Haley courted China business, praised it as 'great friend' dealing with North Korea
Kevin Landrigan, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
Updated 5 min read
Jul. 26—MANCHESTER — Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said China was chiefly responsible for the flood of deadly fentanyl that has caused a new spike of deadly opioid deaths in New Hampshire.
"There is nothing to talk about. Let's be clear. We know who the culprit is. We know exactly they are doing. We know exactly why they are doing it," Haley told a roundtable of anti-substance abuse advocates at the New Hampshire Freedom Movement treatment house in downtown Manchester.
"We have to kick this where it starts. We will end all normal relations with you (China) until you stop killing Americans."
On the 2024 campaign trail, Haley has said China was the enemy but as South Carolina governor, she courted and offered financial sweeteners to entice Chinese businesses to her home state.
As United Nations ambassador, Haley said in 2017 that China had been a "really great friend of ours" in battling the nuclear threat from North Korea.
In April 2017, when ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz asked if then-President Trump was right that China was "at least an economic enemy," Haley answered that she viewed it as more complicated than that.
"I think what you have to look at is, you know, China and Russia play very different roles. They both are getting involved across the world in all different pockets. Their tentacles are everywhere. Russia is doing it through elections and through military actions and through trying to get involved in conversations," Haley said at the time.
"China is doing it economically. If you look at their infrastructure, they are everywhere in the world now and they want to continue to do it so that they have a stronghold. And what we need to do is say that's fine, if they're going to continue to do that, they're also going to have to be accountable for the things that they are responsible for and we do think North Korea is one of those that they need to be held accountable for."
Asked about her record, Haley stressed Chinese investment made up only 2% of the 85,000 new jobs and $21 billion of new business investments made when she was governor of South Carolina.
"When I was governor, no one told us what China was doing," Haley said. "We negotiated some of the toughest economic sanctions against a country in history against North Korea and I had to negotiate with China to get it. We were able to get it done by working with them and working with Russia."
Haley said she came to see China in a different light as the UN's top U.S. diplomat.
"I have always told the truth. It was at the UN where I saw how incredibly dangerous this was," Haley said.
"I will make sure as president and as a candidate that everyone needs to know how dangerous China is. They are planning on war with us and they have been for years. We have to wake up. America thinks we can deal with China tomorrow and China is dealing with us today."
A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Democratic Party said Haley's acting tough on China now because it's politically popular.
"Nikki Haley is at it again — saying one thing and doing the complete opposite. Her tough talk on China doesn't bear out with her actual record — she parroted Donald Trump's praise for China as ambassador to the UN, and welcomed hundreds of millions of dollars of investments from Chinese businesses when she was governor," Aida Ross said.
"Granite Staters are going to see right through Haley's desperate spin."
Lured Chinese fiberglass, auto, candymakers to home state
In 2016, Haley praised a $300 million investment in Richland County, South Carolina, by the Chinese fiberglass manufacturer China Jushi Co. Ltd., which cited "great support" from the state government to the 400-jobs plant a reality.
The first, Chinese-owned automaker to open an assembly plant in the U.S. was in South Carolina after the state under Haley in 2015 gave $200 million in incentives to build Volvo cars.
In 2015, Haley highlighted on social media that Chinese-based Haier that opened a $72 million appliance manufacturing plant in Camden, South Carolina while Chinese-owned tire and a candymaker companies also located there.
The Haley campaign noted she has criticized other candidates in the race for failing to understand a Russian win in Ukraine is a victory for China.
In 2021, she was one of a few American leaders who supported a U.S. boycott of the Beijing Olympics and criticized domestic company executives for being hypocritical about China.
In 2019, she gave a major speech warning about the looming Chinese threat including the possibility that China could take over Hong Kong and wrote many commentaries on this from 2019-21, the campaign said.
Many media outlets did cite the North Korea sanctions deal as one of Haley's greatest achievements at the UN.
"Many New Hampshire families are reeling from the fentanyl crisis and Joe Biden's refusal to crack down on China," said Haley campaign spokesperson Ken Farnaso.
"Nikki Haley is China's worst nightmare, and Xi Jinping knows it."
At the roundtable, House Deputy Speaker Kim Rice, R-Hudson, spoke about her family's struggles with addiction, a brother who robbed a bank to fund his heroin habit, a sister-in-law who died after taking a Percocet laced with deadly Fentanyl and a younger brother who died from ingesting methamphetamine that destroyed his heart.
"This is one of the reasons I so strongly support Nikki Haley because she has a plan to go after fentanyl where it starts and that is in china that is sending it through Mexico," Rice concluded.
"No one else should have to go through what I have gone through."
Haley shared that her own niece of 16 became hooked on painkillers after a back surgery.
Family members feared she would die from an overdose until after she got clean after several months, Haley said.
"Parents don't know what to do when it is their child and there aren't a lot of resources out there to help them figure it all out," Haley said.
