Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said the U.S. needs to stand up to China in response to its aggressive reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Taiwan trip.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Haley defended Pelosi’s visit, saying China’s combative posture amounted to little more than a “temper tantrum” and that the communist nation was “bullying” Taiwan so that President Xi Jinping could “show his strength.”
“I do think that Nancy Pelosi was right to go to Taiwan,” said Haley. “It’s a shame that Biden tried to put a wrench in it by saying the military didn’t want her to go. ”
“China is trying to bully us the same way they try and bully their own people, and we shouldn’t have it,” she continued. “Taiwan is an island of 23 million people who have managed to be free for 70-plus years. We should always have the backs of our allies and we should always hold our enemies to account. They are a huge force when it comes to our economy and we need to make sure that Taiwan knows that we are going to be there for them.”
Haley went on to downplay China’s threats of retaliation for Pelosi’s visit and said the U.S. must stand firm.
“I’ve watched China have a temper tantrum multiple times when things don’t go their way,” she said. “What you’re seeing is that the [Communist] Party Congress is going to be meeting soon and President Xi wants to show his strength so he is bullying Taiwan, he’s trying to pretend that there’s going to be a war, he’s trying to scare them.”
“America should never respond to fear, we should always focus on preventing wars. The way you prevent wars is you don’t shy away from having the backs of your allies and let your enemies know what we expect of them. These temper tantrums are childish and they are dangerous and they shouldn’t be doing them, and the last thing we need to do is run from that.”