U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan said that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) role in the fentanyl crisis constitutes "chemical warfare" against the United States. Sullivan shared his statement in a September 19 post on X.

"The Chinese Communist Party is engaging in chemical warfare against the United States," said Sullivan. "Deadly fentanyl is coming into our country, made with precursor chemicals from China and supplied to drug cartels in Mexico."

In August, the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced new restrictions on three fentanyl precursors, Federal Newswire reported. A spokesperson for the Select Committee on the CCP told Federal Newswire, "This is just the PRC's latest vacuous promise. 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."

According to a report released in April by the Select Committee on the CCP titled "The CCP's Role in the Fentanyl Crisis," investigations into the manufacturing and export of fentanyl precursors revealed significant findings. 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 of these substances 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."

Congressman Neal Dunn said during an episode of the China Desk podcast that fentanyl is a tool used by China in its competition against the U.S. "We're their customers, but that's not their principal view of us," Dunn said. "They view us as their antagonist, as their competition. Or dare I say, enemy? Anything bad that happens in America makes Xi Jinping's day a little bit better. Hence the fentanyl. He doesn't care how many Americans drop dead from fentanyl. In fact, he finds that amusing. The cartels are his tool. The cartels are really fighting against America. They want the money and boy do they make money."

Dunn is a U.S. military veteran and former surgeon who represents Florida's 2nd Congressional District, according to his website. He is a member of both the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Select Committee on the CCP.