WSJ: "China Restricts Fentanyl Chemicals After Years of U.S. Pressure"

 Via the Wall Street Journal, this news from August 7: 

BEIJING—China is imposing new restrictions on chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, a move long sought by the U.S. that signals Beijing’s desire to keep open an important diplomatic channel with Washington ahead of November’s presidential election.

The status of the chemicals has proved a diplomatic sticking point for the past 2½ years, and the latest move marks a small step forward in the Biden administration’s strategy of seeking cooperation with China on counternarcotics even as the countries’ relationship is increasingly defined by competition.

China is one of the biggest sources of the chemicals used to produce fentanyl that are sold to cartels in Mexico that make the highly potent narcotic and traffic it into the U.S. Nearly 75,000 people in the U.S. are estimated to have died last year from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, representing most overdose deaths in the country.

Beginning Sept. 1, Chinese authorities will impose stricter oversight over the production and sale of three such chemicals, including requiring exporters to obtain a license, according to a government notice posted online Monday. The chemicals—known as 4-AP, 1-boc-4-AP and norfentanyl—were blacklisted by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2022, requiring China to take corresponding steps domestically.

...“Drug-trafficking networks and Chinese chemists have shown a great deal of adaptability,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. Through its latest action, she said, China is going after relatively low-hanging fruit to try to signal to the U.S. that it wants to keep the door open to further cooperation...

It will be interesting to see what the new preferred fentanyl intermediates will be, and if the price ripples from the shift will be seen in the new favorited chemical...