In Trade War, China’s Chokehold on US Medicine Moves Into Spotlight

China’s iron grip on supply of critical drug ingredients has been years in the making, driven by Beijing’s strategic plan to dominate the pharma industry

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

WASHINGTON—As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in 2020, hospitals across the United States found themselves scrambling for masks, gloves, and other critical medical supplies.

The crisis served as a wake-up call for the United States, despite being a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. Politicians and health care leaders vowed to fix the dangerous overreliance on foreign-made medical supplies, a problem that had gone largely unnoticed.