Why diplomacy with China is so frustrating
Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish, just like foreign minister Qin Gang did this year.
Jorge Guajardo’s first mission as Mexico’s new ambassador to Beijing was dealing with the fentanyl crisis. It was 2007, and the United States’ growing fentanyl addiction was already fuelling Mexico’s organised crime, with groups using precursor chemicals smuggled from China.
“We never got any traction with that,” Guajardo says. “[Chinese officials] didn’t understand, or they pretended not to understand.”
Foreign Policy
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