical companies selling precursor chemicals to the Mexican criminal groups who manufacture the drugs and smuggle them into the United States, Mayorkas said.
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Mayorkas acknowledged that the flow of fentanyl across the southern border is “not abating.” U.S. border authorities seized more than 27,000 pounds of the drug during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, he said, nearly double the amount they detected during the same 2022 period.
The volume of seizures along the southern border is viewed by U.S. agents as an indication of abundant supplies as much as their effectiveness at intercepting shipments. Fentanyl is extremely cheap to manufacture, and many of the precursor chemicals used to make it have industrial or agricultural purposes, an additional challenge for U.S. authorities trying to choke off supplies.
The low price of illegal fentanyl tablets on U.S. streets is another worrisome supply indicator. The pills, known as blues, are manufactured to resemble U.S. prescription pain pills and now sell for less than $1 in some U.S. cities, officials say. Each tablet contains a potentially fatal amount of fentanyl.
“A deadly dose costs mere cents,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said, adding, “The amount of deadly drugs that can be made is unlimited.”