The Chinese Communist Party controls America’s drug supply. Policymakers must reduce our nation’s reliance on China, and recently introduced legislation offers a good start.
Sen. Tom Cotton‘s (R-AR) Securing America’s Drug Supply from Communist China Act would “eliminate the national security risk posed by CCP influence over entities that sell pharmaceutical products to the American public.”
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By some estimates, the United States imports 90% of the materials it needs to make drugs. Although half of those come from India, New Delhi gets 70% to 80% of its pharmaceutical ingredients from China. More than 90% of U.S. generic drugs depend on Chinese manufacturing, including 27% of U.S. military drug sales, according to a 2023 Pentagon study.
So Beijing has enormous influence over the drugs millions of ordinary Americans rely on, including those for blood pressure, ibuprofen, and penicillin. That is a danger to individual health and to the nation.
China is America’s only genuine rival, and the Communist Party seeks world domination. President Xi Jinping says a “change unseen in 100 years is coming.”
China is openly preparing for war against the U.S., but it does not rely on hard power alone. The Communists are adept at fighting with its manufacturing capacity. While Western nations have deindustrialized, China has positioned itself as the “factory of the world.”
Its ability to produce essential goods like generic pharmaceuticals gives it a “nuclear option,” as Melanie Hart, a former State Department official under the Biden administration, put it. Rosemary Gibson, author of a book on America’s reliance on China for drugs, warns that hospitals and clinics could be forced to close, sparking widespread panic.
Economic coercion is how China operates. It threatened to halt pharmaceutical exports during trade disputes with the first Trump administration. It threatened to cut medical supplies during the COVID crisis. As recently as September 2025, China imposed substantially tighter restrictions on rare earth exports during its tariff dispute with President Donald Trump.
So it poses risks that the U.S. must eliminate. The Securing America’s Drug Supply from Communist China Act helps by calling for the Food and Drug Administration to screen companies for ties to the Chinese Communist Party and to destroy drugs with such links.
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Policymakers should further reduce risk by encouraging domestic manufacturing and working with like-minded allies, such as India, to strengthen supply chains and reduce vulnerability. Coalitions are critical to success.
China presents an unprecedented challenge. During the Cold War, America did not depend on the Soviet bloc for basic materials needed to keep citizens alive and its economy running. The U.S. can no longer afford to rely on its chief adversary for essential medicines and other basic needs.
