Fentanyl: China Knows What It's Doing
Also: The Left's violence against pro-life clinics is radicalizing The Right. Nobody will win.
Lawrence Kadash, The Gatestone Institute:
The Chinese have a very long memory. And a strong sense of history.
If only Americans possessed both, for we would be able far better to understand the enormous consequences of the lethal drug abuse harming America from the massive quantities of death-dealing fentanyl being smuggled into our country, with its origins often a Chinese lab.
The Chinese know full well that a society's addiction to drugs can unravel a proud nation, stripping away its very sovereignty. When opium was brought to China in the 1700s, the British quickly used the drug as a means of gaining an economic advantage over its new trading partner. The addiction to the drug was so explosive that the Chinese emperor eventually sought to ban it. When his military destroyed warehouses full of the drug, the British responded with a crushing naval attack that became known as a series of Opium Wars.
Other Western nations followed Britain's lead, but it was England that forced a humiliating treaty on the Chinese, and evidently that cause-and-effect has never been forgotten by today's Chinese rulers.
So as a leading global manufacturer of fentanyl, China is unique in appreciating just how destabilizing such a drug can be to a nation.
In fact, this very issue was explored during a recent interview with the Communist Chinese Ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, who was quick to remind Newsweek that China knows full well the devastating impact of illicit drugs. Not surprisingly, he was quick to deny any suggestion their manufacturing of fentanyl was their way of "returning the favor" to Western nations.
He told the reporter that during the 18th and 19th Centuries, "China decided to ban the material to save its population and economy, the British launched the Opium War, which started a century of humiliation for China, marked by a slate of unequal treaties and waves of Western aggressions. The repercussions of history are felt even today. With such searing pains in our national memory, China holds an understandably stronger antipathy for narcotics than any other country, as displayed in its zero-tolerance attitude towards all narcotic drugs, as well as stringent control and tough punishment measures. Thanks to these efforts, narcotics are not endemic in China."
One might suggest that the Ambassador has revealed more than he intended.
Erick Erickson:
A dozen pregnancy centers across the country were torched. More were vandalized. The attacks came after prominent Democrat politicians called for the facilities to be shut down.
Many of the pregnancy centers are run by churches or Christian organizations. They provide pregnancy screenings for women, ultrasounds, neonatal pregnancy care, diapers, and more to support pregnant moms. They do not, however, provide abortions, and many counsel against abortion.
They are, therefore, the enemy of the left. These centers have been subject to harassment, protest, condemnation, and now firebombings. The centers exist as a rejection of the left’s idea that the right only cares about babies in utero. In fact, many mothers develop relationships with these facilities, and the facilities continue to support new moms after birth.
Because they are not abortion facilities, progressives have vandalized and set fire to many of them around the country. There does not appear to be an active federal investigation into the attacks.
Meanwhile, a dozen pro-life activists have had their doors kicked in by the FBI in dawn raids. Those activists have been held at gunpoint, dragged from their homes in front of their families, and arrested for violating a federal law that makes it a crime to obstruct access to an abortion clinic.
More than one of these people were previously investigated by authorities, and no charges were brought because they did not actually obstruct access. They just protested at the clinics. Even now, the Washington Post is attempting to stir up opposition to Catholic hospitals for their refusal to perform abortions.
I don’t know that the left and, specifically, the Biden Administration understands just how radicalizing this is for people on the right. To see the Justice Department ignore arson attacks on Christian run facilities while seeing pro-life activists dragged from their homes at gunpoint is going to push people on the right further toward radicalizing their political worldview.
Joe Biden wanted to calm things down, lower the temperature, and return the nation to normal. Instead, he is stirring the pot, raising the temperature, and setting dangerous new precedents about selective and politicized justice.
The Democrats will come to regret this.
Democrats, on several occasions in the past decade, stormed state capitols to block and obstruct lawful legislative action they did not like. They stand amazed and appalled that Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol to obstruct and block Congress. They claim the latter is different than the former.
The latter is an escalation of the former. You’re going to see the same with this level of politicization of the Justice Department. That does not make it right. But don’t be surprised when it happens, and don’t be surprised when many people on the right turn a blind eye towards it. You on the left are radicalizing the right. You will regret it — we all will regret it. But it will happen thanks to the Biden Administration’s hard left turn.
This will end badly for all of us.