Ron DeSantis lashes out at China and corporate power in campaign speech
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, unveiled a broad economic policy zeroing in on China’s rise
- DeSantis remains a distant second to Donald Trump in most polls and is fighting for momentum in the midst of a campaign reset
The speech contained relatively few new concrete policy proposals, but underlined how far the Republican Party has shifted dramatically in recent years in adopting an increasingly anti-corporate stance.
“We will usher in a new era of growth, prosperity and civic pride,” DeSantis said. “We are a nation with an economy, not the other way around. We are citizens of a republic. We are not cogs in a global economic empire.”
DeSantis was particularly harsh on China and the technology sector which he accused of enriching the East Asian nation to the detriment of Americans.
He told a small group of supporters at a cavernous warehouse in southern New Hampshire that he would eliminate China’s preferential trade status, a policy that he has previously said he supports. Ending it would have a profound impact on global supply chains.
