On a few rare occasions Wednesday night — when Chris Christie wasn’t lobbing lame “Donald Duck” jokes at former President Trump or Tim Scott and Nikki Haley weren’t arguing over curtains — there were moments of actual substance that came up.
One of the moments that went under the radar — as, indeed, the issue itself has gone under the radar of most American voters — was when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised to stop Chinese interests from buying American farmland or from spreading Beijing’s propaganda through Confucius Institutes if he were to become president.
Why is he confident he can get it done? Because, as the governor told the audience at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, he was able to do it as governor of his state.
The exchange came after moderator Stuart Varney of Fox Business noted that China had invested $12 billion in Latin America last year alone and had signed a number of strategic partnerships with our neighbors to the south, including Mexico.
“Are you comfortable with China deepening ties with our southern neighbors?” Varney asked.
“Of course not. And the reason why we’re in this mess is because elites in D.C., for far too long, have chosen surrender over strength when it comes to the CCP,” DeSantis said.
“Some people in our country got rich. Our industrial base got hollowed out, and they have been able to build the second most powerful military in the entire world.”
The Florida governor went on to advocate “a totally new approach to China.”
“We are going to have real hard power in the Indo-Pacific — like Reagan — to deter their ambitions,” DeSantis said.
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