National Security Experts: Trump Has Strengthened U.S. Positition v China

National security experts are pointing to a series of military, economic, technological, and diplomatic moves by President Donald Trump’s administration that they say have put the United States in a stronger position in its strategic competition with China as Washington prepares for another meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, told Breitbart News, “While the media focus is on President Trump’s rhetorical niceties with CCP leader Xi Jinping, the Trump administration is engaged in unprecedented geopolitical maneuvering behind the scenes, significantly strengthening America’s position in our strategic competition with Communist China. Just yesterday, President Trump signed a transformational deal with Denmark and Greenland to ensure the United States maintains a permanent, dominant position in the Arctic while also cordoning off Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere. 

Trump has furthermore led NATO allies to spend more on defense, armed Ukraine and Taiwan, deprived China of cheap oil imports from Venezuela and Iran, and rewired American supply chains to be less reliant on China, most notably with the Pax Silica initiative. Thanks to President Trump’s relentless actions, America has a much stronger negotiating position today than it did during the 4-year collapse of American deterrence under President Biden.” 

Mike Martin, a former senior national security official during the first Trump administration, said in a statement to Breitbart News, 

“President Trump has made confronting China a central part of his economic and national security agenda, challenging Beijing over issues ranging from market access to critical supply chains. That approach must continue as competition with China increasingly extends into artificial intelligence and other technologies that will shape America’s economic and national security for decades. 

The United States cannot afford to trade one strategic dependency for another. America should keep its AI ecosystem open, innovative, and competitive, and strengthen domestic capabilities while confronting efforts by the CCP to gain strategic leverage over American industries and institutions.”

Below are some concrete examples of actions the Trump administration has taken in its strategic competition with Communist China.

Strengthening NATO and Arctic Security

NATO members agreed in 2025 to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP by 2035, including at least 3.5 percent for direct military needs and up to another 1.5 percent for related defense and security costs. The agreement followed years of pressure from Trump for European members to spend more on their own defense.

The Trump administration has also expanded the U.S. security presence in the Arctic through the agreement Trump signed Tuesday with Denmark and Greenland. The agreement allows Washington to modernize and expand activities at Pituffik Space Base and establish defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig while barring non-NATO countries from establishing military installations or a persistent military presence without the signatories’ agreement. Trump also announced plans for two major new military bases.

Reducing China’s Energy and Critical Mineral Leverage

Trump imposed a 25-percent tariff in January on countries doing business with Iran, a move expected to particularly affect China because of Beijing’s purchases of sanctioned Iranian oil. The action came after China lost full access to Venezuelan oil following the arrest of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, while Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing would “firmly protect its legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”

The administration has also pursued alternatives to Chinese dominance of critical-mineral supply chains. Trump signed a deal with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October 2025 under which the United States and Australia committed more than $1 billion each toward mining and refining projects, while the U.S. Export-Import Bank made up to $5 billion in financing available; China produces about 70 percent of rare-earth minerals and controls roughly 90 percent of worldwide refining capacity.

The administration has pursued similar efforts in Africa, where American company Virtus Minerals acquired the Etoile and Mutoshi cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with U.S. government support. China controls more than 70 percent of Congolese cobalt and copper, while the two mines could eventually produce a combined 75,000 tonnes of copper and 20,000 tonnes of cobalt annually.

Trump also launched Project Vault in February, making $12 billion available for protecting and developing American mineral companies, and the United States has pledged $5 billion toward the Lobito Corridor linking the DRC to Angola’s port city of Lobito. A State Department spokesperson described the Virtus acquisition as an “initial flagship U.S. investment in the DRC.”

Securing AI and Technology Supply Chains

The Trump administration recently tightened scrutiny of Chinese-made equipment used to power American data centers as electricity demand from artificial intelligence increases. Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency involving foreign-made equipment in the bulk-power system and giving the Energy Department authority to prohibit or place conditions on certain transactions involving equipment used by the power grid and data centers.

Chinese companies supply significant shares of transformers, switchgear, batteries, and optical transceivers used in data-center infrastructure. Johns Hopkins University associate professor Yury Dvorkin said China’s share of certain transformer and switchgear categories is close to 30 percent and that it accounts for more than 40 percent of U.S. battery imports, while Chinese companies account for roughly two-thirds of global optical transceiver unit supply.

The administration has simultaneously pushed for more semiconductor production in the United States. Substrate founder and CEO James Proud told Breitbart News in August that the administration had done a “phenomenal job,” adding, “We are now building more fabs than we built in I think 20 years in the United States,” while the Commerce Department announced in June 2025 that it had secured a $200 billion investment from Micron Technology to expand American production of advanced memory chips.

The Federal Communications Commission has also added foreign-produced advanced robotics and connected power inverters to its Covered List after national security authorities determined that the products posed unacceptable risks. Chinese-made humanoid robots account for an estimated 85 percent of the global market, while FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission was acting to “secure America’s critical supply chains.”

Countering Chinese Influence at Strategic Ports

The Trump administration reached agreements with Panama strengthening the U.S. presence around the Panama Canal, including priority passage for American military and auxiliary vessels and an expanded U.S. presence in cooperation with Panama. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “Chinese influence cannot control our own backyard,” adding that Fort Sherman would reopen jointly with the Panamanians.

The United States has also backed the development of Greece’s Elefsina shipyard as an alternative near the Chinese-controlled Piraeus port. During Trump’s first administration, Greek official Adonis Georgiadis sought U.S. investment after Chinese state-owned COSCO expressed interest in buying Elefsina, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation later committed $125 million to modernizing the shipyard.

U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle said she would push American interests, investment, and infrastructure in Greece and, when necessary, push back against Chinese interests in the name of national security. Georgiadis described Piraeus as a major gateway into Europe and said that establishing a competing route through Elefsina would mean China’s Belt and Road Initiative “faces big damage.”

Expanding U.S. Influence in the Western Hemisphere

The Trump administration has also increased engagement with governments throughout the Western Hemisphere through the Shield of the Americas initiative. Trump hosted leaders from Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Panama, El Salvador, Ecuador, and other countries at a summit focused publicly on combating drug cartels and regional security.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the summit also had a strong economic focus, pointing to representation from trade, commerce, energy, and treasury, while Kristi Noem, the special envoy for Shield of the Americas, said participating countries would work together to defend their “sovereignty,” “security,” and “economic prosperity.”

Chinese officials responded by warning that Beijing’s cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries “should not be disrupted or affected by any third party.” The Chinese state-run Global Times also criticized the initiative.

Trade and Direct Diplomacy with Beijing

The administration has also reported changes in U.S.-China trade. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrote in the administration’s 2026 Trade Policy Agenda that the goods trade deficit with China fell 32 percent year over year in 2025 and that, “For the first time since 2000, China is no longer the trading partner with which the United States has its largest trade deficit.”

Other China-related actions have focused on U.S. security vulnerabilities. Trump announced in July that his administration would work with states to address election-system vulnerabilities after the White House released declassified intelligence records indicating voter rolls in at least 18 states had been compromised by China and that more than 200 million voter records had been compromised.

Trump’s direct diplomacy with Xi has also included raising the imprisonment of Beijing Zion Church founder Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri during his May visit to China. Jin was released two months later and reunited with his family in the United States, with his family praising the Trump administration “for their tremendous leadership” while Human Rights Watch’s Maya Wang noted that at least eight other Zion Church members remained detained.