Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy argues Americans have become addicted to Chinese products like fentanyl, TikTok, and even the national debt, and maintains it is time for the United States to become independent from China and the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the Brookings Institution, while China shifted to regulate fentanyl in 2019, it remains the leading supplier of the drug to the U.S.0, with most finding its way here indirectly. The Brookings report also called China’s efforts “self serving” and noted the nation has refused to accept co-responsibility with Mexico for the fentanyl epidemic, electing to point a finger at Mexican law enforcement even as more and more Chinese nationals are involved in the country, with more than a million Americans dying from drug overdoses over the last 20-plus years.
“We’re literally ‘addicted’ to China,” Ramaswamy said on Twitter. “They push fentanyl via cartels across our southern border.”
According to data from Statista, 730 Americans died from fentanyl overdooses in 1999, and by 2002 the annual number of deaths had climbed to 1,295. In 2014, the total climbed again as 5,544 people died as a result of a fentanyl overdose, according to the data. In 2015, the death rate nearly doubled to 9,580 and hit 19,413 in 2016. Fentanyl was responsible for 56,516 deaths in 2020, according to Statista data.
In a 2022 report from of the office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced it had seized more than 50.6 million fentanyl-laced, counterfeit prescription pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder during the calendar year.
Moreover, the report noted the DEA took more than 379 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl off the street, enough to kill every American, and double the amount of fentanyl pills it confiscated the previous year.
Ramaswamy claims the Chinese are seeping into America in other ways. According to National Public Radio reports, Christopher Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee last year that the FBI has "national security concerns" about TikTok operations in the U.S. Wray pointed out issues including “the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose, or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it an opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices."
“They push digital fentanyl via TikTok, blackmailing young Americans,” Ramaswamy said on Twitter.
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is based in China, according to the NPR report, and the Chinese government has national security laws that could compel companies to share data with the government upon request, and leaked audio has confirmed China-based ByteDance workers accessed non-public data of American TikTok users.
According to an AP report, Wray, speaking at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy in December, said the FBI maintains China can use the social media platform to collect user data and manipulate the app’s algorithm. “All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States,” Wray said.
However, NPR reported that TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas said in a September Senate hearing the Chinese government does not have the ability to access data of American users.
U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Indiana, noted in a January Tweet that social media is also a factor in the drug scourge.
“With drug dealers now using social media to distribute their product on platforms used by children, it's critical that Congress holds these organizations accountable,” said Bucshon on the social media platform. “@HouseCommerce hosted a roundtable to examine the role of Big Tech in the fentanyl crisis.”
Ramaswamy also cited the Chinese control of U.S. national debt as a looming issue, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) noted in a report that China purchases the debt as a component of a complex financial system.
“The central bank must purchase U.S. Treasuries and other foreign assets to keep cash inflows from causing inflation,” CSIS said in its report. “In the case of China, this phenomenon is unusual. A country like China, which saves more than it invests domestically, is typically an international lender.”
In an effort to avoid inflation, CSIS pointed out the Chinese central bank, in a process known as “sterilization,” removes incoming foreign currency by purchasing foreign assets, including U.S. Treasury bonds.
“This system has the disadvantage of generating unnecessarily low returns on investment: by relying on FDI, Chinese firms borrow from abroad at high interest rates, while China continues to lend to foreign entities at low interest rates,” CSIS said in its report. “This system also compels China to purchase foreign assets, including safe, convenient U.S. debt.”
