Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley warned that China’s leadership is preparing for war and labeled the Chinese Communist Party “the greatest threat to American security and prosperity, by far.”
Haley, who is running in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, emphasized a series of China-related security-policy proposals during a detailed policy address delivered today at the American Enterprise Institute.
Haley said that she is particularly concerned by the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing military buildup, including its advancements in shipbuilding, cyber capabilities, and more.
“The Communist Party’s end game is clear,” she said. “China is preparing its people for war. President Xi has openly said it.”
“We should take him at his word and act accordingly,” she added.
Senator Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) recently said that U.S. intelligence officials told him that China’s real military budget is close to $700 billion, which is much larger than the figure Chinese officials cite in public.
In March, journalist John Pomfret and former Trump White House official Matt Pottinger wrote an essay in Foreign Affairs arguing that Xi and the broader party system are preparing for a war. They translated a speech that Xi had delivered that month at China’s National People’s Congress, in which he told military leaders to “dare to fight, and be good at fighting” and to prepare to face increasingly severe challenges.
Haley wants to deter such a conflict from ever taking place, she said, by boosting deterrence against a Chinese assault on Taiwan. She said that such an effort should include signaling to Chinese leaders that an invasion would result in “full-blown economic decoupling that would massively damage China.”
During her remarks, she also said that the U.S. should revoke China’s permanent-normal-trade-relations status in response to Beijing’s failure to crack down on the export of synthetic-opioid precursors.
During a question-and-answer session that followed her speech, Haley seemed to advocate a similar response to China’s reported negotiations with Cuba over opening a joint military training facility in the country.
“I’ve already said when it comes to fentanyl, when it comes to things like this, if we have to end all normal trade practices with China, there’s nothing more damaging to China than for us to do that,” she said.
“Our national security is worth it. It is worth doing whatever it takes to protect the American people. And if that means you’re doing a full-on decoupling, that means you’re doing a full-on decoupling, because we have American lives to save.”
In her remarks, she also hit both President Biden and former president Trump over their respective approaches to Beijing. While the former president did tackle trade issues, she said, he “did too little about the rest of the Chinese threat,” and she knocked him for congratulating the CCP on the 70th anniversary of its consolidation of control over China. She also said that “Biden’s record is much worse,” accusing him of “ignoring the Chinese threat.”
Haley laid out a series of additional policy measures that she would implement as president, including eliminating federal funding for universities that accept funds from China and banning lobbying by Chinese companies and the CCP.