U.S. President Donald Trump says China is set to start executing fentanyl dealers, in what he calls a righteous blow against the drug crisis killing thousands of Americans every year.
Trump made the claim at the White House on Wednesday after signing a new law that permanently adds fentanyl-related substances to Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substances Act. The bill, called the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, imposes stiffer penalties, including a mandatory 10-year jail term for traffickers.
Anyone caught trafficking these illicit poisons will be punished. We’re taking drug pushers and peddlers off our streets, Trump declared.
The former president, flanked by grieving families who lost loved ones to overdoses, also said he believes Beijing will soon take an even harsher step.
I think we’re going to work it out so that China ends up giving the death penalty to the people who create this fentanyl and send it into our country, Trump said.
China already has the death penalty for some drug offenses, but Trump insists the crackdown will now include fentanyl producers fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic.
The announcement comes as Trump boasts of slapping a 20% tariff on China, which he described as a “penalty” for flooding the U.S. with synthetic opioids.
Trump didn’t stop there—he reignited his 2020 election claims, saying the deal with China would have been sealed earlier if the vote wasn’t “rigged.”
I believe we would have had that deal a long time ago,” Trump said. “I shook hands with him. Then we had a rigged election, and somebody else came in and didn’t know anything about the death penalty deal.”
While the U.S. move is tough, China’s justice system remains under fire for lack of transparency, with Amnesty International reporting thousands of executions last year.
Still, Trump insists harsh punishment is the only way.
Every country that has the death penalty has no drug problem, he said, adding that U.S. states also have the right to introduce capital punishment for drug dealers.
