Nikki Haley to address China in ‘major foreign policy speech’ following Blinken visit
Julia Johnson
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Presidential candidate Nikki Haley will be delivering a “major foreign policy speech” on Friday, specifically addressing China.
On Monday, Haley’s campaign announced the remarks, which will be hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
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After the speech, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations “will sit down with AEI executives, Zack Cooper and Robert Doar, as part of their ‘A New China Playbook’ series and dive into how the U.S. can maintain its competitive edge against China while strengthening partnerships with allies in the Indo-Pacific,” according to a press release.
Haley’s keynote address during the virtual AEI event on Friday will begin at 10:35 a.m.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Haley spokesman Ken Farnaso said: “Communist China is the greatest threat to American security and prosperity today, by far. Nikki Haley has the toughness, experience, and know-how to take on China, just like she did at the United Nations.”
This comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a diplomatic trip in China, meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. During the trip, Blinken specifically said, “We do not support Taiwan independence.”
Blinken, the first U.S. secretary of state to make the trip to Beijing in five years, and Xi both said that the talks marked progress and agreed to work toward stabilizing their countries’ relationship.
Haley has not commented on Blinken’s statement about Taiwan.
However, Haley has compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine to a hypothetical Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
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In a March op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, she wrote that “[Xi] wants Russia to conquer Ukraine so it’s easier for China to invade Taiwan. He wants Russia to threaten the rest of Europe because it draws America’s attention from Asia.”
Haley also referenced China in reacting to the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. She said the event was “embarrassing” for the United States and sent a bad message to the rest of the world, pointing to “the Russian invasion in Ukraine,” “China sending over a spy balloon,” and “Iran trying to build a bomb.”