China's About to Learn a Hard Lesson (video with formatted, timestamped transcript)

[0:00] So nobody's talking—like nobody's talking about China like you are. Why?

[0:05] Because I've lived it. I've lived it for almost a quarter of a century. Um, the way it works—let me be very specific so it's not just noise, okay? Let's say you have a great innovation here in America. Somebody comes along and creates a product that reduces the cost of maintaining a hotel bathtub or sink by 30%. A company like Drain Wig. You know, it's just a very simple technology that you put down—we call it rotorooter here—yeah, but this actually is something that you put down the drain and then you pull it out every 90 days and throw it away and put another one down.

[0:42] But it's patented, and it was made in China because that's where the mold was. What happens is, as soon as a product like that hits $5 million run rate in the American domestic market—so it's a proven winner—it gets knocked off in China.

[1:01] Let's say you spent $100 million developing the product in R&D in the United States. You raised the money, you're an entrepreneur, you worked eight days a week, you worked your tail off. And now you got a hit. Not every product's a hit, but this is a hit because it's proven itself to $5 million. It's always around $5 million this happens. Boom. It gets knocked off in China. You find it on Alibaba at 30 to 40% discount. And it's on Amazon too. And it's being sold in retail—sometimes under the same name—in the US, in US retailers.

[1:28] And it's a small company that just got started. The Chinese knocked it off, ripped off the IP—don't even care. You can't go litigate. You can go to the World Trade Organization that they agreed to back in 2000 to be part of, and there's rules about that—but they ignore them all. They've never, ever, ever complied. Not once. And there's thousands of complaints at WTO. I mean, I could just go on with a litany of reasons why this—

[1:49] And finally, I'm like, I'm pissed. I'm really pissed enough. Because you can't cheat and steal forever. And we've not given them a single consequence. Nothing happens to them when they do this.

[1:58] Interviewer: That's where I was going to go. You said they don't comply. We have rules, laws, regulations about this. Why have we gone soft on all that?

[2:03] Try and enforce them. Try and bring a case. You know, here's something else. Okay, you're a Chinese company and you want to litigate a competitor in the United States—you can hire an American lawyer and sue the crap out of that American company. Try and do that in China. You don't have a reciprocal right to do that. You cannot do that in China.

[2:23] So my attitude is: okay, Chinese company, if you're a controlled Chinese company—controlled by the Chinese Communist Party—you can't use the American legal system. Not until you give us reciprocal rights. I'm sorry. You're just shut off.

[2:35] Now here's another one. If you go and look on the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange, there's $800 billion worth of market capitalization of Chinese companies that don't comply by American GAAP laws. I have to comply. I have to pay millions of dollars to actually comply with the rules of the SEC and all the other regulators. The Chinese guys don't. And they get to raise money. So when I'm trying to raise dollars, I'm competing with a Chinese company that doesn't even comply. I mean, how's that even legal?

[3:04] Yes. And the good news there is they just brought a new sheriff into town. He's just got approved. His name is Paul Atkins. He's the new head of the SEC and he will finally make these companies comply.

[3:18] There's a law on the books that was brought out four years ago by Rick Scott, senator from Florida, that says if you're a Chinese company and you're not complying with GAAP, you have 36 months to comply. Then he tightened the law—made it 24 months. And if you don't comply, you're delisted.

[3:34] So I went to the Hill last week. I said to Atkins, "Hey, are you going to enforce this law? Because I got no problem competing with any company that I have to play in the same level playing field with." And he said, "Yeah, we're going to start delisting these companies—finally."

[3:48] And Rick Scott sent him a letter he made public last week saying, "Hey look, do your job. Because if you don't, I'm going to make a lot of noise." And I think that's what Atkins is going to do. So the Chinese are getting squeezed in the capital markets. I want them to be squeezed in the IP markets.

[4:02] And I want to do business with China. And I want to compete there. And I love the Chinese people. I got no problem with them. It's their government. All of this stuff is happening at the same time. So it's different than the other tariff negotiations. I say 400% tariffs on China. Shut them down until Xi comes to the table and resolves all these issues.

[4:25] Well, it just started—what is it, four days ago when these things went on? So I think with the tariffs, he's known for a while. Yeah. But now he's facing reality here.

[4:32] Xi doesn't face an election. He actually faces one every day. He's got millions of people employed in these factories. They make stuff. The largest consumer market—39% of all goods consumed on Earth is the United States of America. It's the largest economy on Earth—multi-trillion-dollar economy. Represents 21.6% of the world GDP. He can't keep his people employed unless he has access to the American markets. It's a head-squeezer for him. Something's got to get resolved here.

[5:02] But basically, Trump has shut down trade. 100% or 400%—same thing. You're not selling anything in America.

[5:06] Interviewer: Let's talk North Dakota a little bit. What is possible in North Dakota with what's happening in the world right now?

[5:12] There are some very big trends happening. And I would say North Dakota's in the cat seat on two of these in terms of investing. Number one is data centers. Because right now, demand domestically—just to give you an idea about what's needed and what we got now—data centers are all about AI development. You can't develop AI without a data center. Data centers need power.

[5:33] So demand is for 45 gigawatts of data centers right now, stateside. Now where are you going to put them? You can't add it to the grid, and here's why.

[5:39] You go to any state and say, "Look, I want to put a gig of power onto this local grid for a data center. I'm going to bring lots of jobs, lots of engineers." And the mayor of that town says, "Wait a second, Bubba Louie, how much is that going to increase the ratepayers' rate?" Because they got to pay for it. And then you say, "Well, I think the rate's going to go up 20%." Not a chance in hell that's happening.

[6:02] Even with other development around it that'll raise property value. So that's what's stymied the entire AI development of these centers—for all of the hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, Google—you name it. They all need these.

[6:13] So what everybody's looking at now are: find states that have stranded natural gas, get a turbine there, turn that into electricity, and build the data center beside it.

[6:26] You need about $18 billion to build one of these just with the turbines. And you need water to cool them—if you're in a hot state like Texas. But if you're in a cold state like maybe North Dakota, that makes life a lot easier.

[6:39] What do you need? You need people—you got it in North Dakota. You need fiber—you got it. You need land—you got it. You need permits—that means the governor has to be willing, and he is. Kelly's willing, obviously. Then you got to get the turbines. And so that's what they're looking at.

[6:57] And there's only three places in North America right now that have that stranded gas: North Dakota, West Virginia, and Alberta, Canada.

[7:07] Interviewer: So what about the customer? Is this a build-it-and-they-will-come situation?

[7:11] Well, you don't even get to talk to the customer until you prove to them—because they've seen the story so many times and found out you don't have the power. So you say, "Look, I found 2,000 acres. We can build a 1-gigawatt center here." Okay—check the box. "You got the land. You got the water?"

[7:36] "Well, the local power authority says if we give them $750,000 to do a study, they'll tell us they'll never have the power for us."

[7:43] You got to get the power, the water, the land. Then all of a sudden you're in a discussion with Amazon or whoever. And they're saying, "We're moving to North Dakota."

[7:53] Interviewer: You have VIP access to every C-suite in the world. You've been quite the ambassador for North Dakota. Talk about what can be possible as someone that is a savvy investor and your connection to North Dakota.

[8:09] This all started—and I have to be careful which states I say this about because I got in a lot of trouble defining loser states and winner states. But there's a lot of loser states.

[8:22] You know the story. And I don't even say that anymore. But you know—you guys—your taxes are crazy there. You got to fix that. I mean, that whole thing of taxing wealthy people so they just move out of your state? That's not so smart.

[8:33] But anyway, don't get me down that road. My point is, I said, look at this place—North Dakota. The guys there look like they want to do business. And sure enough, you have to have a partnership with the administrator, the regulator, the governor, the senators that say, "Yeah, if you bring money here, we'll get things done."

[8:54] That's all you want as an investor. And that's when I discovered North Dakota. Saying, "Wow. Winner state."

[9:01] We've invested in lots of deals here. And I tell everybody about it now. I say, "Hey, have you ever put a dime in North Dakota?" They say, "No." I say, "Well, I found a deal. You want to come in with me on this deal?"

[9:09] And this is an ag deal maybe, or a drone deal maybe, or a power deal or whatever it is. I'm bringing in all kinds of new money into here that have never invested here before.

[9:20] And get this—if I find a company that actually should be in North Dakota because its market is in North Dakota, like a tech? I'll move the whole freaking company here. Put them in one of the cities. They come here for the first time saying, "Wow, I didn’t expect this."

[9:32] Most people don’t understand North Dakota until they come to North Dakota. You got to hang out here. I don’t care if you come in February. Come and just check it out. Meet the people. See the cities. Look at the services, all the technology, and the go-to attitude of the government.

[9:49] I'm a path-of-least-resistance guy. I want to get stuff done. I'm an investor. I want to do it while I'm alive. I don't want to wait years and years and years for permits. That's why North Dakota is a winner.

[10:00] Interviewer: What's possible—what's next for North Dakota? You've done deals already here. You're investing in companies now. Where are we at two, five, ten years from now?

[10:07] I think you're going to catch the data center wave—the AI wave—for the simple reason: you got power. And you got to have power. I think you're going to be huge in tech, because there's a lot of research going on here that's very, very big.

[10:20] But also, there's a pretty healthy entrepreneurial spirit around drone technology. Because obviously, we're in—I'm not going to call it a military war with China—but we're in an AI war. We're in an economic war. And we don't want to use Chinese drones flying around. So we got to make our own.

[10:35] And where are we going to do that? It's going to happen in North Dakota.

[10:38] Interviewer: I love it. Mr. Wonderful in North Dakota. Great to have you back.

Summary of Key Points

IP Theft by China – O'Leary is right: Chinese firms frequently copy successful U.S. products and sell them cheaply, including in U.S. markets.
No Legal Reciprocity – U.S. companies can't fairly sue in China, while Chinese firms easily use the U.S. legal system.
SEC Double Standards – Chinese companies often avoid GAAP and SEC compliance, giving them an unfair advantage on U.S. stock exchanges.
Tariffs as Leverage – His call for strong tariffs reflects a reciprocal strategy, not protectionism. It's consistent with Trump’s approach and widely debated in trade circles.
U.S. Market Leverage – The U.S. is vital to China’s economy; Xi needs access to American consumers to keep factories running and maintain stability.
North Dakota as a Tech Hub – His vision for AI and data center growth in North Dakota is well-founded based on energy, climate, and regulatory environment.
Tone and Logic – O’Leary’s blunt style aside, his arguments are fact-based, economically sound, and rooted in calls for fair play and enforcement.

“Build micro atomic power plants at all indusrial sites. Would be a great venture as well.”

Unfortunately great terrorist targets. They will be dirty bombs that are waiting to be detonated, by scum that got through our porous Biden-Harris borders.

I don’t see any way out of this for China except the collapse of their economy, the Xi government—and maybe even a reformation of the CCP itself.

This isn’t just a case of China “taking advantage” of the West. Their entire economy has been built on theft and dishonesty. Cut off the IP theft, forced tech transfers, and access to U.S. capital—and their model collapses.

That’s why Xi hasn’t responded positively to Trump’s tariffs. He knows Trump isn’t bargaining for fairer trade terms—he’s targeting the foundation of China’s economic power. Xi’s system doesn’t survive under fair trade rules. It only thrives on exploitation—and that’s what Trump is ending.

The real question now is: how will Xi and the CCP respond? Is there any reformist force left within the Party that could shift China back toward Deng’s path of market-oriented pragmatism? Or has Xi’s centralization made that impossible?

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