The White House said the United States has ‘strongly encouraged’ China to impose maximum sentences, including the death penalty, on criminals who supply chemicals used to make illegal fentanyl. The statement came in a fact sheet released after President Donald Trump’s state visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

According to the White House, China arrested 21 of its citizens in August 2026 for manufacturing and distributing precursor chemicals to illicit drug producers in North America, acting on information from U.S. law enforcement. The administration welcomed China’s scheduling of orphines, a class of deadly synthetic drugs, and its new export controls on two precursor chemicals.

Fentanyl was a central topic of the summit, Trump’s second meeting with Xi this year. Days before the visit, China issued new guidelines for handling criminal cases involving fentanyl-related substances, according to Reuters. Beijing has defended its drug-control record and accused Washington of using the issue to pressure China.

How far Beijing goes in sentencing remains to be seen. The episode underscores how drug enforcement has become a bargaining chip in the wider U.S.-China relationship, alongside trade, rare earths, and technology talks.