Investigative journalist and author Lee Smith joined Chicago’s Morning Answer to discuss President Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the state of U.S.–China relations, and his new book The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact.
Smith argued that Trump’s foreign policy toward Beijing represents a decisive break from five decades of U.S. complacency. “Trump wants to rewrite the rules of the relationship,” Smith said. “He’s the first president since Nixon opened China who’s been willing to say out loud that the Chinese Communist Party has been exploiting American wealth for fifty years — and to do something about it.”
According to Smith, Trump’s tariff regime is not just an economic measure but a strategic one. “It’s meant to punish the CCP, to hurt Xi, and to put America in a stronger position,” he explained. While Treasury Secretary Scott Besson has avoided talk of “decoupling,” Smith said Trump’s long-term goal is precisely that — reducing U.S. dependence on China across critical industries, from pharmaceuticals to technology. “We saw during COVID just how dangerous that dependence can be,” he noted.
Smith said Trump’s personal distrust of Xi is rooted in experience. “He believed he had a comprehensive trade deal, and Xi backed out,” Smith said. “Then came COVID — Trump told me directly in our interview that he liked and respected Xi until the China virus. After that, the relationship was never the same.” He added that China’s failure to honor even the limited commitments of the Phase One trade deal reinforced Trump’s resolve to confront Beijing more aggressively.
The author also revealed new details about what sparked China’s recent escalation on rare earth exports. “The U.S. discovered that China was funneling American technology to Iran, which in turn gave it to Hamas,” Smith said. “That tech was used in the October 7th attacks on Israel. When the U.S. sanctioned the Chinese front companies involved, Beijing retaliated by restricting rare earth exports. Trump’s message in this meeting will be simple: America will defend its security, and we won’t be bullied.”
Smith described the Chinese economy as a fragile empire built on imitation and Western financing. “Without America, there’s no China as we know it,” he said. “They’ve taken our technology, our capital, and our markets. We never made the Soviets rich, but we built China’s power with our own money. Trump is the first leader to say, ‘Enough.’”
The China Matrix chronicles how Trump’s first term disrupted decades of U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy. Smith believes the second term is about finishing what he started. “This is the moment to stop financing our own adversary,” he said. “It’s not just an economic issue — it’s the central national security question of our time.”