Readout of White House Director of National Drug Control Policy’s Meetings in the People’s Republic of China

On June 19 – 20, White House Director of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta led a delegation of senior officials to Beijing to follow-up on the commitment on counternarcotics cooperation made by President Biden and President Xi at the Woodside summit in November 2023. During his trip, Dr. Gupta underscored that the global manufacturing and trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, threatens the health, security and wellbeing of people around the world and urged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to take meaningful action to combat this shared challenge. During this visit, the PRC announced that it will include 46 new substances in the supplementary list of controlled non-pharmaceutical narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs, including several synthetic opioids.

Dr. Gupta and United States Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Nicholas Burns met with State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong to discuss the importance of counternarcotics cooperation and the critical need to deliver tangible and sustainable results in addressing the shared threat posed by synthetic drug production and trafficking. Dr. Gupta discussed the historic investments by the Biden-Harris Administration to crack down on global illicit drug trafficking and address substance use disorder. Both sides committed to alerting one another of the emergence of newly detected synthetic substances that present a potential emerging drug threat to both countries through establishing a direct line of communication and to continue regular scientist-to-scientist exchanges on this topic, with the next exchange taking place later in June.

Dr. Gupta also held a roundtable discussion with the shipping industry and visited a package screening facility to further seek security collaboration within the commercial shipping system.

Dr. Gupta, as the United States’ representative to the World Anti-Doping Agency, also met with the PRC Minister of Sport to discuss recent allegations of doping by Chinese athletes prior to the Tokyo Olympics and underscore the critical importance of commitment to fair sports and zero tolerance for sports doping.

The delegation included senior officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and Drug Enforcement Administration.

###