Haley Says She’s Open to Labeling China a Currency Manipulator

Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, on June 27, 2023. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on July 17 that she is open to designating communist China as a currency manipulator.

When asked by The Epoch Times during a press gaggle shortly before taking the stage at Christians United for Israel’s annual summit in Arlington, Virginia, why the only condition of China’s normal trade status is based on the fentanyl crisis in the United States and not the other issues, Ms. Haley said that threatening China to strip it of its normal trade relations status over perpetuating the fentanyl crisis should be more than enough for China to stop doing so and that the top goal is to prevent its facilitation of fentanyl, which is a leading cause of death among Americans.

“I have called out China on everything from stealing intellectual property to genocide, to the fact that they’re infiltrating America to the fact that they have been preparing for war with the U.S. for years and the U.S. has been asleep at the wheel and not done anything about it,” said Ms. Haley.

“So what I would say is ending normal trade relations is a big deal,” she continued. “If China hears that we’re going to end Normal Trade Relations until they stop killing Americans with fentanyl, it will get their attention quickly, and the number one goal should be Americans need to stop dying from fentanyl.

“China knows exactly what they’re doing when they’re giving it to the cartels. We need to hit it two ways: one with the cartels with our special operations to make sure that we put all that to bed. The second thing is we need to let China know we’re on to them. There [are] a lot of things that need to change with the relationship [between] U.S. and China. And what we’re doing right now is appeasing them. What we need to be doing is holding them responsible and holding them accountable.”

Currency Manipulator

When pressed by The Epoch Times if she would label China a currency manipulator, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor said she would end China’s normal trade status first “and then go into” designating China as a currency manipulator.

“There’s no doubt that they are trying to do that,” said Ms. Haley, referring to China manipulating its own currency.

“So I think that that would be the first of many steps,” she said. “But it’s up to China on how they respond. They can either, you know, self-correct and say that they want to have somewhat of a constructive relationship with us, or they can ignore it, and then we would go into further penalties and restrictions on them.”

A man changes foreign currency into Chinese yuan at a currency exchange office in Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, China, on Aug. 14, 2015. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Ending normal trade relations with China would require Congress to pass a measure to do so. Ending normal trade relations would mean no more low tariffs and other trade advantages. The United States labeled China a currency manipulator in 2019, only to reverse course a year later.

Federal law requires the Treasury secretary to “consider whether countries manipulate the rate of exchange between their currency and the United States dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade.”

Fentanyl Crisis

During a June 4 town hall on CNN, Ms. Haley called for the United States to sanction China over its role in the fentanyl crisis in the United States.

“Most of the fentanyl that comes into this country illegally from Mexico—a lot of it from Chinese supplies to Mexico—comes through ports of entry, and it’s smuggled by American citizens,” said CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who moderated the June 4 event.

“Which is why you sanction China immediately,” Ms. Haley said. “China knows what they’re doing. Sanction them. There’s nothing that they dislike more than when we hit their wallets. And you sanction them, and you let them know that we’re on to them.”

In 2021, the leading cause of opioid-related deaths was fentanyl—with 70,601 such deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 50,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized by Customs and Border Protection at the southern border in 2022.

“China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States,” according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Seizures of fentanyl sourced from China average less than one kilogram in weight, and often test above 90 percent concentration of pure fentanyl.”

On June 27, Haley released her plan to combat the threat from the Chinese regime.

It includes, among numerous things, not allowing China to purchase more land in the United States and force it to give up the land it already has in America, “eliminat[ing] federal funding for universities that take Chinese money and ban propaganda centers on campus,” ending exports of sensitive technologies to China, and “deepen[ing] military ties with Japan, South Korea, and Australia, and forge stronger bonds with India and the Philippines.”