By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

Fentanyl is set to be at the center of President Donald Trump’s scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday morning.

Trump told reporters last week that fentanyl would be a key focus during his talks with Xi.

The first question I’m going to be asking him about is fentanyl,” the president told reporters during a roundtable event at the White House focusing on targeting the drug trade and human trafficking. “I’m putting it right at the front of the list.”

The president reiterated to reporters that China’s role in producing precursor chemicals necessary in the production of fentanyl will be a top priority during the meeting. Earlier this year, Trump imposed a 20% tariff on China for not taking adequate action to curb the production of the chemicals to make fentanyl.

Trump indicated to reporters that he is optimistic that his meeting with Xi will be productive and that the Chinese leader will do more to crack down on the flow of chemicals.

“I expect to be lowering that because I believe they can help us with the fentanyl situation,” the president told reporters. “They have an industry that has to do with drugs and the fentanyl has other reasons for being. We have to get rid of it.”

Just as the president is set to meet with Xi, multiple reports claim FBI Director Kash Patel is planning to visit China next month to discuss the issue of fentanyl as well.

During the roundtable at the White House, Patel said that law enforcement has seized 5,101 lbs. of fentanyl powder and more than 2.1 million lbs. of fentanyl pills as part of a coordinated effort to curb the drug epidemic plaguing the U.S.

“Those aren’t numbers, those are lives…enough fentanyl to kill over 200 million Americans gone – evaporated – off our streets permanently,” said Patel.

The meeting comes in the midst of continual boat strikes on suspected narcotics traffickers in the Caribbean and the Pacific, specifically around Venezuela and Colombia.

Late last week, the administration ordered the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford and escorts to depart the Mediterranean and transit to the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility to support the current anti-drug trafficking operations in the region.

It is unknown whether the operations in the Caribbean will be a topic of discussion between Trump and Xi. China, along with its allies Russia and Iran, maintains an amicable relationship with Venezuela.

The Chinese military has taken part in military exercises in the South American country.

During the roundtable, The Center Square asked Pete Hegseth, the secretary of War, and Trump if there were plans to expand U.S. Naval operations out of Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, where the base officially closed in 2004.

In response to a possible expansion by the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean, specifically Puerto Rico, in addressing potential adversarial threats in Latin America, Hegseth told The Center Square Thursday that the Department of War is keeping its eyes on adversaries in the region; however, he didn’t indicate if there are plans to expand U.S. Naval operations in Puerto Rico.

“We’re familiar with the location that you’re referring to, and we will make sure that we’re properly placed in order to deal with the contingency we’re dealing with there, and also any ways in which other countries would attempt to be involved also, so we can walk and chew gum. We’re definitely keeping our eyes on near peer adversaries at the same time,” said Hegseth. “But we think sending a message on these cartels, these narco terrorists, is an important, important inside our hemisphere, which for far too long other presidents, as the president pointed out, they’ve ignored our own backyard and allowed other countries to increase their influence here, which only threatens the American people. We’re changing that.”

The president’s meeting with Xi comes on the heels of meetings in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. China’s continued military expansion in the Pacific has been a concern for the U.S. and allies in the region. Japan and China have long fought over a chain of islands in the East China Sea.