"I think you need to raise tariffs to a level that will get you to balance trade," former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in an interview.
Lighthizer, who is involved in crafting Trump's campaign platform for the 2024 presidential election, called for a policy of "strategic decoupling" from China to "change the trajectory of the relationship," which has seen a "transfer of wealth from the United States."
"My view is that if Donald Trump were president, we would take these actions" on trade and decoupling technology and investment from China, Lighthizer said.
The U.S. imported more than $530 billion in goods from China in 2022, compared with just over $150 billion in exports to Asia's largest economy, U.S. data shows.
Trump, who leads the Republican race for the 2024 presidential nomination despite his deepening legal troubles, has taken aim at this wide trade deficit since his first run for the White House and called for higher tariffs on Chinese goods to benefit American workers.
Asked how committed Trump is to his campaign pledges on trade with China, Lighthizer said, "I think he is deadly serious, completely, one hundred percent serious, and inflexible."
He pointed to China's military buildup, its territorial claims in Asia, its cyberattacks and "wolf warrior" diplomacy as evidence of Beijing's aims.
"I think it is clear as it can be that not only that China is an adversary of the United States and Japan, but that it views us very much as their adversary," and that "they view the course of history as them becoming the number one power in the world," said Lighthizer, the author of a new book, "No Trade Is Free."
"If countries in Asia and South America think that our system [will win], they're more likely to be allied with us than if they think we're going to lose," he said.
Lighthizer acknowledged that U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has kept many Trump era trade policies.
"On the one hand, I give them credit for not going back to the way it was before," he said. "On the other hand, I criticize them for the fact that they should be in the next phase."
Tensions between the U.S. and China remain high under Biden. The Biden administration has moved to limit Chinese access to advanced American technology with a number of export curbs. A presidential order expected in the coming week will restrict U.S. investment in China in high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum computing.