No reason US and China can’t renew cooperation in health sciences and combating opioid misuse
- China’s vast population makes it a rich source of medicinal and medical data for researchers and developers in the US
- Meanwhile, knowledge gained about America’s challenges on opioid regulation and treatment can be valuable for Chinese public health authorities
Resumption of cooperation in public health was not highlighted as a deliverable following the recent meeting in Beijing between US and Chinese diplomats, but it deserves a concerted effort from both sides to keep up the momentum.
Over the past four decades, collaborative projects among health scientists, universities and research laboratories in the US and China were underpinned by the 1979 bilateral Umbrella Science and Technology Agreement. Citizens of the two countries benefited as the medicinal and healthcare industries grew more intertwined.
US should enhance not sever scientific ties with China
However, adding to the complexity is the fact that national security has crept into what is left of collaboration among the health sectors of the two countries. As participants in the China-US Track II dialogue on healthcare wrote in their 2022 agreement, “both [the American and Chinese] governments have restricted the exchange of data and research based on data security and more broadly national security concerns, with often vague definitions of the terms”.
Still, there is no reason not to renew the agreement – all things considered, progress in medicinal and medical sciences ought to prevail. Even during times of high tensions between the two countries, China’s status as one of the world’s most populous nations makes it a rich source of medicinal and medical data for researchers and developers in the US. This fact defies diplomatic preferences.
China first instituted regulations on fentanyl use and export in 1996. In 2015, it included six fentanyl analogues and 110 other pharmaceutical chemicals in its list of controlled substances, and imposed controls on four more fentanyl analogues and fentanyl-related chemicals in 2018.
The Chinese suppliers fuelling America’s fentanyl epidemic
Such cooperation is not a favour from China for the US. On the contrary, knowledge gained about challenges within the US on opioid regulation and treatment can be valuable for Chinese public health practitioners and regulators.
Future discussions among Chinese and Americans concerned about the state of relations should make opioids – fentanyl in particular – a focus and involve experts in medical research, pharmaceutical production and trade, and public health. Such exchanges should also aim at a shared understanding of the cross-border movement of chemical precursors, the manufacturing of medicine for pain relief and illicit transborder flows.
Last, but not least, the thaw in government-to-government contacts between China and the US, however tentative, is premised on the protection of their people’s welfare. For both countries, there is every reason to make renewal of the science agreement and enhancement of dialogue on addressing the misuse of fentanyl and other opioids a manifestation of people-centred diplomacy.
Zha Daojiong is a professor in the School of International Studies and Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University. He is also a participant of the China-US healthcare track II dialogue