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A click-through history of modern relations between the United States and China.
News analysis
BEIJING – It isn't only the U.S. presidential candidates who have had to withstand a verbal pummeling during the race -- China has been the subject of some of the most sustained attacks from Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, both of whom seem to be competing for who can be toughest on the world’s second-largest economy.
Romney has called China "a currency manipulator" and pledged to "crack down" on the country. Obama, meanwhile, has described China as an adversary, and said his administration was sending "a very clear message that America is a Pacific power and we are going to have a presence there."
In the final presidential debate, Mitt Romney says the country needs to get tough on China on currency manipulation and counterfeit products.
China was mentioned 32 times during the last presidential debate. This appeared to have prompted China's netizens, who tend to be younger and better educated than average, to take to online feeds in droves to watch Obama and Romney fight it out.
With its own seismic political transition in-the-works, reaction to American fighting talk has ranged from the philosophical to the plainly disinterested, a mood of suspicion replacing the euphoria that infected many young Chinese after Obama's election in 2008.
An October 17 editorial published by state-run news agency Xinhua called Obama and Romney’s China-bashing "a ritual" that "leaves Americans with the impression that China is responsible for their country’s decline."
"There are plenty of other U.S. politicians who have built their political popularity and career by chastising the Chinese government and its policies," another Xinhua editorial said. "U.S. politicians have a notorious record of rounding on China during election seasons and then quickly changing their course of action after taking office."
Full coverage: NBCNews.com's The World is Watching series
Despite the official and semi-official take on the race, many regular Chinese approached by NBC News said they weren't following the U.S. election -- an indication that issues like high inflation, rising property prices and a slowing economy have a more immediate impact on people's lives.
"I have no idea. It has nothing to do with me," 22-year old Liu Ziyu, a recent college graduate, told NBC News when asked who he would like to see win the race.
While the candidates are scrutinized and skewered by the media in the U.S., China's new leader Xi Jinping remains a man of mystery among his citizens. NBC's Ian Williams reports
Luan Ke, 23, an editor and journalist at a Beijing newspaper echoed a popularly held opinion when he said neither candidate would really change the relationship between the world's remaining superpower and an emerging power.
"I don't think there is any essential difference between the two," he said.
Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas
Luan and others pointed to a growing list of issues plaguing the Sino-U.S. relationship. The United States has accused China of undercutting American competitiveness and jobs by circumventing trade laws and undervaluing the yuan to help its exporters.
China has indeed kept its currency cheap by indirectly pegging the yuan to the dollar through the purchase of $1.15 trillion in U.S. bonds, making it the second largest holder of American debt after the Federal Reserve.
Also in this series: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions
But while this issue is frequently used to show Beijing's inordinate power over the American economy, most experts acknowledge that the risks go both ways: A unloading of U.S. bonds would likely cause the dollar to plummet in value, but at the same time send the yuan soaring, dramatically raising the price of its products internationally and possibly sparking skyrocketing inflation due to runaway commodity prices.
The Obama administrations' three rounds of quantitative easing -- the act of injecting currency into the money supply – has angered Chinese policy makers because it devalues the dollar and makes its products more expensive internationally.
Also in this series: Should next US president treat Russia as friend or foe?
The two countries have also been involved in a tit-for-tat trade spat. The Obama administration has won international rulings on trade issues ranging from the dumping of Chinese tires to cheap steel on the American market. In return, China has countered with its own protective tariffs on American auto parts and chicken feet.
Meanwhile, the United States' re-engagement with the Asia-Pacific region – dubbed a "pivot" by the White House – comes as China transforms itself into a modern and confident fighting force. Territorial regional disputes have become hot-button issues for China, which Beijing is increasingly unafraid to push back on.
China brings its 1st aircraft carrier into service, joining 9-nation club
Throughout the campaign, Chinese state media has reminded viewers and readers of the chasm that often exists between American candidates' rhetoric and their policies once in office. For example, in 1992, candidate Bill Clinton pummeled President George H.W. Bush for dealing with China's ruling Communist Party, whom Clinton famously dubbed the "butchers of Beijing."
Just eight years later, candidate George W. Bush accused lame duck president Clinton of being soft on China, slamming him for declaring Beijing "strategic partners."
Despite the knowledge that American campaign rhetoric often doesn't match the reality once a president is in office, observers have been keeping a close eye on the U.S. campaign trail and the changing relationship between the two countries.
A congressional investigation says Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies is a national security threat; its equipment may be used for spying on Americans. CNBC's David Faber has the details of the investigation, and CNBC's Jon Fortt takes a look at wh...
"America's refocus and return to the Asia-Pacific region has brought increased challenges to the Sino-U.S. relationship," Zhang Guoqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of American Studies, told NBC News. In particular, there is growing anger and frustration at what is seen as obstructionism on the part of the Obama administration, which is blocking high-profile industrial firms like Huawei and Sany from investing in strategic industries like energy and telecommunications.
Also in this series: Despite bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race
Despite American efforts to re-label the pivot as a "rebalancing" of its diplomatic and economic resources as well as its military ones, China’s attention has largely focused on the U.S. shift militarily. So suspicion of the United States’ changing role in the region has run rife on Beijing’s streets.
More China coverage from NBC News' Behind the Wall blog
"(The United States) might suppress China and prevent it from being the boss in Asian-Pacific region," Chen Huaijie, a 32-year old voice-over artist for a Chinese state broadcaster, told NBC News.
Regardless of who wins next week, expect China to approach the president-elect warily but, given the country’s growing prominence on the world’s stage, confidently.
NBC News’ Li Le and Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report.
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Romney is touted as an astute business man. Yet he wants China to raise the value of their currency so the US can pay more for the loans from China. Yep, that makes sense if you will say anything to get elected. The saddest part is too many voters don't get it.
Freedom, if China's money held a higher more realistic value, our market would not be so flooded with cheap Chinese goods. Cheap communist slave labor makes our own better quality goods cost more in the world market where most have to shop by price. This is why China intentional undervalues it's currency. How about we refuse to take "loans" period. Tells you a lot when the government of the US has to borrow money from China. Maybe the government is spending too much, no?!!!
In this article it said that the Chinese own $1.5 trillions in bonds, the second highest to only the Federal Reserve. If the Federal reserve owns most of our bonds, if the Federal reserve are the ones who loan money to our government, and we end up paying higher Federal and state taxes from those loans, maybe we should be looking at the ones who own the Federal Reserve which might I add is not even apart of our government. They're a privately owned corporation(s) owned by Goldman Sachs, Moses Seif Bank in Italy, JP Morgan and the Rothchilds. But don't take my word for it, instead, just do the research for yourself, and come to your own conclusion. Look up "The truth about the Rothchilds" on youtube, that should give you more insight on who's really running the show, not the Chinese, not America, not Europe, but the Bankers.
We need to start regulating the regulators, dang it.
The Social Security Trust Fund holds nearly twice as much federal debt as China. Including that, two-thirds (66%) of the federal debt is held by American individuals, banks, pension funds, insurance company reserve funds, etc.
The good old "Full Faith And Credit of the United States of America" is one of most desireable places in the history of mankind to stash funds with some return and 100% (for over 200 years) safety, so it's not entirely a bad thing. According to the tax returns they released, Ronald and Nancy Reagan never owned a single stock or corporate bond--all their wealth was invested in the public debt of the USA.
Yeah, but how would they pay us if we all ask for our money right now? There is no place else to borrow.
Well let's see. China steals US patents and counterfeits US goods. They manipulate currency so that their goods are artificially cheaper than goods produced here. They're suspicious of us? hmmm, sounds like if anyone has a right to be suspicious, it should be us, not the theives. Any fool can see how our decline in manufacturing can be tied to China's policies of the past three decades.
Romney's a currency manipulator himself, ie: Bain Capital, he's the pot calling the kettle black, a snake oil salesman at best.
Except for South America and Israel, Romney has taken a much harsher tone to the rest of the world. All Europeans countries, except the Swiss(maybe), really don't care much about Romney. He has promised to arrest the President of Iran, otherwise bomb the Iran.
I am not concerned about how some in china do not trust our country. We are the customer and we are being taken advantage of. We have financed and aided the Chinese and the Chinese factories to reach the heights that they have. They must pay attention to market conditions....and that is their problem. We have just accepted most of the directives from China concerning the rules of trade that they insist on and we have given in without question and our country has suffered from it. It was never a good idea to concentrate so much origination of product to one country and one area and we must make them meet our criteria for exportation to the US. The world companies based here in this country must weigh the facts that they must diversify sources(to also inclued US manufacturing) or they must meet changing demands on rules of trade. We seem to be the only country that gives in to what all our trading partners demand. We are the customer, and we need a voice.
Yes our financial situation is critical. But this election has been tainted with
which candidate would do the best job to get us out of where…a Republican named
George W Bush who put us in this mess. Mitt Romney says he has experience
strengthening companies financially. But how has he done this by outsourcing jobs
to other nations increasing his own financial greedy interest. On top of that he is dealing with a country he KNOWS its citizens have a ONE CHILD RULE. He knows people have been killing
their female babies until a boy is born. He gets rich with the devil and then
says he believes in GOD. He invests in companies with abusive child labor laws.
What difference is there in abortion killings and dealing with people YOU KNOW
kill and abuse children? Please explain this hypocrisy. This is vile as well as
every corporation that has dealings with China or countries that have abusive
child labor slavery. I am so outraged of so much that has come out of the slime
that slither their way through life. These so called good people should reveal
to their elite society friends each other’s true grotesque Dorian Grey
portrait. They know who they are they have no excuse they are only hiding in
the void darkness of their soul.
wtw of KC
Thank you WTW of KC for your wonderful note. You are so right of what has been taking place in our society. However, I believe Romney is the last person on earth that should be criticizing China. Romney’s company Bain is the engineer of outsourcing American jobs to China for a buck. The lower buck is paying Chinese workers lower wages, as we know it labor. Bain Capital is currently shutting down a profitable business Sensata Technologies located in the State of Illinois and moving those jobs to China. This is a prime example of what is taking place with Bain Capital the company that Romney was the majority owner at one time; and currently has 8 million dollars invested.
The Republican Party has engaged in obstructionism of our government. As well as, their hard core position in not believing in climate change and what it is doing to our infrastructure. The Republican Party have intentionally hurt the American people and the is wrong. The American people should always come first and beyond politics when the American people are in need of help.
President Obama has addressed climate change to a certain degree. He has addressed the issue in that we need to have nation building here in America. He has addressed the issue that we need to concentrate on our infrastructure. He has addressed the need of having more teachers. He has addressed the need of having more firefighters. Now, look at what is happening to our people and the infrastructure of our cities. All we need to do is look at New Jersey and Louisiana and it will happen again. We must as President Obama states invest in America. We need to do something about it. It is Americas time and not war time. It is middle class time and not the top 1% time. I am asking the American people to take a stand and stand with the American people.
We know of all people Romney is the currency manipulator. This man pays a lower tax rate than most poor and middle class people. In addition, this man hide’s money his money in Swiss bank account and in the Cayman Island. Please. Give me a break.
Obama/Biden 2012
Hello...."Obama has addressed this and this and this and this".....But there has been no action. Talk is cheap and Obama has proven that the only thing that he has is talk. None of his talk ended in action that benefited our country or the world in general. Obama is the proven failure and he just continues to fail and fail and fail....We have heard all of the talk many times and it has become tiresome....None of his talk came from knowledge, experience or a get it done attitude. He blew his chance.
Yes our financial situation is critical. But this election has been tainted with so
many lies of which candidate would do the best job to get us out of the financial ruin
George W Bush put us in. Mitt Romney says he has experience strengthening companies financially. But how has he done this? How else.... by outsourcing jobs to other nations and which also gives him profit towards his financial greedy interest. On top of that he is dealing with a country he KNOWS its citizens
have a ONE CHILD RULE. He knows people have been killing their female babies until a boy is born. He gets rich makes deals with the devil and then says he believes in GOD. He also invests in companies with abusive child labor laws. What difference is there in abortion killings and dealing with people HE KNOWS
kill and abuse children? Please explain this hypocrisy. This is vile as well as every corporation that has dealings with China or countries that have abusive child labor slavery. I am so outraged of so much that has come out of the slime that slither their way through life. These so called good people should reveal to their elite society friends each other’s true grotesque Dorian Grey portrait. They know who they are they have no excuse... they wear a facade hiding among us in the void darkness of compassion within their soul. I just don't get it. How can you call yourself a believer in God if you don't walk the talk. He wants us to believe his lies when the reality is he is all about DO WHAT I SAY.... NOT WHAT I DO.
Alex....You seem to be totally naive and uneducated on American trade. China growth started long before Bush and you cannot blame everything on Bush. Almost all of our consumer products manufacturing companies have been forced out of this country and much of it has been because of the anti business attitude of our government......Obama has been president for four years and it has only got worse. Clinton was president for eight years and those were years of great exodus of our manufacturing base. All of our gov is to blame....Not just Bush. the business leaders were forced to leave. It was either a question of leaving or shutting down completely. Obviously you have no experience or knowledge of any of that. What is left of our manufacturing must depend on foreign parts, so the problem is even greater than people realize. Our gov includes the worst trade negotiators in the world. The trading partners always wins and we always give in. Romney is experienced and familiar with those circumstances and I believe that he will do his best to correct the situation.....That is preferrable to sticking with Obama who has no knowledge of any kind of business and has proven totally inneftive where any type of business is happening...
makes me laugh when they talk about china overtaking the usa economically. firstly why are they not number one now they have 1billion people versus 300million in the usa? the us government needs to introduce a law that trade has to be fair and equal both ways, any country not complying requires swift action by the us government; ie why is it that china restrict american banks jwhy is it that toyota, nissan, honda, hiunday, kia are allowed to built plants in the us but the japanese and the koreans dont allow gm, ford, chrysler to build plants in japan or korea; this is criminal and requires to be stopped immediately; as for china the us government needs to raise taxes by atleast 30-60% FOR any american company that have factories in china and export back to the us. it would be interessting to see what would happen to the chinese economy if lets say american companies such as microsoft, google, facebook, intel, ibm, hewlett packard, amazon, pfizer, monsanto, cisco, horizon, att, apple, mc donalds, kfc, hasbro, gm, ford, chrysler, texas instruments, chevron, esso etc i could go on and on and on.....china would become a third world country
othmar brunner
REVISED makes me laugh when they talk about china overtaking the usa economically. firstly why are they not number one now they have 1billion people versus 300million in the usa? the us government needs to introduce a law that trade has to be fair and equal both ways, any country not complying requires swift action by the us government; ie why is it that china restricts american banks to freely operate in china, why is it that toyota, nissan, honda, hiunday, kia are allowed to built plants in the us but the japanese and the koreans dont allow gm, ford, chrysler to build plants in japan or korea; this is criminal and requires to be stopped immediately; as for china the us government needs to raise taxes by atleast 30-60% for any american company that have factories in china and export back to the us. it would be interessting to see what would happen to the chinese economy if lets say american companies such as microsoft, google, facebook, intel, ibm, hewlett packard, amazon, pfizer, monsanto, cisco, horizon, att, apple, mc donalds, kfc, hasbro, gm, ford, chrysler, texas instruments, chevron, esso etc i could go on and on and on.....would shut down their chinese operations china would become a third world country
othmar brunner
They wouldn't really shut down, there would only be a short delay until they start their own Intel's and Apple's etc, with the technology they have stolen. Also the technology US companies have given away to get in their market.
....
Romney criticized Obama as being anti-competitive when Obama cracked down on China's tire dumping.
Now all of a sudden he's going to be tough on china?
Based on nationalistic principles and goals, China is concerned with her domestic development at a rate such that inflation is well under control as the country accumulates wealth.If this is the result of currency manipulation it is a sound strategy and is independent of the accusations made by Mr. Romney. The President had pointed out that China is an adversary. Nothing could be further from the truth. China is a creditor and a competitor, in addition to being a supplier of contract labor for American corporations which saves American manufacturing companies millions of dollars in employer/employee taxes, retirement and medical benefits and not having to deal with American labor unions. China bashing is one way to distract the American voter from the real underlying problems which contributed to this economic mess. It is a direct result of the lack of government oversight, mismanagement, fraud in the financial sector, eleven year old war in the Middle East which delivered huge profits to defense contractors and the continued tax cuts for the 1%.
Don't really care about China right now. We need to pull together and get our collective $h!t together. Every man , woman and child in this country OWE some other countries over $50,000 each. Owebamas administration has raised it over $15,000 alone. We can't kick this can down the road anymore. It comes down to who do you think can do a better job. A business man or a lawyer. Your choice.
Why do we have to have freekin FoxNews to be the only ones reporting about Benghazi! C'mon MSNBC, what's with that. Show them you can report news too!
Pete...It is obvious, the liberal media wants to hide Benghazi just as they have been hiding Fast and Furious. They will lie, steal and cheat to support Obama and socialism. They are not there to report the news. Other than brainwashing tactics for socialism, they have no responsibilities or requirements.
This reminds me of the 80's, when members of Congress smashed a Japanese car on the steps of the Capitol in protest of Japan's unfair trade policies. Ultimately, China is a red herring. It is certainly a competitor and someone to keep a very close eye on (particularly where cyber warfare and theft of intellectual property are concerned). But ultimately China is a paper tiger. They can't even get Taiwan back or control a few monks in Tibet. China may be a competitor, but it isn't an imminent threat to national security.
So, whether it is Obama or Romney promising to "get tough" on China, who cares? China is not the root of our problems. Apathy and a lack of leadership are. Apathy over the deficit. Apathy over education. Apathy over infrastructure. America has lost the capacity to govern in a bipartisan manner. China had nothing to do with that.
Americans particularly their political leaders are nitwits and born losers who only talent they have, is to blame others for their own failures. They are blind not to see that Germany, Japan and South Korea are doing so well trading with the Chinese as all these countries excelled in producing goods that the Chinese want to purchase. What America have nowadays is just fraudsters and banksters that cheat the world via QE printing as well as pillaged its own taxpayer money via Wall Street.
The Roman Empire II is set to decline into oblivion. Thanks God for the blessing.
Based on nationalistic principles and goals, China is concerned with her domestic development at a rate such that inflation is well under control as the country accumulates wealth.If this is the result of currency manipulation it is a sound strategy and is independent of the accusations made by Mr. Romney. The President had pointed out that China is an adversary. Nothing could be further from the truth. China is a creditor and a competitor, in addition to being a supplier of contract labor for American corporations which saves American manufacturing companies millions of dollars in employer/employee taxes, retirement and medical benefits and not having to deal with American labor unions. China bashing is one way to distract the American voter from the real underlying problems which contributed to this economic mess. It is a direct result of the lack of government oversight, mismanagement, fraud in the financial sector, eleven year old war in the Middle East which delivered huge profits to defense contractors and the continued tax cuts for the 1%.