President Trump is heading to Beijing this week for a face-to-face showdown with Chinese President Xi Jinping over trade, technology, human rights, and fentanyl — and if you're wondering when the last time a U.S. president had the guts to do that was, the answer is 2017, when it was also Trump.
But sure, tell me again how "mean tweets" were the real threat to America.
Let's talk numbers, because numbers don't care about your feelings. The U.S. trade deficit with China hit $202.1 billion in 2025. That's billion with a B. China is our third-largest trade partner, and they've been eating our lunch for decades while Washington smiled and asked for seconds. Trump's the only president in modern history willing to say "no more" and actually mean it.
The agenda for this Beijing trip reads like a greatest-hits album of everything the establishment pretended wasn't a problem. Technology transfers — where China steals our intellectual property and calls it "innovation." The fentanyl pipeline — where Chinese precursors flood our southern border and kill Americans by the tens of thousands. Human rights abuses — which every previous administration politely ignored because they didn't want to make things "awkward" at the trade summit.
And then there's Iran. Here's a fun fact the media won't lead with: 12% of China's total crude oil imports come from Iranian crude, and 50% of China's crude oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has his boot on Iran's neck to the point where Iran "isn't selling much (if any) oil," according to the RedState report. Now he's leveraging that pressure to get Xi to help squeeze Tehran into a deal. That's not warmongering. That's chess.
Remember the fall meeting? China agreed to purchase American soybeans and signed a rare earth deal. Those were real, tangible wins that the media buried under whatever manufactured outrage was trending that week. Now Trump's going back for more, because that's what you do when you're actually negotiating from a position of strength instead of begging.
Trump still maintains he has "a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping." And here's the thing the foreign policy "experts" will never understand — you can respect your adversary and still punch him in the wallet. That's not a contradiction. That's called being an adult.
Contrast this with the Biden years, when our China policy consisted of strongly worded statements, strategic confusion, and letting a spy balloon float across the entire country before shooting it down over the Atlantic. Very tough. Very serious.
The courts have thrown up legal roadblocks on some of Trump's tariff policies, because of course they have. Activist judges have made it their personal mission to prevent any president from actually enforcing trade law. But Trump keeps pushing, because unlike every politician who came before him, he doesn't fold when the establishment says "you can't do that."
This May 14-15 meeting in Beijing is the toughest U.S. stance on China in modern history. Trade deficit, tech theft, fentanyl, human rights, Iran — it's all on the table, and it's all being discussed by a president who doesn't blink.
The establishment will clutch their pearls. The media will call it "dangerous." And Trump will come home with results, like he always does.
