evidence: The US government has long accused China of flooding the country with deadly drugs like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, claims the Chinese government denies. The US says Chinese-made opioids are fuelling the worst drug crisis in the country's history. In 2022 more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. [...] "Synthetics like fentanyl have several advantages over traditional drugs - compact, easily shippable, pre-existing demand, replaceable. They're attractive to traffickers." [...] In 2019, the Chinese government banned all forms of fentanyl and its analogues. In January 2024, China and the US launched a joint operation to curb the production of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.