The unexpected rise of the Chinese fentanyl industry in Mexico.
Illustration by Tim Marrs
In Guadalajara, Mexico, graffiti artists don’t paint murals of Gan Xianbing. Nor do locals pen elegiac Narcocorridos about his exploits, as they do for traffickers like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. But for the years before his capture in 2018, Gan Xianbing’s success in the city’s drug trade signaled the emergence of a new power player on the scene: the Chinese national.
As Chinese-made fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin — has flooded the U.S. market in rec
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Walmart should be in trouble in China, where its competitors are in retreat and its sourcing operations have been criticised by both Beijing and Washington. But the American retailer seems to have found a way forward in a difficult sector and remains one of the biggest benefactors of China-U.S. trade.
The Commerce Department wants to expand export controls to majority-owned subsidiaries of Chinese companies. That could trigger cascading effects — and challenges.
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