Republican presidential candidate and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley criticized former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying he “showed moral weakness” in his meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Haley argued that while the 77-year-old Trump “deserves credit” for forcing Republicans and Democrats to “take off their flip flops” regarding China, he didn’t do enough during his presidency to “protect America” from the communist nation.
“It has not given us a stronger military foothold in Asia. It didn’t stop the flow of American technology and investment into the Chinese military. He failed to rally our allies effectively against the Chinese threat. Even the trade deal he signed was short,” the 51-year-old former Trump administration official said of her former boss during her remarks on the American Enterprise Institute.
“He also showed moral weakness in his eagerness to befriend President Xi,” Haley added, noting that Trump “congratulated the Communist Party on the seventieth anniversary of its conquest of China.”
“It sent bad news to the world. Chinese communism needs to be condemned, never congratulated,” the previous South Carolina governor told a Washington think tank audience.
![Nikki Haley](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/1259129000.jpg?w=1024)
![Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/USA-TRADE_CHINA-PROSPECTS.jpg?w=1024)
Haley further stated that China was “militarily stronger” after Trump left office than when he took office.
“That is bad,” Haley said before adding, “but Joe Biden’s record is way worse.”
She went on to denounce Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing last week as “a gilded invitation to more Chinese aggression, not less.”
AND RealClearPolitics average of polls has Haley in fourth place among the many 2024 GOP presidential candidates with 3.6% approval, well behind Trump who leads the group with 52.1% approval rating.