Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is sick and tired of Americans blaming him for all of the fentanyl and other deadly drugs pouring over the border into the United States. With that in mind, he announced this week that he had sent a letter to Xi Jinping asking for help in stopping the shipments of the components of the drugs from China to Mexico where the cartels process them in preparation to ship them to America. He also complained to Xi about American legislators “interfering in Mexico’s affairs.” Personally, I wasn’t aware that AMLO had such a cordial relationship with Beijing, but we’re living in a time when everything on the foreign relations front is rapidly changing. (Reuters)

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday he had sent a letter to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping urging him to help control shipments of the synthetic opioid fentanyl sent across the Pacific.

Lopez Obrador read out the letter during a news conference in which he defended his country’s efforts to curb trafficking of the lethal drug in the face of U.S. criticism.

Fentanyl has been blamed for fueling a surge in overdose deaths in the U.S., and Republican lawmakers have accused the Mexican government of not doing enough to stop drug cartels trafficking the powerful painkiller into the United States.

It will remain challenging to work with Mexico and make any substantial progress if AMLO isn’t willing to so much as acknowledge reality. He actually claimed that Mexico “is not a production hub for the drug.” Of course, if that were the case, why would he be asking China for help in shutting down the flow of drugs?

Unfortunately for everyone, it’s been obvious for a while now that AMLO is knee-deep in the ongoing battles between the cartels in his country and he’s almost certainly not an innocent bystander. He rejects all offers of potential military or law enforcement help in getting the cartels under control and he rarely sends in his own forces to try to squash the battles that break out between them.

It’s also unclear what he believes China might be willing to do to help him out. If Xi Jinping had any interest in halting the flow of fentanyl and its associated components from his country he could have done it long ago. China has a very closed society where everyone is constantly monitored. Xi could just make the fentanyl traffickers disappear if he wanted to and thought it was in his best interests. Clearly, that’s not the case.

I’m not suggesting there are no ties at all between China and Mexico. The two countries do roughly $100 billion in trade annually. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the economic activity between Mexico and the United States. And the Mexican government hasn’t traditionally been ideologically aligned with China either. For example, Mexico doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan, but they do maintain “informal relations” with them. In that regard, they mostly mimic the policies of the United States.

These are all things that AMLO should keep in mind if he’s suddenly thinking of shopping around for some new friends. While I’m sure Beijing would be over the moon if they thought they could secure an alliance with Mexico, it would be a suicidal move for the Mexican people. Hopefully their president will think better of it.