A spokesperson for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stated that the People's Republic of China's (PRC) announcement to impose new restrictions on three fentanyl precursors is meaningless while China continues to subsidize the manufacturing and export of fentanyl. The Select Committee shared its statement with Federal Newswire on August 8.

"This is just the PRC's latest vacuous promise," said the majority spokesperson. "Today, the PRC government is subsidizing the export of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and fentanyl precursors--a program anyone can go look up on the Chinese web. The PRC says that it is ‘cooperating' by scheduling precursors as it did with fentanyl, while it actively subsidizes those purportedly illegal substances and takes no enforcement action against the PRC perpetrators responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths. The horror will not end until the U.S. makes clear to the PRC government and companies responsible that they will pay a price for their actions."

The PRC announced it will schedule seven new substances, three of which are chemical fentanyl precursors: norfentanyl, 4-ap, and 1-boc-4-ap, according to the White House. "This is an important step in the right direction, and we will continue working with our international partners to take strong and urgent action against the global threat of synthetic drugs," said White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Director Dr. Rahul Gupta.

In April, the Select Committee on the CCP released a report titled "The CCP's Role in the Fentanyl Crisis," which disclosed findings from investigations into the manufacturing and export of fentanyl precursors. According to this report, the Select Committee found that the CCP "directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates." These tax rebates occur despite many fentanyl precursors being illegal under Chinese law. The CCP has never disclosed this rebate program. Additionally, the investigation found that the CCP "gave monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics."

Gabriel Noronha, executive director of Polaris National Security and a former special advisor to the State Department, said on an episode of the China Desk podcast that he found fentanyl precursors readily available for purchase and shipping to the U.S. on a Chinese website. "I went on madeinchina.com, which is an e-commerce site in China, searched for fentanyl precursors, and found them on the website," Noronha said. "They say they offer discreet shipping to Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Mexico, Prague–wherever you want it. They will get it there and they have screenshots showing successful purchases [to those locations]. Hundreds of Americans are dying every day."

According to Congress.gov, the Select Committee was established in January 2023. Its purpose is to investigate and submit policy recommendations related to economic, security, and technological advances by the CCP in its competition with the U.S.