When it comes to the idea of getting tough on China, Donald Trump is looking more and more serious. On Wednesday, Trump announced the creation of the White House National Trade Council and said it would be headed by Peter Navarro, an outspoken China critic and author of "Death by China."

"I think the big signal is Trump meant what he said when he said he was going to try to reconfigure the trade relationship with China," said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Navarro is sort of the font of ideas on how to analyze China."

Navarro argues that China practices a perverse form of capitalism that undermines the U.S. economy by working hand in hand with U.S. corporations against America's long-term interests. He says China helps individual U.S. companies in the short term by providing them with cheap workers.

Over time, however, China picks off U.S. industry, jobs and know-how and uses them against the United States, says Navarro, who also argues that U.S. corporations pay money to Congress through lobbyists to make sure things stay the way they are. Finally, Navarro rejects the view held by optimists in the United States who believe that China will become more open and less authoritarian over time.

Navarro, a Democrat, is a professor at the University of California-Irvine and has written commentary on China with Trump's pick for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross. Trump has singled out Navarro's work as influencing his views on trade. The two look set to play a major role in determining Trump's trade policy, especially since the president-elect hasn't yet named a U.S. trade representative. Navarro did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.



What other experts say about Navarro

Especially with the rise of a more authoritarian Beijing under the leadership of Xi Jinping, a growing number of trade experts feel that the United States needs a more equitable relationship China — though it's impossible to know if that viewpoint is in the majority.

"I think we're headed into a very transactional period in the relationship [with China], and that's not necessarily a bad thing," said Charles Freeman III, managing director at Bower Group Asia and former assistant U.S. trade representative for China affairs. He said Navarro's "work has become more nuanced over the years, but has continued to maintain a perspective of winning and losing to China."

CNN, citing several sources, reported late Wednesday that the Trump transition team is discussing the possibility of an early executive action imposing tariffs on foreign imports. There appears to be an ascendant school of thought among economists and political scientists from across the spectrum that a realignment between the United States and China — of some still-undetermined sort — may be desirable. "This situation is out of balance and needs to be corrected," said Orville Schell, director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. "I know [Navarro]. I've gone to events with him. He's not a crazy person. He does believe there's something deeply imbalanced." On the other hand, some experts point out that recreating the trade relationship with China is much more complicated than the incoming administration may appreciate. And China could "hit back on trade" and has already indicated a willingness to do so, Ian Bremmer, president of consulting and analysis firm Eurasia Group, told CNBC on Thursday. Potentially adding some nuance to Trump's trade policy is the selection of the governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, as the U.S. ambassador to China. Branstad has called Xi a "long-time friend." Billionaire Carl Icahn, who has also been named to Trump's administration, is a strong free trade proponent.



Is Wall Street missing something?