The Chinese government propaganda outlet Global Times mocked the ongoing mystery of the discovery of cocaine in the West Wing of the White House in a column Thursday, calling America generally “drug-infested” and condemning reports that law enforcement may not be able to identify the cocaine’s owner as “ridiculous.”
The state outlet also used the scandal as an attempt to absolve the Chinese Communist Party of its substantial role in global fentanyl trafficking and the ongoing opioid crisis in America.
For years, law enforcement officials have accused China of selling precursor substances to Mexican drug cartels later used to make fentanyl in the Western Hemisphere, much of which then crosses the northern border. The Global Times admitted to China’s role in manufacturing those products but dismissed them as legal under Chinese law and not comparable to the cocaine reportedly found in the White House.
The Washington Post first reported on Monday that security officials in the White House had found a mysterious powdery substance inside the building that later tested positive for cocaine. White powders could present a major security risk, as several high-grade poisons — including anthrax and ricin — can come in the form of powder.
On Thursday, the Secret Service confirmed to Breitbart News that officials had found the cocaine in a small plastic bag near a West Wing entrance. The area is reportedly a “working” area not typically frequented by public tours but often receiving staffers or officials in the administration of President Joe Biden whose offices are elsewhere. The Washington, DC, outlet Politico reported, citing anonymous sources, that officials believe it will be “very difficult” to identify the owner of the drug.
Referring to the Politico report, the Global Times explained in a column on Thursday:
While cocaine was found at the presidential palace of the world’s most powerful country, a location known for its high level of security and extensive protection measures, US officials are unable to identify the responsible party and attribute it to the limitations of White House surveillance cameras. Isn’t it ridiculous to rely on such a feeble excuse to navigate through this situation?
The state newspaper predicted no “actual result from the promised investigation” into the discovery of the drug and went on to claim that drug use by presidents or in the White House was a common historical phenomenon and a product of America’s culture, presumably inferior to Chinese communist authoritarianism.
“The presence of drugs in the White House serves as a perfect example of the inability of the US, as a drug-infested nation, to manage illegal substances effectively,” the Chinese propaganda outlet asserted, calling Biden “the face of the drug epidemic in the country.”
“With illegal substances infiltrating the White House and US presidents setting an example as drug users, one wonders if the US can ever truly eradicate its drug crisis,” the outlet proclaimed, citing Chinese regime-approved “experts” that Democrats in particular “call for looser drug regulation, which means they indulge drugs.”
The Chinese government, through its media outlets, has, for years, condemned American “values” as inferior to Chinese communism because of the existence of drug use in the United States.
“Drug abuse in American society is very rampant with addiction multiplying sharply in many areas. It is hard to find even one young person in the country who hasn’t tried drugs,” state media proclaimed in 2018.
“In the U.S., consuming marijuana is considered a private affair or even a manifestation of personality and taste,” the Global Times observed with disgust a year later, comparing marijuana use to abuse of highly concentrated fentanyl, a deadly opioid.
The Communist Party denies that drug abuse is a problem in China and refuses to accept any responsibility for massive sales of fentanyl precursor drugs to Mexican cartels. As Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram explained last year, “What we know is that China is providing chemicals to Mexico, to the criminal drug networks that are then mass-producing these fake prescription pills.”
“They’re being sold as if they were Xanax, as if they were Oxy, as if they were Percocet. But there’s no Xanax, no Oxy, no Percocet in them. They’re fentanyl. But it isn’t just young people that we see, it’s also older Americans,” she noted.
A report by the analytics firm Chainalysis, published in May, estimated that Chinese fentanyl precursor suppliers collected about $38 million in payments for the substances via cryptocurrency between 2018 and 2023.
The government of radical leftist Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged China’s role in the fentanyl crisis in a letter to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping in April in which he cordially requested that the Communist Party help Mexico identify ships trafficking the offending substances into the country. China replied by denying that any such activity was occurring.
On Thursday, the Global Times celebrated China for its alleged “extraordinary achievements” in its drug war, “a resounding response to the vicious and baseless smears as well as buck-passing from the US on the issue.” It claimed that “Chinese people are not familiar with ‘fentanyl’” due to this alleged success and blamed the United States for the prevalence of the drug in the country.
In the same article, the Global Times admitted that suppliers can freely generate precursor substances under the Chinese government.
“Disregarding these intensive drug-control efforts by China, the US has hyped that the country is ‘sourcing fentanyl precursor chemicals from China,’ trying to put the label of ‘drug trafficker’ on China,” the state newspaper claimed.
“This kind of hype is very amateurish. The ‘fentanyl precursors’ mentioned by the US are actually chemicals that can be used in the production of fentanyl, but they are ordinary commodities that are not controlled under international drug conventions and Chinese law,” it revealed.
“A recent discovery of cocaine in the White House once again exposed the chaotic management over drugs in the US,” the article concluded.