FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is pushing the Biden administration to classify fentanyl as a biological and chemical weapon, and to sanction China for its role in fueling the U.S. drug crisis.

"The Chinese Communist Party is the largest police state in the world. If they wanted to stop the flow of fentanyl from inside their border to the U.S. and Mexican drug cartels, they could do it overnight," Banks told Fox News Digital. "Instead, they are sending this deadly opioid to kill tens of thousands of military and working-aged Americans every year to destroy our communities and economy at levels only seen by weapons of mass destruction. They must be held accountable."

His bill would amend the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991, which requires the president to impose sanctions on foreign entities that knowingly contributed to another country's stock or use of chemical and biological weapons.

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It comes shortly after the House select committee on China, of which Banks is a member, released a bombshell report accusing China of worsening the ongoing fentanyl crisis in the U.S. 

The committee found that China's Communist government offered subsidies to companies that manufacture fentanyl precursors and other synthetic drugs, as long as those products are being sold outside of China.

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The program has been in place since 2018 and did not stop even after President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2023. In fact, the committee found that China increased those subsidies while in talks with U.S. officials in 2019 and 2020.

The rate of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. quadrupled from 2002 to 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths were highest for adults aged 35-44 in 2021 and 2022, the data shows.

U.S. authorities have grappled with fentanyl coming across the U.S.-Mexico border and other places, with deadly amounts being laced with other illicit recreational drugs.

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Nate Moellering, the executive vice president of Allendale Treatment, an Indiana-based addiction treatment center, and himself a fentanyl survivor, blamed China's government for directly fueling the crisis.

"Some of our best and brightest are having their precious lives cut short because of the greed and negligence on the part of the CCP. Sanctions against China are a great first step when it comes to the federal government doing its part," Moellering told Fox News Digital. "This is not a red or blue issue."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.