I saw bits and pieces of the Republican debate last night and was later able to find a transcript of the debate to look over.

China bashing has been a problem for Republicans. Duncan Hunter, who has now dropped out, was the worst.

Last night's remarks were insightful. Former Arkansas governor mike huckabee was asked a question about cutting taxes and made some interesting remarks on China. Huckabee discussed his record on taxes a few moments; but then he changed the subject and discussed his perspective on the concerns of average Americans over the economy.

...frankly, in talking about the stimulus package, one of the concerns that I have is that we'll probably end up borrowing this $150 billion from the Chinese. And when we get those rebate checks, most people are going to go out and buy stuff that's been imported from China. I have to wonder whose economy is going to be stimulated the most by the package.

Huckabee suggested that a public works project to strengthen America's infrastructure would be money better spent. Of course, it wouldn't be spent as quickly (the point of a stimulus package).

Huckabee's China statement sounds like he thinks there's something wrong with stimulating China's economy. If American's manage to stimulate their own economy (which seems to be the goal) why do they care if someone else's economy happens to benefit, too, as a side effect? Globalization has made it hard to isolate the American economy from other economies, and I'm not sure why we want to.

As for borrowing money from China, China held $386 billion worth of US Treasury bonds in November (the last month for which figures are available); that's down from a high of about $420 billion in March of 2007. It's about 16% of our Treasury Bond debt held by other countries. So borrowing money (by selling Treasury Bond) is basically the way the Bush Administration is paying for things. Why should this be different?

Later Sen. McCain was asked a question about the economy. McCain said this

We will clean up our act and we will regain the confidence of the American people as being careful stewards of our tax dollars, and we will fix this problem with having to borrow money from China, because then we will balance our budget...

What puzzles me is why no one mentions Japan. China may hold 16% of US Treasury Bonds, but Japan holds 25%. America owes Japan $194 billion more when those bonds come due than it owes China. Doesn't that make Japan the real problem? Evidently not, at least in the minds of the GOP candidates for President. Very little negative energy was directed at Japan during the debate.

The China discussion went on. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney called China tough competition: "They're going to be a much tougher competition, China is, competitor, than we have seen from Europe in a long time." But that was about the extent of his remarks on China.

New York's former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, said that China was both an opportunity and a warning, but mostly an opportunity

I think we have to look at the rise of China as a wonderful opportunity. I see 20 (million) or 30 million people coming out of poverty in China every year. To me, that's 20 (million) or 30 million more customers for the United States.

Giuliani seemed to have the most developed and thought out policy on China. And the most positive.