US President Barack Obama’s campaign lashed out at Republican rival Mitt Romney for “hypocrisy” about China policy on Friday, claiming his tough talk was undermined by his business record of shipping US jobs to the Asian giant.
The Democratic counter-punch came a day after Romney hammered Obama’s record on China and renewed his promise to brand it a currency manipulator on his first day in office in remarks which drew a stern rebuke from Beijing.
Obama’s campaign enlisted Ted Strickland, a former Democratic governor of vital swing state Ohio — which has seen thousands of manufacturing jobs migrate to developing economies — to press the US president’s attack.
“Governor Romney’s hypocrisy apparently knows no end. He claims that he’ll crack down on China but he’s never done that and I don’t think he ever will,” Strickland said, unloading criticism on Romney’s past as a venture capitalist. “The truth is, Mr Romney’s made a fortune investing in firms that specialize in shipping jobs to China and other low wage countries.”
“Romney’s economic philosophy was simple and hasn’t changed: profits over people, even if that means Americans lose their jobs,” Strickland said during a conference call with reporters.
The Obama campaign also debuted a new advertisement which will air in nine battleground states which plowed similar ground to Strickland and accuses Romney of investing some of his fortune in China.
In response, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said that Obama’s policies towards Beijing had deepened the misery of Americans stuck in the slow economic recovery.
“They’ve cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and left American manufacturing in decline. As president, Mitt Romney will take immediate action to stop China’s cheating and protect American jobs here at home,” she said.
Romney had launched his own attack on China on Thursday, branding Beijing a cheat because of its currency and trade policies.
“The cheating takes on a lot of different dimensions,” Romney said. “The president’s had the chance year after year to label China a currency manipulator, but he hasn’t done so. And I will label China the currency manipulator they are on the first day.”
Romney’s remarks were met with a stinging response in a commentary carried by Xinhua news agency.
“It is advisable that politicians, including Romney, should abandon ... short-sighted China-bashing tricks and adopt at least a little bit of statesmanship on China-US ties,” the commentary said.
The unnamed author also warned a trade war would likely break out if Romney took office and honored his threat to label China a currency manipulator, and also accused the former Massachusetts governor of hypocrisy.
“It is rather ironic that a considerable portion of this China-battering politician’s wealth was actually obtained by doing business with Chinese companies before he entered politics,” the commentary added.
Strickland seized on that comment to make a wider point about Romney’s foreign policy credentials.
“If even the Chinese government is willing to publicly call out this hypocrisy, how can we expect them to take him seriously if he were president?” Strickland said.
China bashing is a regular feature of US election campaigns, but once in office, presidents have a habit of following decades-long US foreign policy orthodoxy of seeking cooperation with Beijing.
Top Chinese leaders have told Obama that they expect a measure of anti-Beijing rhetoric in the US election, US officials have said.
However, the Xinhua commentary appeared to be a shot across Romney’s bow and suggest a rocky period for Sino-US relations if he comes from behind to beat Obama in the election on Nov. 6.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in