India, China good example of difference between threat posed by free vs unfree govts: Haley

India and China, the two largest and fastest growing economies of the world, are a good example of the difference between the threat posed by free versus unfree governments, according to a new book by Indian-American Nikki Haley that hit the stores on Tuesday.

Former US ambassador to the UN Haley, in her latest book “With All Due Respect”, said that in contrast of the US' growing partnership with India, the greatest foreign threat America faces today is China.

"China is working strategically to spread its financial and military presence across the globe-and not in a good way. China steals intellectual property. It helps North Korea cheat on sanctions,” Haley said.

“The Chinese manipulate their currency in ways that poison our trade relationship,” she said, adding that they are enlarging their military at a rapid pace.

“A good example of the difference between the threat posed by free versus unfree governments is two of the largest- and fastest- growing economies in the world: India and China,” Haley wrote in the book.

In her book, that is being promoted by US President Donald Trump on Twitter, the two-term Governor of South Carolina said that in addition to being a bad economic actor and a strategic threat, the Chinese government is one of the greatest human rights abusers in the world, she alleged.

In their own country, it has created “re-education” camps against an ethnic and religious minority, and an Orwellian surveillance state to protect Communist Party control over its people," she said.

“It was high time to take a more aggressive approach to US trade with China,” she said.

Haley said that the US is committed to seeing that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, because it would be catastrophic for the world.

“Meanwhile, India is a nuclear power and nobody gives it a second thought. Why? Because India is a democracy and threatens no one,” wrote Haley, whose Sikh parents  moved to the US in 1969.

“The United States has a partnership with India that is strong and getting stronger. Our partnership is strategic. Both countries have been the victims of terrorism. We share a commitment to defeating terrorists and the hateful ideology that motivates them,” she said.

“We share a commitment to stopping Afghanistan and Pakistan from giving safe harbour to terrorists, like they did before September 11, 2001. Most important, our partnership is based on shared principles,” the top Republican politician wrote.

She said that India and the US share a belief in democracy, hard work, family, and achievement. Indian Americans have been very successful in the US.

"We are the minority group that is the most educated, has the highest per-capita income, and, most important, is one of the most charitable in America,” she said.

“There are a number of reasons for Indian Americans' success in the United States. But mostly, we're just good at being Americans. And that says as much about America as it does about us,” Haley wrote.

Noting that she is not a fan of tariffs, as it raises prices for consumers, farmers, and businesses, Haley said she is grateful that Trump has taken on China over its trade practices.

“And I couldn't agree more with his bottom line: We don't want temporary measures from China. We want systematic, verifiable changes in the way it treats American companies and American imports. Even in China, the limited free-market reforms the government has allowed have had near miraculous results,” she wrote.

“In 1990, almost 756 million Chinese were living in extreme poverty. By 2015, that number had shrunk to less than 10 million. That is amazing progress, thanks to their embrace of economic freedom. But it is progress that China cannot sustain as long as it continues to micro-manage its economy and deny political freedom to its people,” she said.

The massive protests in Hong Kong in 2019 held an important message for the Chinese regime: Freedom is the yearning of every human heart. Even higher incomes and more consumer goods can't diminish it forever. China is a powerful country, but it is also an unstable one because of the way its government treats its people, Haley wrote.