US cracks down on Chinese fentanyl production with arrests and indictments.

Four Chinese companies and eight employees have been indicted on charges of selling precursor chemicals used by Mexican cartels to manufacture fentanyl, with two defendants taken into custody. The indictments are the first prosecutions targeting Chinese chemical companies over the sales of precursor chemicals. The pressure on China to crack down on its role in the fentanyl trade comes amid increasingly strained relations between the United States and its global rival. The Chinese Embassy condemned the indictments, calling them a “well-planned entrapment operation.”