Despite the Chinese regime banning fentanyl and its analogues in 2019, China remains the primary source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances being trafficked into the United States, according to a new report by a U.S. congressional advisory body. Chinese traffickers have found sophisticated ways to circumvent these regulations, said an Aug. 24 U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) report. This includes shifting their business from manufacturing finished fentanyl to exporting precursors to Mexican cartels, who then produce and traffic the drug across the border. Moreover, these evasion efforts have been enabled by the Chinese regime’s “weak supervision and regulation” of its chemical industry, the report said. These findings come as U.S. agencies continue to grapple with the country’s devastating opioid crisis fueled by a surge in the use of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, and its variants in recent years. The United States in 2020 …