During a town hall with Newsmax TV on Monday, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated that he would not welcome China’s Xi Jinping to Florida and “China is a threat to this country. I think we need to decouple our economy from China.”
Co-host Eric Bolling asked, “Very quickly…Gov. Newsom cleaned up the city of San Francisco in anticipation of President Xi coming to visit. Would you welcome President Xi in Florida?”
DeSantis answered, “No, we wouldn’t do that. I think that, when you see what happens, he went over to China and groveled to Xi. And then they do all this — like, San Francisco is a pigsty, but because it’s Xi, then they do all this stuff, they actually clean the feces off the sidewalk, they cleaned up some of the drug use, all this stuff. But it just shows you that’s the boss coming in there that these guys are all genuflect[ing] to. You saw these CEOs paying $40,000 to be able to sit there and dine with him. They did a standing ovation when he gave a speech. That’s not how I roll with this. I think China is a threat to this country. I think we need to decouple our economy from China. We rely on China for pharmaceuticals, things involving military equipment, all these things that are key to national survival, we’ve got to go through China. Why would we want to put ourselves in that predicament? So, this has happened over many decades. A lot of people on Wall Street made money. There’s no question. But it has weakened this country and it has strengthened an adversary. We were promised that if you do most favored nation and put them in the WTO, that China would become more democratic, it’s been the opposite. They’re much more authoritarian today than they were 20, 25 years ago, and their military is much stronger today than it was 20, 25 years ago.”
He added, “So, not only would we not welcome, we’ve already taken action. We banned China from buying land in the state of Florida. We kicked out the Confucius Institutes from our universities because we understand the threat. And so, it’s not exactly something — I had one of the [candidates] — I think it was Haley — who was like trying to attack — because she really invited China in as governor. She was the number one governor to have China invest, including CCP-backed businesses. She tried to say like I was involved, and I’m like, wait a minute, I banned China from buying land. That’s not exactly a very good recruiting pitch for businesses if you’re not letting them buy land.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
