Feb
25
Huckabee on China: Unclear policy
February 25, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
By Tia Tian Chi
It seems to me that Mike Huckabee, the second-place Republican candidate, is not much of an advocate on the subject of China, whether it is as a rising power or a threat. Or in Huckabee’s own words, he is “not as worried about China” as he is about other more “radical and outspoken tyrants who openly issue threats to the United States and its people”.
From what I’ve found, he does not make many direct references to China, except his short answer to TIME and one blog post on trade with China. Unlike Democratic candidates who speak of lowering the US debt held by China, he urged China to follow more strictly on trade rules, such as the trade protection of intellectual property rights and the decent treatment of workers.
When Huckabee went into a discussion about American trade deficit with China, he called this relationship “very unbalanced”. However, he did not go into a discussion that complained about or blamed China. Instead, he stated that “our government has failed us by allowing the Chinese to buy up extraordinary amounts of our currency, and then manipulate that currency to artificially lower their prices and to force things back into the country”.
In Huckabee’s opinion, as the result of the US government’s failure in pressuring China, various products, including unsafe food and toys, keep coming to the US. He’s also displeased with how much the US depends on foreign imports: “I don’t want to see our food come from China, our oil come from Saudi Arabia and our manufacturing come from Europe and Asia”.
In terms of the China–Taiwan issue, although Huckabee did not officially support the Republic of China, he did pay an official visit to Taiwan and meet with President Chen Shui-bian in 2006. Moreover, he helped on passing a resolution in support of Taiwan’s observer role in the World Health Assembly in 2003, and another one in support of the signing of a Taiwan-US trade agreement in 2005.
Huckabee asserted his firm belief and commitment in re-establishing US relationships with other countries around the world at a campaign stop at the end of last year. Although he pointed out the improving relationship between the US and France, when the president of France “showed a friendly face to us” in his visit, he did not provide any details on how to realize the improvement.
It is interesting to find that Huckabee has been rated as the most honest and moral among the eight candidates, but the least intelligent and strong in leadership in the Economist/YouGov poll. These are the questions: is a friendly face enough for improving foreign relationships? Are honesty and morality enough to be elected as the next President of the United States?
