President Trump’s face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Busan was a necessary and long overdue reset of American strength on the world stage. The summit produced tangible movement on trade and security that too many in Washington said couldn’t be won, proving once again that America negotiates best from a position of power.
Reports out of the summit show concrete wins for U.S. workers: reductions in punitive tariffs, commitments to resume agricultural purchases, and progress on rare-earths access that had threatened critical supply chains and our defense industry. These are the kinds of results the failed “diplomacy” of the last decade never produced — deals that protect American industry and farmers while forcing Beijing to play by the rules.
Conservative commentators, including Bill O’Reilly on Finnerty, are right to highlight the bigger strategic objective: America must break the tacit cooperation that allows authoritarian regimes to prop one another up. If President Trump uses this newfound leverage to pressure China to stop enabling Putin’s aggression and Tehran’s regional ambitions, that would be a foreign-policy victory of the highest order and a direct blow to the Moscow-Tehran-Beijing axis.
Make no mistake — China’s closer military and economic ties with Russia and Iran are not benign. Beijing has deep trade relationships with Tehran and has participated in joint drills and strategic dealings that complicate U.S. efforts to isolate America’s adversaries. We should applaud any administration action that forces China to choose between commerce and complicity with regimes that threaten our allies and our security.
For too long, Washington elites substituted open-ended appeasement for tough-minded pressure, and America paid the price with hollow deterrence and emboldened adversaries. Conservatives must demand that any trade concessions be strictly conditioned on verifiable steps by Beijing to halt material support for Russia and Iran, and to stop weaponizing critical minerals and markets against U.S. interests.
This moment is a call to patriotic Americans and our allies: support strong, principled bargaining that protects American jobs, punishes bad actors, and strengthens global stability. If President Trump follows through by turning summit gains into enforceable action, he will have done what real leaders do — secure peace through strength and put American interests first.
