Nikki Haley Rips China — with Chinese Ambassador in Attendance

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley criticized China at the gala dinner of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday night — with Chinese ambassador Qin Gang in the audience.

“China is our number-one national security threat,” Haley said, talking about the threat of China invading Taiwan. She criticized the U.S. military for focusing on transgender pronouns while China armed itself. She also criticized the Chinese Communist Power as a rising threat to the U.S. and global security in general.

Qin Gang arrived with an entourage of aides, who were credentialed and who mingled with other guests. It was not clear if he was still in the room at the moment that Haley criticized China and its global ambitions.

Haley was the first political speaker at the annual event, which brings together leading Republican figures and conservative Jewish activists and donors. Presidential hopefuls — including Haley — addressed the conference, as did former President Donald Trump, a frequent guest in past years who spoke via live stream from Mar-a-Lago. Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference via video link.

The keynote address on Saturday evening is scheduled to be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has many supporters within the organization, many of whom live in Florida. Haley told the audience that the lackluster midterm election results were not the fault of “one man” — i.e. Trump — but rather a party-wide failure.

On her own presidential ambitions, Haley said: “Now that the midterms are over, I’ll look at it in a serious way.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.