The policy statement also more than hints that Romney would authorize sale of advanced F-16 C/D's to Taiwan (something the Obama administration has thus far eschewed) when it argues: "The Department of Defense should reconsider recent decisions not to sell top-of-the-line equipment to our closest Asian allies. We should be coordinating with Taiwan to determine its military needs and supplying them with adequate aircraft and other military platforms."
With the Taiwan exception, though, the remainder of the China/Asia section is not dissimilar from the "strategic pivot" policies that the Obama administration is already implementing in the region-if not more robust. One might describe it as "Pivot Plus." Indeed, the Obama pivot finds its origins in the "strategic hedging" policies of the former George W. Bush administration. It is also no accident that the two lead members of Romney's Asia advisory team-Aaron Friedberg of Princeton University and Evan Feigenbaum of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace-served as senior officials in the Bush administration and were among the masterminds of the strategic hedging policy. The Romney policy language noted above is unmistakably that of Professor Friedberg, more fully elaborated in his recent book A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery of Asia.
With respect to other parts of the world, such as Africa, the Romney vision labels China a "global competitor." Candidate Romney has also argued on the campaign trail that he would "label China a currency manipulator on Day 1," and has also spoken harshly (and appropriately) of China's theft of intellectual property rights, corporate espionage, and cyber hacking. To its credit, the Romney campaign's statement on China does include a prominent role for human rights-not only concerning political dissent, but a broader conceptualization of promoting civil society. Indeed, assertive promotion of democracy pops up in the discussion of Latin America, Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.
While this is largely drawn from official campaign sources, and it must be remembered that tough campaign assertions often fall by the wayside when a candidate enters office and confronts reality, the Romney Campaign's description of China does offer an important prism into the thinking of Romney's advisors-if not Romney himself. Much of it is tough talk-not dissimilar from the election-year rhetoric of George W. Bush in 2000. But, when taken together with the Obama administration's pivot to Asia-which is primarily motivated by the strategic uncertainties associated with the rise of China-relations between China and the United States could be headed into contentious waters in the years ahead.
