Trump to Confront Xi About China's Fentanyl Trafficking Through Venezuela at APEC Summit

US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week in South Korea.

Washington:

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday took a firm position regarding China's purported involvement in trafficking fentanyl into the US through Venezuela.

He claimed that China is utilizing Venezuela as a transit route for fentanyl, circumventing US and Mexican port security measures.

During a White House press briefing, Trump stated that when he meets with the Chinese leader, his first inquiry would concern fentanyl.

"I'm meeting with President Xi... The first question I'm going to be asking him about is fentanyl. They make $100 million selling fentanyl into our country. They lose $100 billion with the 20% tariff. So it's not a good business proposition... It's one of the things we're talking about... They pay a very big penalty for doing that... We'll see what happens at the end of next week... I'm meeting with President Xi, actually, in South Korea...," Trump declared.

Trump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 30 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Busan, South Korea.

The Busan meeting comes amid increased economic and geopolitical tensions between the two nations, as Washington prepares to implement 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports shortly after the summit.

This Busan encounter will be the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi since 2019, when they previously met during the G20 Summit in Japan. Officials indicate that the stakes are considerably higher this time.

When questioned about whether China was smuggling fentanyl into the US via Venezuela, Trump responded, "They are doing that. But they are paying a 20% tariff right now because of fentanyl. That's billions and billions of dollars. On November 1st, the tariff on China rises to 157%, a record-setting level. It's not sustainable for them."

Trump also mentioned that he intends to inform Congress of his plans to target land-based cartel operations in Venezuela as he seeks to expand his current maritime military campaign.

"We're going to go [to Congress]. I don't see any loss in going -- no reason not to," Trump informed reporters at a White House event highlighting a federal crackdown that has arrested approximately 3,200 alleged drug cartel members over the past month.

"You know they will always complain, 'Oh, we should have gone.' So we're going to definitely," Trump added.

The president turned to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, seated to his right, and instructed him, "I'd like just to tell you, 'Let's go.' We'll go. We're going to tell them what we're going to do, and I think they're going to probably like it, except for the radical left lunatics."

For weeks, Trump has threatened land-based strikes following the administration's September 2 initiative targeting vessels smuggling drugs off Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

"I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people who are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We're going to kill them, you know, they're going to be like dead, okay?" Trump stated.

Trump expressed that his campaign against drug cartels, combined with his upcoming summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next Thursday, would expedite the reduction of overdose deaths in the US, which reached their peak under former President Joe Biden.

Trump informed reporters that fentanyl, which has claimed nearly 330,000 American lives over the past five years according to federal data, is now being routed by Chinese manufacturers through Venezuela to evade strengthened US and Mexican port controls.