DeSantis unveils new economic policy that targets China, taxes and regulations

abcnews.go.com:

Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis is taking aim at China with a 10-point economic plan he's calling a “Declaration of Economic Independence.”

ROCHESTER, N.H. — In a new policy plan unveiled Monday, Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis took aim at China with a “Declaration of Economic Independence” that also targets taxes, regulations and “elites” he blames for the nation’s decline.

Speaking in a New Hampshire warehouse, the Florida governor promised to diversify and expand the economy by fighting for the middle class.

«Revitalizing economic freedom and opportunity will require building an economy where the concerns of average citizens are elevated over those deemed too big to fail,” he said at Prep Partners Group, which coordinates warehousing, distribution and other logistics for other companies.

“We are a nation with an economy, not the other way around,” DeSantis said. “We are citizens of a republic. We are not cogs in a global economic empire.”

DeSantis said his top priority would be wresting economic control from China by ending the nation’s preferential trade status, banning imports of goods made from stolen intellectual property and preventing companies from sharing critical technologies with China. Current polices, he said, have created an “abusive relationship” between the two countries.

“The elites sold us a bill of goods when it came to China. They were wrong, and we need to get it right,” he said.

The 10-point economic plan is the third major policy proposal put forth by DeSantis, who remains a distant second to former President Donald Trump in most polls and is fighting for momentum in the midst of a campaign reset. He recently shed more than one-third of his staff as federal filings