FIRST ON FOX: Republican 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is expanding her plan to combat the threat from communist China — including a pledge to roll back Biden-era green energy mandates, which she says are a giveaway to Beijing.
Haley has called for years for the U.S. to be more aggressive in combating the threat from Beijing and in June called for a fundamental change in the U.S. outlook to the threat from the East.
On Monday, her campaign is announcing the expansion of that strategy both in terms of sanctioning China and changing policies she believes are aiding the geopolitical foe.
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Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, speaks at the Republican Party Of Iowas annual Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday, July 28, 2023. (Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Image)
At the top of the list is a call to end green energy mandates implemented by the Biden administration to transition off from fossil fuels and onto electric vehicles and solar panels, which Haley and other critics argue are dominated by China and Chinese companies.
If elected president, Haley would end the mandates, as well as related subsidies. She also calls for a ban on states and cities from using federal taxpayer money to purchase Chinese tech — including drones used by police and emergency services, which are often made in China. She would also ground Chinese drones, while replacing Chinese tech with that made in the U.S.
A Haley administration would also combat Chinese involvement in the U.S. fentanyl crisis — illicit fentanyl is made in Mexico using Chinese precursors and moved across the border. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently said China “bears responsibility” for its role in the crisis.
Specifically, she would block Chinese instant messaging and payment apps used between Chinese and Mexican criminals and end loopholes in U.S. customs rules.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the Chinese balloon fiasco — in which the Chinese sent a surveillance balloon across the U.S. before it was eventually shot down by the administration — Haley is calling for the U.S. to pull out of the Scientific and Technological Cooperation. The partnership will soon expire, but could be renewed by the administration. Haley’s campaign cites a 2018 project that cooperated on launching weather balloons as an example of how the collaboration could be used by the Chinese.
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Haley’s expanded plan also calls for anti-China sanctions to remain in place, citing reported delays by the Biden administration on human rights-related sanctions and a potential deal regarding fentanyl that would see sanctions lifted. Haley’s plan rules out any such softening.
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Nikki Haley speaks to hometown supporters during a campaign rally at The Grove in Lexington County, South Carolina, on Thursday, April 6, 2023. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Americans want a president who will lead from a position of strength—not weakness,” campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso told Fox News Digital. “Nikki Haley is the strongest and most vocal candidate in this race confronting Beijing’s many crimes and atrocities. She is China’s worst nightmare, and Xi Jinping knows it.”
The plan is in line with Haley’s hawkish stance toward Beijing. Her June speech called for increased military ties with regional allies including Japan and South Korea, greater assistance to Taiwan as well as blocking exports to China, a ban on Chinese lobbying in the U.S. and a revocation of normal trade relations if the fentanyl crisis continues.
Republicans have taken aim at the administration for allegedly being too soft on China, and last week passed a bill that would block DHS from using drones at the southern border made in China.
Haley had tackled China on the world stage when she served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration. Since then, she has remained outspoken on China, calling for the U.S. to ban TikTok and to boycott the Olympics in Beijing, while blasting corporations who do business with Chinese for hypocrisy on their stances on human rights.
