Former US ambassador to the UN and the 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said on Sunday that China has been “preparing for war” with the US. Haley alleged that
Beijing is ramping up its military aggression and is way ahead of the United States in this endeavour, Fox News reported. The former governor of South Carolina blasted the Biden administration for pushing a “woke agenda” towards the US military in regard to their approach towards their adversaries. Haley argued that a responsible US administration would work to counter China’s growth both economically and militarily.
“China has been preparing for war with us for decades. And the way we have to deal with China is [to] not look at it tomorrow, because if we keep waiting to deal with them tomorrow, they will deal with us today,” the Republican leader asserted during an interview with the Fox News.
“If you look at the military situation, they now have the largest naval fleet in the world. They have 340 ships, we have 293. They’re going to have 400 In two years, we won’t even have 350 in two decades,” she further explained.
Haley compared how China has already made significant advancements in developing hypersonic missiles, while the US is sitting in the initial stages of development. “They have started developing hypersonic missiles. We’re just now getting started. They are modernizing their military, and our military’s taking gender pronoun classes. Look at what they’re doing on cyber, artificial intelligence, space – they’re ahead of us,” she continued.
Haley calls China the most dangerous threat since WWII
In the past, Haley has been consistent in criticising Washington’s approach towards Beijing. She even went on to call China the “most dangerous foreign threat we’ve (the US) faced since the Second World War”. In her Sunday interview, Haley pledged that she would put an end to China buying up US farmlands if she gets elected as the president of the mighty Western country. The former South Carolina governor made it clear that China is more than just a mere “competitor” to the US. “China is much more than a mere ‘competitor.’ Communist China is an enemy,” she said. “We have to stop wasting time,” Haley insisted.
Where does she stand in the race to the White House?
According to Fox News, Haley is currently polling at 3 per cent when it comes to the Republican presidential primary. Which is comparatively less than her fellow Republican competitors like Ron De Santis and Donald Trump who are leading the pact. However, the GOP starwalt is taking an optimistic approach and expressed her confidence that the numbers will change by the fall. “We can look at past presidential elections and understand that national polls just don’t matter right now,” she told Fox News. “I mean, we’ve got a debate in August. We’ve got a debate in September. We’ve got a debate in October. I have qualified to be on the debate stage. Having been 3% in a five-way governor’s race, I know that this is all about hard work,” Haley concluded.