Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will end up on “the ash heap of history,” Chinese officials said after Haley heavily criticized China multiple times this week regarding trade relations, U.S. land sale and funding from China, according to a report from Reuters.
On Tuesday, Haley appeared in an American Enterprise Institute interview where she said she would “push Congress to revoke permanent normal trade relations (with China) until the flow of fentanyl ends.” She also said she would encourage American companies to end their ties to China.
She also took aim at former President Donald Trump, who is also running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and said he showed “moral weakness” when he strived to befriend Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, a drug related to more than 64,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2022, are made in China. Haley was quoted saying if the U.S. rallied American companies to leave China, China’s ruling Communist Party would be on “the ash heap of history.”
Reuters reported that China thought the remarks were irresponsible.
“Only those who draw attention by smearing and blame-shifting in the election campaign will end up on the ash heap of history,” Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.
Haley responded to Pengyu in a tweet Wednesday afternoon, saying, “The truth hurts, @SpoxCHNinUS,” tagging the Chinese embassy spokesperson. “If the Chinese Communists stopped sending fentanyl across our border, robbing our businesses, spying on us, and militarily threatening our friends, then we would have a much better relationship.”
Haley, who was a former United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration, did multiple interviews and public announcements this week surrounding her stance on China and U.S. trade relations, in addition to their military and U.S. lack of preparation for potential conflict, for which blamed President Joe Biden.
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