That is not theory, China is the source of mass produced fentanyl. As for "Thinning" a population, I don't think that quite works. But look at it from another angle: producing hundreds of pounds of fentanyl and shipping it to cartels just by itself covers all of their costs. But, if it can generate costs (policing/jail/rehab/property loss), which are all provable just from public records on the US economy, they have then basically carried out economic sabotage at no cost. So population wise or geostrategic wise, it may not have huge impact, but the cost of opioid addiction already topped 1T as a comparison Huawei is worth 180B. So I am very convinced economic sabotage is the angle they are after, the incentive is just too strong.
That is not theory, China is the source of mass produced fentanyl. As for "Thinning" a population, I don't think that quite works. But look at it from another angle: producing hundreds of pounds of fentanyl and shipping it to cartels just by itself covers all of their costs. But, if it can generate costs (policing/jail/rehab/property loss), which are all provable just from public records on the US economy, they have then basically carried out economic sabotage at no cost. So population wise or geostrategic wise, it may not have huge impact, but the cost of opioid addiction already topped 1T as a comparison Huawei is worth 180B. So I am very convinced economic sabotage is the angle they are after, the incentive is just too strong.