FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to Beijing last week to discuss fentanyl trafficking and strengthen cooperation between U.S. and Chinese law enforcement, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The visit comes shortly after a summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, during which the two leaders had hailed a "consensus" on the fight against this powerful synthetic opioid.
According to information obtained by Reuters, Patel arrived in the Chinese capital on Friday for a roughly 24-hour visit, during which he met with several senior Chinese officials on Saturday. Neither Washington nor Beijing has officially announced the trip, the existence of which is being revealed for the first time.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the US Embassy in Beijing have not commented on the information.
This meeting is part of the new agreement reached last month between Donald Trump and Xi JinpingFollowing these discussions, the US president halved the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods in retaliation for fentanyl trafficking, lowering them to 10%. Trump stated that Xi had pledged to "work very hard" to stem the flow of this deadly drug, responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in the United States.
A new bilateral working group is to be established to define the terms of this agreement. It is unclear, however, whether Kash Patel mentioned this mechanism during his discussions in Beijing.
Until now, the Trump administration had maintained a hard line toward China, conditioning any trade relaxations on concrete progress in combating the trafficking of chemical precursors used to manufacture fentanyl. Beijing, for its part, defends its record in this area, claiming to have strengthened its regulations and accusing Washington of using the fentanyl issue as a "political tool."
The agreement between Xi and Trump goes beyond anti-drug cooperation: it also includes the resumption of Chinese imports of American soybeans and the suspension by Beijing of restrictions on the export of rare earths, essential to many technology industries.
