High time for Romney to drop 'blame-China game'

As U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney landed the Republican nomination Tuesday and gets ready for his all-important acceptance speech, he should be reminded that it is high time for him to drop the "blame-China game" that frequently emerged on his campaign trail in the past several months.

The former Massachusetts governor has vowed he would label China as a "currency manipulator" on his Day One in the White House.

The contentious remarks, combined with his other hardline rhetoric against China, aim to scapegoat China by holding it mainly responsible for the so-called trade imbalance between the two countries and the gloomy job market in the United States.

As a veteran businessman, Romney is in a better position than many to know that the U.S. trade deficit with China is caused by the differences in the two countries' economic structures since a large portion of China's exports to the United States are labor-intensive goods, whose production has been abandoned by U.S. enterprises in search of higher returns.

By accusing China as a currency manipulator, Romney also seems to have withheld the fact from the U.S. public that the Chinese currency has appreciated over 30 percent since 2005 and has a broader fluctuation band, which is considered a telling evidence by many experts that the yuan is reaching an equilibrium in its exchange rate against the dollar.

In addition to his unfounded accusations against China in the economic sphere, Romney also linked his hardline stance on boosting U.S. military capabilities to "China threat" and even hinted that the United States would sell China's Taiwan advanced military equipment if he takes the helm in the Whilte House.

If Romney's talks on the Chinese currency are a mere distortion of facts aimed at wooing anti-China votes, his proposed policy on arms sale to Taiwan is treading a dangerous line as it touches China's core interests and runs against the spirit of China-U.S. Joint Communique on Aug. 17, 1982.

While it is convenient for U.S. politicians to hammer China and blame China for their own problems, they should be fully aware that their words and deeds are poisoning the general atmosphere of U.S.-China relations and could eventually weigh down the whole world if go unchecked.

For Romney, who is basking in the glory rendered by his fellow party members, it is high time to have some serious thoughts about how to smoothly develop the U.S.-China relations and immediately cease the China-bashing tricks.

If the barrage against China persists and shows no sign of a stoppage in the following weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election, it is quite likely that whoever succeeds in the competition for the U.S. top job would have to spend some excruciating time looking for ways to remedy the damage to U.S.-China relationship since the start of the campaign trail.