Victor Davis Hanson: How Trump Forced China’s Hand

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

President Donald Trump just forced China into its most vulnerable position in decades. Trump wrapped up a weeklong trip to Asia and, after years of tension and economic warfare, negotiated a sweeping deal with Beijing. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the specifics of the deal—including China’s promise to stop the flow of fentanyl to Mexico—how this breakthrough happened, and what this means for the future of U.S.-China relations on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” “ [China] sized up the domestic renaissance here at home—low inflation, basically 3% or below, 3%, probably, at the end of the year of GDP, stock market record levels, vast new investments—and they said: You know what? The United States is back. And the foreign—the atmosphere is very different. “Neutrals will probably join them. And their friends are emboldened. So, they've got new alliances. NATO is stronger than it's ever been. So, you add all of that up and the Chinese said to themselves the following: I think it's time to cut a deal. Not that we're gonna give up on trying to erode and subvert the United States.” (0:00) Trump and Xi's Deal (0:46) Why Now? (3:24) The Left's Weakness (6:39) U.S. Domestic Renaissance (8:50) China's Calculated Pause (9:54) The Future of US-China Relations 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enabling notification: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉More exclusive content are available on Victor’s website: ⁠https://victorhanson.com⁠ 👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.2	Donald Trump and Xi, Jing Ping, the leader of China, had a trade deal, a diplomatic deal, a very multifaceted deal.
0:39.4	The left is already criticizing Trump by saying that he came down on tariffs.
0:44.6	I think that's nonsense.
0:46.3	China will probably have the highest tariffs still leveled on it somewhere between 37 and 47%.
0:52.3	The biggest deal was that they promised to stop sending raw fentanyl to Mexico
0:58.6	and laundering Mexican money from the cartels. That's very important if we can get that death
1:04.3	to hold down. It would be a stunning achievement. In some ways, Donald Trump, if he could stop
1:08.5	the 70,000 deaths per year, 600,000 since China started
1:13.3	this, he would save more lives than anybody in American history.
1:16.5	So the question is, why is China now starting to deal?
1:33.7	Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal.
1:42.6	There's been a big news story coming out that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the leader of China, have had a trade deal, a diplomatic deal, a very
1:48.1	multifaceted deal.
1:50.4	The left is already criticizing Trump by saying that he came down on tariffs or he didn't
	...

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