China Has Killed More Americans than the Axis Powers
And More Every Year than the Viet Cong and NVA
Welcome back, and thanks for reading. This article is shorter and sweeter than normal: after the recent, lengthy articles on things like the White Rajahs of Sarawak and the jury system’s flaws in the age of diversity, I thought y’all might like a shorter and sharper read. So, I figured this would be a good follow-up to the article on the PRC’s seeming war on American agriculture, as shown by the destruction of the Florida orange crop via suspiciously imported orange blight. This too is a form of Unrestricted Warfare, and a very important one at that. As always, please tap the heart to like this post so the algorithm knows to promote it.
In 1999, two PRC officers released a paper on Chinese military strategy titled “Unrestricted Warfare,” in which they described how the PRC could win the forever war of geopolitics by playing outside the traditional rules of war, weakening competitors and enemies without ever declaring war or getting into kinetic conflict.1
That concept means that no form of assault—military, economic, psychological, informational, technological, cultural, or otherwise—is out of bounds so long as it can be engaged in without raising tensions to the point of outright war. The point is to weaken the enemy through “asymmetric warfare in unexpected verticals” without ever reaching the threshold for outright military conflict.2
Typically, this is thought of in terms of “cyberwarfare.” Chaos-causing hacking, digital espionage, IP theft, and the like, are well-recognized though ineffectively dealt with. Microsoft’s use of PRC-based engineers for sensitive Pentagon contracts is a good example of how such things often play out,3 as are our vast losses (up to $600 billion annually) of research to PRC IP theft.4
Similarly, there is a vague recognition that this plays out in the cultural and political sphere as well. Mitch McConnell has been bought by China,5 Hollywood is bought and paid for by China,6 sports leauges like the NBA are directed around by the PRC,7 and we can see that in our government having taken a soft-line with subverters for years as entertainment organizations bend the knee to CCP pressures.8
But it plays out beyond just those softer touch forms of subversion. For example, vast damage to America’s agriculture and nature has been done by Unrestricted Warfare. 95% of the Florida orange crop and hundreds of millions of elm trees have been destroyed by bugs and blights that showed up here from China.9 The same almost happened to the wheat crop just months ago when the FBI caught Chinese researchers smuggling wheat blight into the Upper Midwest.10
It even plays out in the realm of human rather than plant death. Most notably, Chinese-controlled fentanyl labs have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans since fentanyl became a problem, with the death toll now over 70,000 Americans a year (the vast majority of the roughly 100,000 drug overdoses a year).11 That carnage is rarely noted, but unthinkably vast…and it’s intentional.
Listen to the audio version of this post here:
![[AUDIO] China Has Killed More Americans than the Axis Powers](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rIUv!,w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-video.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fvideo_upload%2Fpost%2F168988135%2Fefe6220f-0d70-4265-bd90-9237cdfcf56b%2Ftranscoded-1753215340.png)
The Fentanyl Murder Problem
America has had a hard drug problem for decades, going back to Pablo Escobar and the cocaine barons of the 1970s and 80s. Fentanyl, however, is relatively new (as are the related synthetic opioids usually lumped in with it). It also comes nearly entirely from the PRC.
A drug up to 100 times stronger than morphine, fentanyl is incredibly deadly: about 2 milligrams, an amount roughly the size of a few grains of salt, is enough to be deadly.12 It began showing up in force in the early 2010s, and was responsible for thousands of deaths a year by the mid-2010s. It then exploded in prevalence and was responsible for 20,000 deaths annually by 2016. In the eight years since, it exploded yet further; as of 2023, fentanyl was responsible for around 75,000 annual deaths, the peak so far.13
At first glance, that makes little sense: why would the Mexican drug cartels smuggle in a drug so deadly that it accounts for three-quarters of annual drug deaths? Wouldn’t that just raise the ire of the American government and prove counterproductive in that it kills off their user base? And why would Americans use it, if it’s so deadly?
The answer to the latter question is that it is rare for people to use fentanyl outright: generally, it is packed into other drugs like heroin to give them more kick, making the drugs more addictive and creating a stronger experience for less money. So, intentionally or unintentionally, drug users tend to consume fentanyl when primarily using other drugs, from marijuana to heroin.
The answer as to why the cartels smuggle fentanyl into America is more complicated. On one hand, they like it for the same reason users do: it makes drugs far stronger without requiring them to be higher quality, which boosts profits. But that is somewhat minor, comparatively.
The bigger issue is that the cartels rely on China for drug precursors and money laundering services,14 and it pushes fentanyl precursors on them because it sees fentanyl as a key element of its Unrestricted Warfare campaign against the United States.
China’s Involvement
As noted by the Brookings Institution, when fentanyl first appeared, it came in completed form from China, and started taking over the illicit drugs market as the deaths from it rose: “China was the country from which most fentanyl started arriving in the United States, about a decade ago. So, this in about 2013, 2014, that we see fentanyl emerging for the first time in the illicit market on any large scale in the U.S., and all that fentanyl and its analogs came out of China at the time.”15 This period in the fentanyl problem primarily saw fentanyl being shipped from China to dealers in America via the mail, which, because of the volume of trade, went mostly unchecked.
That continued until 2019, at which point China pretended to cut off the flow of fentanyl to America to decrease tensions in the context of the Trump-started trade feud. But it didn’t really cut the flow off. It just changed the law so that the precursor chemicals for it were exported to the cartels rather than the completed drug. The cartels, with their existing drug-making infrastructure, had no problem turning them into completed product. As the University of Navarra notes:16
Until 2019, China was the leading source of finished fentanyl for the U.S. illicit market. However, that same year, the Chinese government included all fentanyl derivatives on its list of banned narcotics. This move did not stop the arrival of fentanyl, however, as the ban was limited to the production of its final version, which opened up a new avenue: the manufacture of the precursor chemicals needed to create it, as determined by a research carried out in the House of Representatives by the committee on the skill Strategic between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
That state of things has continued from 2019 on, with the cartels using the precursors provided by Chinese companies to produce fentanyl and other synthetic drugs, which they then smuggle into America either in pure form or mixed with other drugs to give them more of a kick. Now, those drugs are causing tens of thousands of deaths a year, and in some years have approached the 100,000 mark.17
Importantly, China could crack down on the precursor exports. For a few years after 2019, it made a show of drug raids on the producers. Now, however, it doesn’t even pretend to do that. Instead, the CCP encourages production and trafficking of fentanyl precursors with grant and state-owned industry involvement while allowing users of its highly-monitored online services to sell the precursors to trafficking networks.
As the House Select Committee on the CCP found,18 the CCP intentionally subsidizes the production and export of fentanyl precursors through specific tax rebates, provides subsidies for the companies that traffic the precursors to Mexico, allows the sale of fentanyl and its precursors on the otherwise closely-watched internet without interruption, has gotten involved with and allowed money laundering related to the precursor traffic, and has refused to prosecute precursor producers.
In short, while China could crack down on the groups trafficking fentanyl, it hasn’t done so. There is, as Brookings noted, “essentially unhampered criminal activity taking place in China without the Chinese government trying to crack down on it.”19 Instead, it has gotten ever more deeply involved in profiting from pushing the precursors onto Mexican cartels. It is encouraging the fentanyl death toll.
It has done so because it sees drug policy as an arm of its geostrategic policy,20 which is Unrestricted Warfare. As such, seeing “the fentanyl crisis from the perspective of its growing rivalry with the United States,”21 China has poured resources into pushing fentanyl onto America via the drug cartels. That very clearly has come as part of an Unrestricted Warfare attack on the American population. As the University of Navarra noted, in the context of the House report showing direct PRC involvement in the trafficking of precursors to the Mexican cartels:22
It must be considered that China seeks to displace US hegemony and become the world's leading power. Through the fentanyl strategy, it succeeds in weakening American society and forcing the United States to concentrate its efforts on this crisis, while at the same time benefiting economically, since precursor chemicals are extremely cheap to manufacture for the Chinese industry and acquire a high value when converted into synthetic opioids.
That is very clearly part of China’s Unrestricted Warfare attacks on the United States. In fact, the 1999 Unrestricted Warfare publication noted that one of the vectors of attack that can be used with such a strategy is importing illicit narcotics to an enemy nation, from which China could benefit by “obtaining sudden and huge illicit profits by spreading disaster in other countries.”23
Even American officials have taken to admitting that “China is attacking America” with fentanyl precursors.24 Similarly, former Director of the Special Operations Division at the DEA, Derek Maltz, when asked if he thinks China is making an intentional effort to push fentanyl and its precursor chemicals because of their devastating effects on Americans, said: “Yes 100%. I don't have proof to go to court and convict them on this, but if you look at Chinese unrestricted warfare, they're using all the tools of their national power to destroy and destabilize their adversary, America. They're taking total advantage of the weaknesses in our country–the lack of security and policies to keep this stuff out of our country. So yes."25
Further, Erik Prince noted in interview with Tucker Carlson: “It is funded, organized, logistically facilitated by the Chinese Communist Party to move the precursor chemicals that are actually made near Wuhan, China, shipped to either Venezuela or Mexico, fabricated into fentanyl and basically blended with other common drugs that people are taking. And it doesn't make any sense to do so because why would a drug dealer want to kill his customers? That's what's happening. And it is an absolute it's a fuck you from the CCP against the West for the Opium Wars of the 1840s.” Watch him here:
That is the reality of why fentanyl is pouring into America and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans: the PRC is pushing it through the cartels into our country, for the express purpose of weakening us.
More Deaths than World War Two
As a strategy, fentanyl smuggling to weaken America has been unbelievably successful. As of the end of 2024, fentanyl has done perhaps $2.7 trillion in economic damage to America,26 vastly more than that done by all the agricultural attacks—from oranges to elms—combined.
More importantly, the human carnage has been immense. When the total number of annual deaths from fentanyl are added up,27 somewhere around 482,000 Americans have overdosed on fentanyl.
On a per-year basis, from 2020 on, every year has seen about as many deaths from fentanyl as in the entirety of the eight-year-long Vietnam War.28
Further, around 418,000 Americans died in World War II.29 Fentanyl deaths outnumber those: America has lost more citizens to Chinese fentanyl, by a wide margin, than all of the deaths caused by the Axis powers combined.
That is horrendous. In fact, it is so bad that fentanyl is both the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45 and the primary factor in America’s decline in life expectancy.30
The PRC could end that at any time. We needn’t be losing as many Americans every year as died in Vietnam to Chinese-produced synthetic opioids. As has been noted over and over again, China has the power to crack down on fentanyl and fentanyl precursor production and has chosen to do the opposite. Instead of cracking down, Chinese gangsters, smugglers, and corporations are working with the “direct cooperation and protection of the [Chinese] state security services” to push fentanyl into America.31
That is an act of war. They are intentionally killing a vast number of Americans each year—and addicting many more, perhaps as many as ten addicts for every one overdose death—to weaken America as part of the Unrestricted Warfare attacks on our country. Sadly, most American officials, media personalities, and the like seem to either not know or not care.32 And so the deaths continue as America continues trading with China on a massive scale, even as it poisons our citizens.
If the Trump Administration cares about this issue, as it says it has and appears to—quite the change from past administrations—it needs to fight back with Unrestricted Warfare of its own, using our strengths to force China to the table and to crack down on the fentanyl producers it is currently supporting with everything from lax oversight to outright subsidies. Otherwise, the murderous problem will just continue.
If you found value in this article, please consider liking it using the button below, and upgrading to become a paid subscriber. That subscriber revenue supports the project and aids my attempts to share these important stories, and what they mean for you. Also, you’ll get access to new, paid articles, like the series on the White Rajahs of Sarawak.
Discussed here:
China Destroyed 95% of Florida's Oranges
Welcome back, and thanks for reading! Today’s article is less history-focused than recent ones, and gets back to our roots: articles exposing something that Americans ought know, but don’t, such as B…
Mitch McConnell's Absurd Connections to China
From humble beginnings in the rural Alabama community of Athens, where his family “almost went broke” due to medical costs related to a polio diagnosis at the age of 2, to being one of the wealthiest…
See, for example: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2019/10/09/nba-china-adam-silver-protests-hong-kong/3913360002/ and https://www.acfcs.org/special-contributed-op-ed-as-nba-cozies-up-to-china-to-the-tune-of-billions-of-dollars-sanctions-exposure-risk-soars-tied-to-actual-assumed-forced-labor-human-rights-abuses
China Destroyed 95% of Florida's Oranges
Welcome back, and thanks for reading! Today’s article is less history-focused than recent ones, and gets back to our roots: articles exposing something that Americans ought know, but don’t, such as B…
The report found, for those wanting specifics:
Directly subsidizes the manufacturing and export of illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics through tax rebates. Many of these substances are illegal under the PRC’s own laws and have no known legal use worldwide. Like its export tax rebates for legitimate goods, the CCP’s subsidies of illegal drugs incentivizes international synthetic drug sales from the PRC. The CCP never disclosed this program.
Gave monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials and other synthetic narcotics. There are even examples of some of these companies enjoying site visits from provincial PRC government officials who complimented them for their impact on the provincial economy.
Holds ownership interest in several PRC companies tied to drug trafficking. This includes a PRC government prison connected to human rights abuses owning a drug trafficking chemical company and a publicly traded PRC company hosting thousands of instances of open drug trafficking on its sites.
Fails to prosecute fentanyl and precursor manufacturers. Rather than investigating drug traffickers, PRC security services have not cooperated with U.S. law enforcement, and have even notified targets of U.S. investigations when they received requests for assistance.
Allows the open sale of fentanyl precursors and other illicit materials on the extensively monitored and controlled PRC internet. A review of just seven e-commerce sites found over 31,000 instances of PRC companies selling illicit chemicals with obvious ties to drug trafficking. Undercover communications with PRC drug trafficking companies (whose identities were provided to U.S. law enforcement) revealed an eagerness to engage in clearly illicit drug sales with no fear of reprisal.
Censors content about domestic drug sales, but leaves export-focused narcotics content untouched. The PRC has censorship triggers for domestic drug sales (e.g., “fentanyl + cash on delivery”), but no such triggers exist to monitor or prevent the export of illicit narcotics out of the PRC.
Strategically and economically benefits from the fentanyl crisis. The fentanyl crisis has helped CCP-tied Chinese organized criminal groups become the world’s premier money launderers, enriched the PRC’s chemical industry, and has had a devastating impact on Americans.
As Brookings noted: “there is another side of China, and that is China whose counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation are driven and subordinated to its geostrategic objectives. So, with countries with whom China has good relations or with whom it wants to build good relations, whom it courts into its sphere of orbit, into its sphere of influence, to those countries China extends law enforcement and counternarcotics cooperation. Now, often that law enforcement cooperation comes with tremendous amount of hooks and strings, and it’s very one sided, serving the interests of the Chinese government and not equally serving the interests of the recipient or partner. But nonetheless, China does extend that cooperation. And with countries with whom it has bad relations or with whom relations deteriorate, it denies the cooperation.”
From: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-fentanyl-pipeline-and-chinas-role-in-the-us-opioid-crisis/
The figures I found are, roughly (these are estimates for each year, it’s only around 2014 that the data gets somewhat accurate, and from there it is still estimates):
1999–2008: 730 + 7,300 = 8,030
2009: 2,946
2010: 2,000 (estimate)
2011: 2,666
2012: 3,000 (estimate)
2013: 3,105
2014: 5,544
2015: 9,580
2016: 19,413
2017: 28,466
2018: 31,335
2019: 36,359
2020: 56,516
2021: 70,601
2022: 73,838
2023: 72,776
2024: 54,743
Around 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam. Fenantly deaths totaled ~56k in 2020, over 70k between 2021 and 2023, and fell to around 54,000 in 2024.
Described repeatedly in this House report: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/3.13.2024-DEA-China-1.pdf