Haley China trip under microscope as foreign policy dominates GOP primary

Nikki Haley‘s trip to China for the 2007 World Economic Forum is coming under renewed scrutiny before next month’s 2024 Republican presidential primary debate.

Haley previously addressed being one of three U.S. state lawmakers invited to Dalian, China, for the World Economic Forum in 2007 when she said she was “proud” of the economic lessons she learned on the taxpayer-funded trip. Then-Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, a top Chinese Communist Party official, was the keynote speaker at that year’s event, hosted when U.S.-China relations were friendlier.

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“Building new relationships and finding new ways to stay competitive in a rapidly-changing world are critical steps toward ensuring the future prosperity of our local communities,” then-South Carolina state Rep. Haley said at the time. “Our region and our state have benefited by being competitive in the international arena. That’s something we should be proud of, but it’s also something we must build on in order to create a better quality of life for our state and our region.”

Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) have increasingly criticized each other for their ties to China before the third debate on Nov. 8 in Miami after scrutinizing their respective responses to the Israel–Hamas war and whether the U.S. should provide humanitarian assistance to and accept refugees from the Gaza Strip. The escalation in tensions coincides with Haley rising in national and state primary polls, despite remaining behind front-runner former President Donald Trump and DeSantis. They additionally coincide with DeSantis countering Haley’s foreign policy experience with his own, this week delivering a major foreign policy speech, facilitating flights out of Israel, and, more broadly, underscoring his military service.

“Let’s play a game called, ‘How desperate is Ron DeSantis?’” Haley spokesman Ken Farnaso told the Washington Examiner. “With his poll numbers and fundraising sinking, DeSantis’s desperation has reached the panic stage when he digs up a 16-year-old trip with South Carolina business leaders.”

DeSantis’s super PAC Never Back Down released a new ad this week called “Dangerous” about Haley’s interactions and engagement with China, including deals she made with Chinese companies, such as China Jushi, when she was governor of South Carolina. Haley’s super PAC, Stand For America, Inc., replied with its own ad Friday titled “Tough,” taking DeSantis to task for doing the same but more recently, from Jinko Solar to Cirrus Aircraft.

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“While Ron DeSantis continues to distort her record, everyone knows that she has a history of being tough on American enemies at home and abroad, and she will carry that fight with her to the White House,” SFA spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said.

Trump averages 59% support in national primary polls, compared to DeSantis’s 13%, and Haley’s 8% roughly 2 1/2 months before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation nominating caucuses, according to RealClearPolitics.