It’s All About China

Peloni:  This is an important article.  Lee Smith draws together many themes which I have argued over the past many months, beginning with the awareness that everything that Trump has done since entering office has been in accord with an interest in challenging Chinese interests.  Lee explains that what has thus far been labeled as a “trade war” between the United States and China is in fact only one component of a much broader strategic confrontation, a war against a so-called “China axis” that spans trade, technology, geopolitics and military competition. It begins by recounting how U.S.-made electronic components, procured by Chinese firms and passed on to Iranian agents and proxies such as Hamas and the Houthis, were used in Middle Eastern attacks — a concrete example of how Chinese-linked supply chains now weaponize American technology. The author uses this to illustrate a deeper strategic competition, beyond mere tariffs.

The origin of U.S.–China engagement began back to the 1970s, when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger opened China diplomatically with the goal of leveraging Beijing against the Soviet Union. Lee explains that while this was celebrated at the time, it proved to be one of the worst geopolitical gambits in US foreign policy ventures.  Over the course of the decades which have since past, the U.S. has essentially built up China’s power at America’s expense.

Lee goes on to cite the all too well known faith which U.S. elite placed in the process of globalization and liberalizing China through trade as being a strategy that ignored China’s fundamental ambitions and only served to erode American manufacturing, economic resilience and strategic autonomy.

Lee goes on to assert that the presidency of Donald Trump has served as a turning point in this process of China’s accendance alongside American decline.  From changes in tariff policies, to export controls, to foreign-policy moves (which includes targeting China-linked companies and confronting China’s Middle East allies) Trump has produced a a coherent, consistent and effective effort to push back against the China axis and restore U.S. primacy, all while these actions are routinely mistaken to be isolated policies.  U.S. alliance system, global trade dynamics and strategic posture are being reoriented to confront China’s ambitions, rather than to continue to integrate them.

Specifically relating this to America’s strengthening relationship with Israel, Lee explains that contrary to the billions of dollars in “tribute” which is accepted from the Middle Eastern Arab states, the US supports Israel so as to advance US interests in the region.   Simultaneously, an ever strengthening anti-Israel faction within the U.S., which has been amplified via incentivized social media influencers alongside Chinese-influenced social-media campaigns on Tik Tok, has been advocating for the weakening of the U.S.–Israel alliance and thereby undermining America’s position in the Middle East in accord with Chinese interests.

Lee Smith | Tablet | Oct 30, 2025

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https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/all-about-china-trump