Gordon Chang Breaks Down Trump-Xi Summit and What’s Next
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I sit down with China analyst Gordon Chang to understand his view of the recent Trump–Xi talks in Beijing.
Who had the upper hand? Why did President Donald Trump take 17 CEOs of America’s largest corporations with him? And what was accomplished?
While Xi Jinping tries to present America as a declining power and China as an ascending one, the reality is that China faces several grave problems, Chang says: a collapsing demography, an ailing economy, and a military in disarray after a series of purges.
But China also holds two strong cards: a near-monopoly on rare-earth processing and on critical pharmaceutical precursors.
At the same time, China is winning the information war, Chang argues.
“Xi Jinping has been beating the crap out of us in the information warfare space, and that’s our fault,” he said.
Where is the future of U.S.–China relations headed? Will Trump call Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te—something no U.S. president has done in 47 years? How are shifting alliances in the region reshaping the geopolitical chessboard? And how close are we to a major confrontation? Is the “Thucydides Trap” narrative real?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Trump is giving the Chinese a really hard time, pushing them out of the Western Hemisphere, |
| 0:05.0 | pushing them out of the Middle East. |
| 0:06.0 | In this episode, I sit down with China analyst Gordon Chang to understand what really |
| 0:10.3 | unfolded at the Trump Xi talks, and where the real leverage lies between Washington and Beijing. |
| 0:16.0 | Xi Jinping has been beating the crap out of us in the information warfare space. |
| 0:21.6 | And that's our fault. |
| 0:22.6 | Will Trump call Taiwan President Lie as he's promised? |
| 0:25.6 | Do you have any plans to call President Lie of Taiwan? |
| 0:29.6 | I'll speak to them. I speak to everybody. |
| 0:31.6 | And be the first sitting U.S. President to make such a call in 47 years? |
| 0:35.6 | I think the United States in general should just say to Xi Jinping, Taiwan's none of your business. |
| 0:41.3 | How are shifting alliances reshaping the geopolitical chessboard, and how close are we to a major |
| 0:47.3 | confrontation? |
| 0:48.3 | China is far more powerful than Osama bin Laden ever was. |
| 0:52.3 | So we got to recognize that although we're a far more powerful society than China, we can |
| 0:57.8 | lose our country. |
| 0:59.2 | This is American Thought Leaders and I'm Jan Yekkelik. |
| 1:02.7 | Gordon Chang, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders. |
| 1:08.9 | Thank you so much, Jan. |
| 1:18.1 | There are such different readouts on what happened during this Trump-She meeting recently. |
| 1:20.6 | And I just want to get your take on it. |
| 1:22.3 | What do you think really happened? |
... |
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