By Kylie Madry
MEXICO&nbsp;CITY (Reuters) -Precursor&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;used by&nbsp;Mexican&nbsp;cartels to make the deadly opioid&nbsp;fentanyl&nbsp;do&nbsp;not&nbsp;come&nbsp;from&nbsp;China, its&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;in&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;said on Tuesday, rejecting U.S. officials' accusations.
The&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;said in a statement that&nbsp;China&nbsp;had measures in place to prevent the trafficking of substances used to make illegal drugs, and added the U.S. was "blindly shirking its responsibilities" by&nbsp;not&nbsp;taking domestic action.
"The root of the&nbsp;fentanyl&nbsp;crisis in the United States is within itself," the&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;said.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been seeking cooperation with both&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;and&nbsp;China&nbsp;in stemming the flow of&nbsp;fentanyl, which has fueled a health crisis and a sharp rise in overdose deaths, as well as its precursor&nbsp;chemicals.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration&nbsp;says&nbsp;the addictive painkiller and its precursors are transported&nbsp;from&nbsp;China&nbsp;to&nbsp;Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, often by international mail.
China&nbsp;had denied the illegal trafficking of&nbsp;fentanyl&nbsp;to&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;in an April statement, though it did&nbsp;not&nbsp;address precursor&nbsp;chemicals.
The&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;on Tuesday said&nbsp;China&nbsp;was "actively coordinating and strengthening" supervision of drug-making substances with&nbsp;Mexico.
The U.S.&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;in&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mexico's foreign ministry did&nbsp;not&nbsp;immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Chinese statement, the&nbsp;embassy&nbsp;said, comes after recent comments&nbsp;from&nbsp;U.S. Ambassador to&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;Ken Salazar and other U.S. officials.
Last week, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned 10 people with suspected ties to the Sinaloa Cartel's&nbsp;fentanyl&nbsp;network, as well as a company accused of importing&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;from&nbsp;China.
"This represents a blow to (the cartel's) financial operations and illicit activities, since the company receives chemical shipments&nbsp;from&nbsp;China," Salazar said in a statement.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Isabel Woodford, Robert Birsel)

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Chemicals for Mexican fentanyl not from China, embassy in Mexico says