Biden Overdose Awareness Week proclamation makes no mention of China

WASHINGTON — President Biden proclaimed next week as Overdose Awareness Week Friday, vowing “bold action” to address record-high drug deaths — but failing to name China as the primary exporter of smuggled fentanyl that’s responsible for the mounting toll.

“Every loss is a painful reminder that we must take bold action to end our Nation’s overdose epidemic. During Overdose Awareness Week, we reaffirm our commitment to beating this public health and public safety epidemic — in memory of all those we have lost and to protect all the lives we can still save,” Biden said in a statement.

The total number of US drug overdose deaths increased slightly last year to nearly 111,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fentanyl is the primary cause, killing roughly 76,000 Americans in 2022, an increase from about 72,000 in 2021, according to CDC data.

Deaths are up dramatically under Biden, who rarely mentions that China is the leading producer of the potent synthetic opioid that’s mixed into drugs such as cocaine and counterfeit prescriptions, killing unwitting and disproportionately young users.

About 58,000 Americans died from fentanyl in 2020 during former President Donald Trump’s final full year in office, though that toll was up significantly from more than 37,000 in 2019 and about 32,000 in 2018.

China broke off counter-narcotics talks with the US in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the Biden administration is considering easing unrelated sanctions on Chinese officials in exchange for renewed cooperation.

Republicans generally are much more aggressive toward China on issues ranging from fentanyl deaths to the need for transparency on the origins of COVID-19 and are making it a campaign issue ahead of next year’s election.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, said Wednesday at the first Republican primary debate that “the Chinese are engaging in an act of war against us, killing our citizens. We better make that priority one in our conversations with China.”

The five-year US death toll from fentanyl is about 275,000.

By comparison, US officials estimate that about 190,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops have died in 18 months of intense fighting.

Trump, who is the top-polling Republican presidential candidate despite facing four criminal cases, has accused Biden of being beholden to Beijing due to a pair of business deals involving his son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden — and in which Joe Biden also allegedly was involved.

Trump claimed in a video published last week that Biden “was bribed and now he’s being blackmailed” by China.

“He’s petrified of China because they know exactly how much money has been given to him and they know exactly where it is. China has paid him a fortune,” said Trump, who routinely mentioned fentanyl’s source as president and claimed he pressured Chinese President Xi Jinping into adopting the death penalty for exporters.

Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said earlier this month, “Over the past few months, [Biden] sent three members of his administration to make nice with China and got nothing done on fentanyl,” referring to recent visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.

Biden didn’t mention fentanyl during the public portion of his first in-person meeting with Xi last November and also didn’t mention it during the publicly aired portion of a virtual meeting with Xi in 2021.

Although Biden did not name China — or Mexico, through which much of the Chinese-sourced fentanyl is smuggled — his 820-word Overdose Awareness Week proclamation hails administration efforts to intercept the drug at the US border.

“My Administration is… disrupting the flow of illicit drugs by making it costlier to bring killer drugs into America; going after drug traffickers’ profits; and targeting their financial networks, supply chains, and delivery routes, including on the internet,” he said.

“We have strengthened coordination and information sharing among our intelligence and domestic law enforcement agencies to dismantle drug traffickers and their networks. So far, my Administration has seized more than 1.6 million pounds of drugs before they crossed the border and entered into our communities, including over 42,500 pounds of illicitly manufactured fentanyl.”

Biden added: “Drug overdose deaths leveled off in 2022 after sharp increases from 2019 to 2021. Now, we must double down on this work, which is why my proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024 requests a historic $46.1 billion for national drug control programs.”

House Republicans, meanwhile, are threatening to launch an impeachment inquiry as early as next month into Biden’s role in his family’s dealings in countries such as China during and immediately after his vice presidency.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) this month called on Biden to “give us his bank records” to show he wasn’t involved.

Biden has sought to brush off questions about financial conflicts of interest in China, claiming in March “that’s not true” when asked about three relatives — Hunter, James, and daughter-in-law Hallie — receiving $1 million from a Chinese energy company in early 2017, according to subpoenaed bank records released by the Oversight Committee.

He grumbled “give me a break, man,” in February when asked if his ability to manage the US-China relationship was “compromised.”

Hunter Biden cofounded state-backed Chinese investment fund BHR Partners in 2013 — just 12 days after he joined then-VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children. 

Hunter’s former business partner Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee in a July 31 interview that Joe Biden had coffee with Li during the 2013 trip — rather than a mere handshake as previously reported — and that Hunter put his father on speaker phone with Li during a subsequent business trip to Beijing.

Hunter Biden held a 10% stake in BHR through at least part of his father’s first year in office and the status of his alleged divestment in late 2021 remains unclear.

The White House has refused to provide any transparency following an assertion by Hunter’s legal team that he no longer holds the shares.

Purported internal BHR documents indicate Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer whom he met at a 2019 fundraiser, may have assumed control of the stake.

First brother James Biden and first son Hunter later launched a second business venture in China with another government-linked company, CEFC China Energy, which formed part of Beijing’s foreign influence “Belt and Road” campaign.

Joe Biden allegedly met twice with his son and brother’s CEFC partners and was referred to as the “big guy” and penciled in for a 10% cut in a May 2017 email.

Two of Hunter Biden’s former associates in the venture, Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar, have identified the president as the big guy.

Bobulinski alleges that he discussed the CEFC deal with Joe Biden and an October 2017 email from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop identifies him as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas. 

The CEFC relationship appears to have started around 2015 when Hunter connected with Vuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister of Serbia and president of the United Nations General Assembly who was running for UN secretary-general.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who investigated Hunter for three and five years, respectively, said in recent congressional testimony that Justice Department officials blocked them from investigating Joe Biden’s role in business dealings, despite communications directly mentioning him.

Shapley revealed a threatening July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message in which Hunter wrote he was “sitting here with my father” and threatened retribution if a deal was aborted, immediately preceding the transfer of $5.1 million from CEFC China Energy to Biden-linked accounts — on top of more than $1 million that was transferred earlier in the year.

Hunter also received a 3.16-carat diamond from CEFC founder Ye Jianming in 2017.

Hunter Biden wrote in emails retrieved from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden and the House Oversight Committee in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly received foreign revenue.