U.S. lifts export controls on China’s Ministry of Public Security’s Scientific and Investigative Research Institute to counter drug fentanyl.

The San Francisco police are displaying fentanyl seized on November 20, 2020./AP·Yonhap News

The U.S. government has lifted sanctions on a Chinese government agency to facilitate drug response cooperation agreed upon at the U.S.-China summit.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 16th (local time) that it has removed the Forensic Science Research Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security from the export control list.

This institute was added to the export control list in May 2020 due to its alleged involvement in human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

This measure seems to be in line with the agreement reached at the meeting held by U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping near San Francisco the previous day to resume bilateral cooperation to prevent the production and distribution of drugs like fentanyl.

The revitalization of the Forensic Science Research Institute indirectly supports China’s enforcement against fentanyl. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) previously reported on July 24 that the Biden administration is discussing lifting sanctions on the Chinese Public Security Bureau’s Forensic Science Research Institute, which is suspected of participating in human rights violations, to secure new cooperation from China in response to the fentanyl crisis.

After their second face-to-face summit since taking office, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are walking around the grounds of the ‘Filoli Estate’ in Woodside, near San Francisco, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting was held on the 15th (local time)./Reuters·Yonhap News

Qin Gang, former Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, said in a media interview last year when he was ambassador to the U.S. that it was shocking for the U.S. to sanction a forensic science research institute essential for controlling fentanyl.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, explained in a briefing on the same day that if the export control on the Chinese Forensic Science Research Institute is judged to be an obstacle to saving many American lives, “our decision is to consider the possibility of saving American lives by securing cooperation with China on the issue of fentanyl smuggling.”