China began 2025 by escalating its economic conflict with the United States, further intensifying the ongoing trade war. In anticipation of President-elect Donald Trump’s entry into the Oval Office, a champion of tariffs as a key component of his economic agenda, China implemented trade restrictions targeting several American companies. These actions included a ban on the export of “dual-use” products—those with both civilian and military uses—and restricted the operations of ten firms involved in arms sales to Taiwan. 

For decades, U.S. policymakers operated under the assumption that integrating China into the global economy would encourage its political and economic liberalization. This belief shaped decisions like granting China entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 and turning a blind eye to egregious human rights abuses and rampant intellectual property theft. The idea was that as China grew richer, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would adopt democratic principles to align with its people’s aspirations. But this approach was disastrously misguided. Instead of liberalizing, the CCP exploited these concessions to entrench its power and expand its global ambitions. 

Trade, for the CCP, is not merely an economic tool but a strategic weapon to achieve geopolitical objectives. While Beijing shields its domestic industries with strict policies, it leverages exports and foreign investments to project influence and coerce compliance from other nations. Over the past two decades, China has overtaken the United States as the largest non-continental trading partner for nearly the entirety of the South American and African continents, gaining political leverage in these regions. This influence has tangible consequences. 

Many media outlets mistakenly dismissed President Trump’s recent remarks on the importance of America reclaiming the Panama Canal, overlooking a dangerous reality. The CCP is gaining control over this vital global trade artery. A Chinese firm manages two of the five major ports near the Panama Canal, a trade route through which 5 percent of global maritime commerce flows. Beijing is the second-largest user of the canal and one of the largest exporters to Panama’s Colon Free Zone, where they continue to construct container ports to extend their influence. 

Under President Trump’s leadership, America came to understand the serious threat posed by the CCP and its actions that threaten our way of life. With an “America First” president returning to the Oval Office, the United States must intensify its efforts to prevent China from continuing to use American resources as fuel for its ambitions. Achieving this requires a unified American strategy, targeting all channels through which China exploits our markets and resources. Cutting off these flows will weaken President Xi Jinping’s ability to project power and challenge the United States globally. 

There are immediate steps that can be taken to curb the CCP’s espionage, IP theft, propaganda efforts, and other malign activities within our nation’s borders, which under the Biden administration have been lacking. In the previous two years alone, the number of undocumented Chinese nationals who illegally entered the United States surpassed 78,000, the majority being military-aged males. Measures to mitigate the damage caused by this invasion should be done concurrently with closing the border, a priority of the Trump administration.

These measures include barring Chinese entities from purchasing U.S. farmland and critical real estate and revoking student visas for Chinese nationals studying sensitive fields, particularly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Additionally, digital platforms like TikTok, controlled by the CCP-linked ByteDance, should be sold or banned entirely to protect American data and privacy from exploitation. 

Another important issue we need to address is divesting from the CCP’s defense-related companies. DJI, the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial drones, and Huawei, one of the world’s leading providers of telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics, are two examples of CCP-backed companies posing significant national security and critical infrastructure vulnerabilities to America. 

Additionally, prioritizing dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies is necessary to maintain a strategic edge. Each year, China steals more than $600 billion in trade secrets, technology, and AI developments from the U.S. proprietary AI models are particularly vulnerable to theft through intellectual property breaches or insider threats. If Beijing gains access to cutting-edge AI capabilities, it will weaponize them against American interests. Excessive scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions has slowed the pace of innovation in emerging fields like AI. This has left the United States vulnerable to competitors like China, which aggressively advances its technological prowess. Staying ahead in AI innovation is not just an economic priority but a national security imperative. 

Beyond high-profile industries like technology and defense, the United States must address less obvious revenue streams fueling the CCP’s ambitions. For instance, China Tobacco generates over $200 billion annually, enough to fund the entire Chinese military. A large portion of this revenue is derived from exporting vaping devices to the United States, where approximately 5,800 unregulated Chinese products flood our market, bypassing FDA oversight and posing serious public health risks. Rather than confronting these dangers posed by our greatest adversary, U.S. agencies like the International Trade Commission are targeting American-made, FDA-approved products, which would foster a prohibition-like black market of Chinese devices in the United States. This approach undermines American interests and extends Beijing’s reach, an unfortunate mistake we’ve seen continuously over the past four years. 

President Biden’s restrictions on domestic oil and gas production and the stalling of critical infrastructure projects like pipelines have hamstrung America’s energy independence and allowed adversaries like Russia and OPEC nations hostile to our interests to dictate global energy markets. Meanwhile, regulatory overreach by the FTC and DOJ, with their aggressive antitrust actions against U.S. technology companies, has suppressed innovation and discouraged investment in sectors where the United States once dominated. By prioritizing ideological goals over practical leadership, the Biden administration has effectively regulated America into a position of diminished global influence, particularly in technology, energy, and overall economic competitiveness.

Powerful nations are built on strength, resolve, and the ability to defend their interests, not on appeasement or concessions. President Trump’s “America First” and “Peace Through Strength” approaches embody this ethos. Elections have consequences, and the American people have given President Trump a mandate to restore our dominance as the global leader in the twenty-first-century great power competition. 

James B. Skinner is a Senior Vice President at American Global Strategies. He served on the White House National Security Council (2019–21) and at the U.S. Department of Defense (2018–19).

Image: Gil Corzo / Shutterstock.com.