The Obama administration claims that China’s “illegal subsidies” in the auto sector amounted to at least $1 billion between 2009 and 2011.
Obama will argue such practices promote outsourcing of auto and auto parts production to China, and then products are then exported into the United States or other nations.
The US president has repeatedly demanded that China play by fair “rules of the road” in global trade, sometimes in the presence of senior Beijing leaders, and has initiated a number of recent trade enforcement actions, including in the auto tire and textile sectors.
But Romney has been hammering Obama’s record on China, and last week renewed his promise to brand it a currency manipulator on his first day in office in remarks which drew a stern rebuke from Beijing.
“The cheating takes on a lot of different dimensions,” Romney said on Thursday.
The Obama campaign responded by accusing Romney of blatant hypocrisy, claiming his tough talk was undermined by his business record of helping client firms outsource US jobs to China.
The US president has repeatedly demanded that China play by fair “rules of the road” in global trade, sometimes in the presence of senior Beijing leaders.
“He claims that he’ll crack down on China but he’s never done that and I don’t think he ever will,” Obama supporter and former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said last week.
Top Chinese leaders have told Obama that they expect a measure of anti-Beijing rhetoric in the US election, US officials have said.
But Romney’s remarks were met with a stinging response in a commentary carried by China’s official 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.
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