Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will shake hands on a deal that would see Beijing crack down on the production and supply of fentanyl to the US, according to a report.
The two leaders will meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in San Francisco – their first meeting since November 2022 amid worsening global tensions.
Democratic leaders have scrambled to clean up the bayside city for Xi’s visit – ironically in the grip of a fentanyl crisis that China has fueled.
Steel barriers were erected along major highways and drug-addicted vagrants were driven off the streets – a kindness the woke government could not extend to its own taxpayers.
Xi’s propaganda machine has blatantly described San Francisco as a “hell” on earth ahead of his visit – while Chinese companies supply Mexican cartels with deadly synthetic opioids that are destroying American cities.
Under the deal – which is still in the final stages – China would target chemical companies to stem the flow of fentanyl and the raw material used to make the deadly synthetic opioid, according to the people, speaking on condition of anonymity have spoken the agreement.
In return, the Biden administration would lift restrictions on China’s Institute of Forensic Police, a facility the U.S. blames for human rights abuses, the people said.
Biden and Xi have not spoken in a year. Their last meeting was at the Group of 20 Indonesia summit last fall in Bali in November 2022
On Friday morning, 55-year-old Christine Johnson of San Francisco stood outside the Moscone Center holding a sign urging visitors to leave the security bubble to see the homeless problem temporarily eliminated
Seen here in the summer is a homeless encampment in the Tenderloin District, a few blocks from where Wednesday’s summit will take place
Just a day before the two leaders met, city authorities rushed to move homeless people out of sight and clean up neighborhoods plagued by drugs and vagrancy, largely due to fentanyl in the surrounding streets.
To show the city’s best side to the leader of the world’s second-largest economy, sidewalks were scrubbed, walls were washed and drug addicts were kept out of the area – at least until Friday, when the summit ends.
Biden and Xi have not spoken in a year since their last meeting at the G20 summit in Indonesia last fall.
But tensions between the two nations have increased since their last meeting, following a series of events triggered by the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that hovered over the United States earlier this year.
A person sleeps near a security fence surrounding the Moscone Convention Center, where Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Week is taking place in San Francisco
A worker stands near a door on a security fence erected near the Moscone Center, where APEC will take place
Tony Phillips, who has been homeless for eight years, rests near a security fence on Fourth Street in San Francisco
There are hopes that the meeting between Biden and Xi will produce concrete results, including the possible restoration of military communications between the two nations and a joint effort to combat the illicit fentanyl trade.
The powerful opioid is now the deadliest drug in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drug overdose deaths increased more than sevenfold between 2015 and 2021.
More than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
San Francisco Mayor Loudon Reed blames the drug’s effects for her city’s ruin and worsening the homelessness crisis.
“Fentanyl has truly devastated our city like no other drug we have ever experienced in my lifetime,” Breed told Bloomberg News.
“I would ask him [Xi] “To work with the US and ensure that the resources that are sent from China and go to either the US or Mexico are cut off as much as possible.”
The drug was originally manufactured in India and China and shipped to recipients across North America. Since then, makeshift laboratories have sprung up in Mexico to obtain the precursor chemicals from Asia, mix them or press them into pills and smuggle them into the United States
More than 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl
Fentanyl is the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States as well as in San Francisco, with nearly 450 deaths attributed to the drug in the city alone
This image from the Mexican National Defense Forces shows a makeshift drug lab in northwestern Mexico where officials discovered precursor chemicals, fentanyl paste, weapons and drug manufacturing equipment as of November 2021
San Francisco Mayor Loudon Reed blames the drug’s effects for her city’s ruin and worsening the homelessness crisis
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, whose mission is to combat the illegal drug trade, Mexico and China are the main sources of direct trafficking of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances to the United States.
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
But almost all of the chemicals needed to make fentanyl come from China, with the drugs then mass-produced in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. via cartels
“We hope to see progress on this issue in the coming week,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday.
“That could then open the door for further collaboration on other issues where we don’t just manage things but actually deliver tangible results.”
“China’s agreements come with an unspoken condition: void if you criticize Xi and the Communist Party,” Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told Bloomberg.
“If the Biden administration is not pro-China in 2024, enforcement of a fentanyl deal will weaken.”
San Francisco cleared out several high-profile homeless encampments ahead of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s visit on Wednesday – including this one on the street at 7th Street and Mission across from the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco, California
Where tents once stood, the walkways are clear and pristine. Places where homeless people once gathered are now being cleared out as if a years-long crisis affecting countless people never occurred
Within days, the city cleaned up seven intersections in the notorious Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods — a decision Newsom defended last week ahead of the expected Asian summit
Other residents — as well as weary activists protesting the expected Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the Moscone Center — said the same thing when they woke up this week to suddenly see tents stationed along Ellis Street and 13th gone
Preparations for the summit are underway around San Francisco.
The city has erected tall steel barricades downtown that snake around the streets surrounding the Moscone Center and other venues hosting APEC events this week.
San Francisco police have increased patrols throughout downtown.
In the area around Union Square, where many of the summit’s dignitaries have booked into the city’s five-star hotels, locals have noticed that the city’s large homeless population appears to be less prevalent than usual.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom even bragged about how much work had been done to “clean up” San Francisco ahead of the APEC summit.
Newsom said work had been done to improve security in the crime-ridden city, where robberies were up 13.7 percent from last year and businesses were fleeing an empty downtown.
“I know people say, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning up here because all these fancy leaders are coming to town,'” Newsom said late last week.
Volunteers clean up the city near Dolores Park in San Francisco, right near the federal building
President Joe Biden will meet Xi Jinping for the first time in over a year at the Moscone Center in the South of Market neighborhood
Gathering spots along Mission Street and Market are also gone, as is an outrageous open drug market that has been located in front of the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building for more than a year
The area outside the building was considered the largest of any open-air drug market in the city after it suddenly sprung up earlier this year. There are usually between 50 and 100 traders on the street every day, mostly undeterred and in broad daylight
The cleanup left several crime hotspots virtually unrecognizable, leaving many wondering why similar efforts hadn’t been undertaken before
“That’s true because it’s true – but it’s also true that we had discussions months and months before APEC.”
He added: “By definition you have people in your house, you’re going to clean the house.”
“We have 21 world leaders; Tens of thousands of people come from all over the world.
“What an opportunity to showcase the most extraordinary place in the world: San Francisco.”
In the city’s notoriously embattled downtown, videos and photos taken over the weekend and Monday show how the city suddenly went into overdrive ahead of Jiping’s expected visit.
Ahead of the APEC summit, city workers clean the streets and remove tents and belongings belonging to homeless people
A homeless man is seen pushing a wheelchair loaded with his belongings as he walks past the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, as city officials take drastic measures to hide the city’s dark reality during the APEC trade summit
Sanitation department workers wash down the street with a hose, flushing away human feces, urine and crack pipes
Where tents once stood, the walkways are clear and pristine. Places where homeless people once gathered are now being cleared out as if a years-long crisis affecting countless people never occurred.
Meeting places along Mission Street and Market are no more, as is a brazen, open drug market that has been located in front of the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building for more than a year.
The now immaculately cleaned streets can be seen in photos and videos taken from the sites on Tuesday – a reality that some suspect will be taken away as soon as the Chinese president packs up and leaves.
“They started clearing the tents earlier this week and there is definitely a lot more police presence,” SoMa resident Ricci Lee Wynne told The New Post over the weekend as the city-ordered cleanup took place.
“They cleared the tents that were near the Moscone Center on Howard Street, which shows me that the city had the ability to do that all along,” the citizen added.
“Instead they just do the bare minimum.”