How China's opium history impacts America's fentanyl crisis

The Chinese Communist Party is obviously quite aware of how devastating drugs can be at a societal level, given its repeated invocation of the "Century of Humiliation" narrative. Some in China who have been deeply inculcated with this narrative might also view fostering drug addiction as a form of slightly misdirected vengeance. 

While Britain, not America, was primarily responsible for inflicting drugs on China, the U.S. was also not blameless. Not only did it play a role in the Second Opium War and subsequent encroachments on Chinese territory, but there were also U.S. merchants involved in the opium trade, who operated in China under unequal treaties imposed by the U.S. government...

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4813435-china-fentanyl-epidemic-lessons/