News Analysis In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has directly supported, facilitated, and has exerted strategic control over the development of the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, a substantial portion of which is centered in Wuhan city. The CCP has had the overt intention for China to become “the pharmacy of the world” with leading positions across the full spectrum, from pill manufacturing to personal protective equipment exports. One by-product of this broader central planning exercise has been the development of synthetic narcotics that are produced in pharmaceutical-grade factories with the associated economies of scale, thereby enabling stable supply and low prices. One key Chinese product is fentanyl-laced heroin, a combination of a (mostly) legal opiate, fentanyl, with the proscribed substance of heroin. The current most data-rich example of this is the triangular dynamics between China, Mexico, and the United States. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, one Mexican …