Calling China “the greatest threat to American security and prosperity, by far,” Nikki Haley on Tuesday laid out her plan for confronting the United States’ powerful adversary if she’s elected president.

Drawing on her foreign policy experience, the former ambassador to the United Nations and Republican candidate accused President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, her onetime boss, of mishandling Beijing. Both men are also running for the White House again in 2024.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, Haley said she warned in a speech shortly after resigning as U.N. ambassador of China’s growing military power, human rights abuses, aggression abroad and challenges to American interests. 

She said she urged world leaders to think about China “critically, creatively and courageously.” Since then, Haley noted, Beijing has continued to engage in human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, threatened war with Taiwan, ordered its warships and planes to perform aggressive maneuvers near U.S. vessels and aircraft, flown a suspected spy balloon over the U.S., established an intelligence base in Cuba, and stolen American intellectual property.

“These provocations are not coincidences or accidents,” Haley said. “They are the purposeful actions of a communist dictatorship that is determined to expand its power and defeat America militarily and economically.”

The presidential hopeful also accused China of covering up the origin of the COVID-19 virus, adding that she believes “the Chinese Communist Party bears responsibility for the worst worldwide pandemic in a century, with up to 20 million deaths.”

But Haley said neither Trump’s nor Biden’s policies toward China have been adequate.

She credited Trump for calling into question a U.S.-China trade relationship he saw as uneven. But, Haley said, Trump’s mistake was that he was “almost singularly focused” on trade.

“Trump did too little about the rest of the Chinese threat,” she said.

The former South Carolina governor said Trump did not strengthen the U.S. military foothold in Asia, stop the flow of American technology and investment into China or rally allies against Beijing. She also attacked Trump over a congratulatory 2019 tweet about the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which occurred when the Chinese Community Party took control following a civil war.

“Chinese communism must be condemned, never congratulated,” she said.

But Biden’s record in China is “much worse,” Haley said.

On his watch, Haley said, the U.S. has failed to seriously investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started, has done little to stop China from expanding its foothold here and has not addressed China’s role in making fentanyl that flows into the U.S. through the Mexican border. 

Meanwhile, the United States has seen its military grow weaker when it’s especially critical it should be bolstered, she said.

Haley said the CCP’s “endgame is clear. China is preparing its people for war.” She said Biden’s actions are making conflict “more likely.”

“We must act now to keep the peace and prevent war,” she said. “And we need a leader who will rally our people to meet this threat on every single front.”

Neither the Trump nor Biden campaigns responded to emails Tuesday requesting comment about Haley’s attacks.

Haley’s plan for confronting Beijing calls for preventing Chinese investors from buying land in the U.S. and eliminating federal funding for universities that accept Chinese money. She said the land purchases pose a national security threat because they are often near sensitive military facilities or take substantial control of agriculture industries, and the funding to colleges allows China to spread Communist propaganda on campuses and gives Beijing access to research it can use for its military.

The Republican also said the U.S. should ban all lobbying from the CCP and Chinese companies and bar former members of Congress and the U.S. military from lobbying on their behalf. 

In addition, Haley said she would push to cut off normal trade relations with Beijing until the flow of fentanyl in the U.S. is halted.

Her strategy also calls for ending the exporting of sensitive technology to China, blocking Chinese companies from buying American companies that specialize in advanced technology and barring American investments in companies that support the Chinese military or the CCP. 

Haley said she would set her sights on strengthening the U.S. military and rallying allies, including in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, to stand against China.

And saying that China is closely watching the war between Russia and Ukraine, she said it’s critical the U.S. ensures a Ukrainian victory.

“China is seeing what it most fears if it invades Taiwan,” Haley said, noting Ukraine’s resilience, Russia’s failures and the international support for Kyiv. “But that could change in short order if America and the West abandoned Ukraine and Russia succeeds in taking its territory and freedom.”