The CCP’s Gloves Are Off in Trade War—What’s Next? | Lee Smith

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently imposed unprecedented export controls on rare earths, escalating the U.S.–China trade war.

How is it that the Chinese regime managed to gain control of many of the most essential supply chains, from critical minerals to pharmaceuticals? How should the Trump administration approach this threat to national security?

In this episode, we sit down with Lee Smith, author of “The Plot Against the President,” and the soon-to-be-released book, “The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact.”

“It was simply American corruption that has allowed all of this to happen. And that’s certainly the point that [U.S. President] Donald Trump makes in the book,” Smith says.

What is Trump’s strategy when it comes to China? How does he actually view Chinese leader Xi Jinping?

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Editor’s Note: Lee Smith previously hosted the EpochTV program “Words That Matter.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Chinese Communist Party has taken its gloves off, imposing unprecedented controls on rare earths.
0:06.0	Why? It's a Communist Party. They're not in the global system to play fair. They believe in dominating the system.
0:15.0	In this episode, I sit down with Lee Smith, author of The Plot Against the President and his new book, The China Matrix.
0:23.4	Wow, penicillin and everything else is made in Wuhan.
0:27.0	Almost all of our pharmaceuticals come from the People's Republic of China.
0:30.7	What will we do?
0:31.8	From pharmaceuticals to critical minerals.
0:34.6	China's a major producer at this point.
0:36.6	Who allowed the CCP to gain such deep control over America's critical resources?
0:42.8	It was simply American corruption that's allowed all of this to happen.
0:46.5	And that's certainly the point that Donald Trump makes in the book.
0:49.7	This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yanya Kellick.
0:53.4	Lee Smith. American Thought Leaders. And I'm Janja Kellick.
1:00.7	Lee Smith, so good to have you back on American Thought Leaders.
1:06.8	Jan, it's always a huge pleasure to be back with you on American Thought Leaders and to speak with you, my dear friend.
1:09.6	You have written a book for the ages, my friend, the China Matrix.
1:15.6	Recently, something happened that I describe as Communist China taking off its gloves,
1:23.6	and that is these very, very detailed international rare earth export restrictions.
1:31.5	Why don't you lay out what you think happened here?
1:35.7	Yeah. Well, this was in particular a response to the Trump administration's commerce department
1:41.5	listing a number of different Chinese entities.
1:45.2	And as it turns out, these entities, what they'd been doing is that access to U.S. technology,
	...

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