Youngstown, Ohio (CNN) - Republican running mates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan sought to cast the current administration as soft on China on Saturday, blaming Democratic President Barack Obama for skipping another opportunity to label China a currency manipulator.
"Over the past several years, the president's failed to call China a currency manipulator," Romney said at a rally in Portsmouth, Ohio. "He had the occasion on Friday to come out with that official designation. Do you know what they said? We're not going to make any determination until after the election."
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"Let me tell you, on day one of my administration I will label China a currency manipulator, we gotta get those jobs back and get trade to be fair," he continued.
The comments from the Republican candidates come a day after the Treasury Department announced it will hold off publishing a twice-yearly report on foreign exchange, due October 15, that often contains criticism of China's currency policies.
"The administration had their eighth chance to label China a currency manipulator," Ryan said at a separate event nearly 300 miles away from Romney, in Youngstown. "That's eight opportunities to say, 'You know what, play fair with us, trade with us fairly.'"
According to the U.S. Treasury, the report will be released after global finance officials from the G-20 leading economies meet in early November.
"We've lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to one study, because of just this problem. Two million jobs we've lost, according to the International Trade Commission, because of one country, China, taking our intellectual property rights, meaning taking our patents, taking our goods that we make and copying them and selling them. That's not correct. That's not right. That's cheating," Ryan said in his opening remarks at a town hall meeting in this battleground state.
Ryan misstated data from the U.S. International Trade Commission report. The 2011 report does not assign a number of lost jobs to currency manipulation by China but asserts that the tightening of intellectual property rights could lead to the creation of 2 million jobs in the United States.
The presidential campaigns have accused one another of being weak on China and both candidates have included misleading or disputed information in their television ads on the subject.
Speaking in the hard-hit manufacturing area of Ohio's Mahoning Valley, Ryan emphasized the need to increase manufacturing jobs in order to build a stronger middle class.
Nearly 300 miles southwest of Ryan, Romney said currency manipulation means "that American companies that are making these same products, they go out of business if the Chinese products are so much cheaper than the real costs behind them."
Ryan stressed the need to hold China accountable for its artificially undervalued exchange rate, a practice that negatively affects American producers.
"We are going to stop this kind of cheating from occurring," Ryan said at Youngstown State University. "That's a big deal. That takes our jobs. You have to stand up for the American manufacturing system. Giving good speeches, you know, saying the right thing, that sounds good, but getting it done is what matters."
– CNN Political Producer Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report
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Mitt Romney should hang his head in shame when ever he talks about being hard on China or how he would use
our armed forces. This is a man who has made millions of dollars using cheap labor in china. Romney is also the
hypocrite who supported the Viet Nam war and the draft but hid out in France using his religion to avoid the draft.
Great. Ryan wants to start wars with Iran and Russia and Romney keeps trying to turn China into an enemy. How can any thinking person consider voting for these clowns. Secretary of State John Bolton ? Secretary of the Treasury Glenn Hubbard ? Really ? Romney/Ryan make Cheney/Bush look prudent and thoughtful. And NO – I am NOT a Democrat nor a fan of Obama.
Fair trade? How about the Government stops giving corporations huge tax breaks while still allowing them to shut down factories and move them to China? They cost Americans their jobs, add to the tax load of the middle class, get to pay pennies for wages in China and, even after this attack on the American economy, THEY STILL GET THEIR TAX BREAKS!!! This crap is going on in the US and in Canada. No matter who is running the show, this slap in the face is allowed to continue again and again. Romney is full of garbage when he says he will change any of this; if anything he'll make it worse.
Now that's a laugh. Romney's company , Bain Capital, which owns a company in Free port Illinois, is shipping 170 American jobs from that company to China one day before the election. Romney owns $8 million worth of stock in the company and stands to make a bundle. The workers pleaded with Romney not to send the jobs but he allowed it anyway. And he company got a TAX BREAK to ship the jobs. Protesters from the company were arrested when they tried to block trucks carrying equipment from the company to the port to ship to China. This is the man who says he will create 12 MILLION JOBS.......Yeah Right!!......NOT IN AMERICA>>>>>>
It is The Economy, Mr. President. Your Economy, Mr. President. You built that.
odd from a man who has millions invested in china. odd from a man who's outsourced jobs to china to make millions. odder still anyone would vote for him based on this as his actions to date don't match his words. of course he should know if china's a cheat, he's been dealing with them and making money from it for years.
Seriously? Bain Capital just yesterday announced ANOTHER manufacturer they are moving to China. They actually shipped in the laborers from China at no charge for "training" from their American workers, and get this – took down the American Flag and RAISED THE COMMUNIST CHINESE flag so these new workers would feel at home. That's the futuer under a Baining of America Romney presidency. Give it a break – Romney is about as PRO-CHINA as it gets.
We have to get a Republican in the White House so we can invade Iran.
This coming from a man who outsourced jobs to China! Romney you did business with the Chinese,you said it on the 47% tape,no more flip flopping my neck hurts!
Funny to see those two spin doctors talk about China. They didn't talk about who made communist China as strong as it is today. The answer is Romney and his greedy buddies. They not only make China strong but also make America weak. They know it. Romney and his greedy buddies like Bain export U.S. jobs and U.S. manufacturing sites to China. They even invite Chinese workers to be trained by U.S. workers here in the U.S. Another U.S. plant is going to be exported to China right after the election. Every single republican tax cut only increases our borrowing from China. Romney's tax cut would not be different. History is right in front of Romney/Ryan to see but they decide to continue sending gifts to China.
Which as ABSOLUTE BULL when you consider that the "All American Company" Wal Mart sells nothing but junk made in China and low wages – they represent the worst in American Business Practice yet are somehow held up as an all American company!!!!
Why? Because he hasn't started a war there? Hide your militiary-aged children is this not-so-dynamic duo gets into office.
I'm in China as I write this. Republican President Nixon open the door to China. China has one major factor...Cheap labor.
Mitt's comment about a factory he visited in China " wired fences and guards were there to keep out the potential workers". If you believe that...I have an Island for sale in Nevada. The guards are there to keep these women without compassion for misery or suffering; cruelty. Nixon and the republicans manipulated the American workers is the real story.
Romney and Ryan have no shame. they will lie on anything. The GOP thinks the truth don't matter, hence they are just lying about everything.
As we speak right now , Bain Capital is at it again in IL. They are about to close down American factory and ship their job to China.
Everyone knows that Romney is considered a pioneer in shipping American jobs overseas.. We know who you are Romney- a lying outsoucer in cheilf.
As for Ryan, why should anyone believe him- this is the same Ryan who told America that a GM plant in his state was closed under Obama, when in fact it was closed under the Bush administration- Don't the GOP have any shame?
I'm getting on board with this Romney/Ryan massive tax cut thing. I don't think that's ever been tried before. I think that plan will boost the economy without increasing the deficit. Kidding, it's retarded. Never works. My God America if you were buying a car you wouldn't let someone tell you to pay for it first then they will show it to you. Much less if you are turning the keys to the country over to them. Romneys not going to tell us how he is going to pay for his tax cuts. Are we that stupid.
This is to laugh - though it's disappointing that the president isn't fighting back. The Boston Globe, in a series about Romney and Bain, describes how Romney wrote in detail about his trip to China in the 90s when he put money into a major manufacturer. He wrote in detail about the great time he had visiting worker dormitories, how efficient it was to house 8 workers to a room and have the rooms within a couple hundred feet of their work area so they could put in their 14 hour days. And how much money he's making from shifting work from the USA midwest to that company. This from a man who appeals to USA workers like a white knight? He's the problem not the solution.
I think NOT..The one soft on China is the one shipping jobs to China.. That would be MITT...
Good grief.. Is there no end the the lies Romney will tell?
Obama soft on China? Romney looks at Chinese labor receiving wages that are 85% lower than American wages – and calls that "strong fundamentals". Instead of calling Romney "the out-sourcer in chief" he should call him what he has been – a traitor to the concept of "made in America".
Talk about disingenuous! Romney's the one sending his workers there!
Romney is so two faced it's pathetic. But then he is pathetic. He has investments in China, so what does that make him?
i'm SPEACHLESS!
And Mitt is not? Mitt is giving China a big BJ with Mitt lowering the American Flag at a plant in Illinios and raising the Chinese flag...just who's side is Mitt on?
Talk is cheap. I will rather have a president who have imposed sactions on China when he needed to, and taken China to court over dumping, than Romney who we all know have been shipping American jobs overseas. Spear us the crocodile tears.
Ryan had a chance to vote to stop giving incentives to companies that ship American jobs overseas. What did he do? He voted against the bill, hence continue to reward companies like Romney's that ship American jobs overseas. Hypocracy is what some will call their talk today.
A vote for Obama is a vote for the middle class.
Uh, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the great leaders of American people. America Manufacturing Industry seems to have had a difficult time though they should have already not been the toddlers, but they need help and support. Godspeed!
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Romney = jobs in China.
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