Donald Trump presses China on fentanyl precursors ahead of US summit

US President Donald Trump has urged Beijing to take “more aggressive action” to curb the export of drug precursor chemicals, days ahead of his planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It also comes a week after security agencies from the two countries hailed progress in bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics law enforcement.

On Wednesday, while releasing the latest annual list of designated major source or transit countries for illicit drugs affecting the United States, the White House again labelled China “the world’s largest producer of many of the precursor chemicals used to illicitly produce fentanyl, methamphetamine and other deadly synthetic drugs”.

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Trump said he had raised the issue “directly” with Xi, according to the annual presidential determination regarding the list submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday.

He noted that the Chinese government last year implemented new requirements for companies to obtain licences before exporting designated precursor chemicals to North America, while saying that the move was made at his request.