China rejects Trump’s fentanyl charges as ‘groundless’

BEIJING: China on Tuesday denied it was to blame for fentanyl deaths in the United States after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of reneging on its promise to crack down on the opioid. US authorities have long accused China of being the main source of the potent drug, which caused 32,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year alone. In an apparent gesture to Washington amid the US-China trade war, Beijing announced a crackdown on fentanyl earlier this year, designating all analogues of the drug as controlled substances from May 1. The move aimed to prevent smugglers from skirting the law by changing formulas to make drugs similar to the painkiller.