Trump: The Toughest President on China in U.S. History

The consensus among America’s intelligence and defense establishments is that China represents the most comprehensive threat to U.S. economic and national security interests. The 2025 Annual Threat Assessment from the U.S. Intelligence Community identifies China as presenting “the most comprehensive and robust military threat to U.S.” forces, while the FBI has declared that “the counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.”

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2025 assessment flags China as “the long-term pacing challenge,” noting its military modernization, expanding defense budget, and assertive foreign policy as contributing to elevated risk for America.

Amid this unprecedented threat, many China analysts view President Trump’s tough stance as a necessary response to safeguard American sovereignty, economic interests, and national security. The Department of Defense’s 2024 China Military Power Report notes China’s nuclear arsenal has grown to over 600 warheads, with projections surpassing 1,000 by 2030. Meanwhile, the U.S. Trade Representative reports that China is pursuing “production and market share targets that can only be achieved through non-market means” across critical economic sectors.

An objective analysis of previous administrations’ approaches to China shows that Donald Trump has implemented the most aggressive and comprehensive economic measures of any American president.

Before President Trump launched the U.S.–China trade war in 2018, average U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports were just 3 percent, while China imposed average tariffs of around 8 percent on U.S. goods. To correct this imbalance, Trump implemented aggressive tariff increases, which by his second term had surged to an average of 51.1 percent on all Chinese exports, a more than 15-fold jump. These measures marked the most comprehensive trade action against any major U.S. trading partner in modern history and were widely seen by Trump supporters as a justified response to decades of unfair Chinese practices.

In 2025, Trump threatened tariffs as high as 145 percent on all Chinese goods. While ultimately negotiated down, the implemented rates remain at unprecedented levels. The economic impact has been swift: U.S. tariff revenue reached $24.2 billion in May 2025 alone, while direct imports from China fell 43 percent year-over-year to a 19-year low. Overall, the 2025 tariffs are projected to raise $156.2 billion in federal revenue, equal to 0.51 percent of GDP, making them the largest tax increase since 1993.

Beyond tariff’s, the president’s approach to China extended into a broad, strategic decoupling across multiple sectors. His administration imposed sweeping restrictions on Chinese investment in critical U.S. industries, technology, infrastructure, energy, healthcare, food supplies, farmland, ports, and minerals, primarily through enhanced powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Trump also restricted China’s access to American capital markets. Executive Order 13959, signed on November 12, 2020, barred U.S. investors from holding securities in companies identified as “Communist Chinese military companies,” forcing divestment from dozens of major Chinese firms and triggering broader financial separation.

In parallel, Trump signed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, creating a pathway for delisting Chinese firms from U.S. stock exchanges if they fail to comply with American auditing standards for three consecutive years. Since its implementation, the SEC has flagged over 135 companies relying on auditors based in China or Hong Kong for potential future action, though enforcement mechanisms and audit access agreements have prevented mass delistings as of 2025. Many Chinese companies have proactively pursued alternative listings in Hong Kong and other venues in anticipation of potential future enforcement.” These measures were meant to cut Chinese firms off from the world’s largest capital markets.

The Trump administration also targeted Chinese technology with export controls and outright bans. Huawei Technologies was barred from purchasing vital U.S. components and excluded from American telecom networks on national security grounds. Trump further ordered bans on dealings with the Chinese owners of TikTok and WeChat, citing similar concerns. These actions aimed to sever Chinese tech giants from critical U.S. technology and cripple their global operations.

Trump’s decoupling strategy extended to academia. The administration imposed strict visa restrictions on Chinese students and scholars, especially those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or enrolled in sensitive research fields. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. would begin “aggressively” revoking such visas, representing a dramatic shift from decades of academic exchange.

Together, these non-tariff actions constituted the most comprehensive economic and technological confrontation with China in modern U.S. history. Unlike previous administrations, Trump’s strategy was unified, far-reaching, and explicitly designed to achieve long-term decoupling from the Chinese Communist Party’s influence.

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