Romney's focus on China fuels political guessing

Governor Mitt Romney recently told a congressional panel that China's economic growth is ''one of the great developments of our time." He warned a crowd of Michigan Republicans in March that ''our government has to get serious about the Chinese." And he tapped the governor of Utah, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, to write a report on China for him.

Why is the Bay State's Republican governor so interested in the People's Republic? In an interview with the Globe on Friday, Romney said the answer is simple: He wants to protect Massachusetts jobs. If US schools don't produce more graduates who are skilled in the sciences, he argues, high-tech companies will decamp for Asian countries.

He points out that Asian citizens are earning far more doctorates in engineering and science than are US citizens. Two decades ago, he said, the number of doctorates was about equal.

''Increasingly, jobs are leaving America -- and not just at the low end. Now we're seeing high-tech jobs go," Romney said. ''It's not just the call centers, the textile jobs, the furniture jobs. Our Asian friends are more and more competitive in jobs that require a very high level of education."

Some political observers view Romney's interest in Asia through the prism of presidential politics. Romney, like many governors, is short on foreign policy experience. In the post-Sept. 11 world, it may be especially important for Romney to plug that hole in his resume, and speaking publicly and confidently about China might help him do it.

''For governors to make it as presidential candidates they have to establish at least some foreign policy credentials," said Norman J. Ornstein, a political analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank. ''Only a complete naif or a radical spinner would avoid making a connection between this and building toward a possible presidential campaign."

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., a former ambassador to Singapore and trade representative to the Far East, told the Deseret Morning News last week that he has been talking informally to national security and foreign policy specialists in Washington who might be willing to line up with Romney if he decides to run.

''I've told [Romney] that I'd help in putting together a national security team," Huntsman told the Salt Lake City newspaper. ''I've talked to some people in Washington, D.C., about keeping their powder dry."

Even though Romney says he hasn't decided whether to run for president, he has been busy laying the foundation for a possible campaign. In 2004, the Massachusetts governor strengthened his national network of supporters by handing out campaign money in key primary states, and since the November election he has traveled to crucial states such as South Carolina and Michigan to speak to Republican activists. In recent months, he has taken conservative stands on the death penalty and stem cell research and hinted that he has altered his position on abortion, all of which might help him in GOP primaries.

Romney's international experience includes heading the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, and his travels as chairman of Bain Capital, visiting China and other Asian nations several times, before he was elected. Unlike several of his recent predecessors in the corner office, Romney has not embarked on foreign trade missions, an easy way for governors to beef up their international knowledge. (During his first 19 months in office, for example, former governor William F. Weld took trips to Asia, Europe, and Israel.)

Other than dealing with Mexico on some border issues, then-Texas governor George W. Bush had virtually no international experience when he launched his presidential campaign in 1999. Relying on his father's contacts and his presumptive status as front-runner, Bush summoned top foreign policy specialists -- former secretary of state George P. Schultz among them -- to Austin to tutor him on the rest of the world.

Romney said that he has no such kitchen cabinet, and no immediate plans to convene one.

''I'm focused on the job I've got here," he said. ''It's an economic issue. I'm talking about the economy and how we build and protect jobs in Massachusetts."

Huntsman, who learned to speak Mandarin when he was on his Mormon mission in Taiwan, wrote a short report on China for Romney after the Massachusetts governor talked about Asia during a speech he gave in Utah. But Romney cautioned against reading too much into Huntsman's report, saying, ''I seek as much information as I can" about China. He noted that he recently read Ted C. Fishman's ''China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World," and Thomas L. Friedman's ''The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century," which highlights China's increasing capacity to fill high-skill jobs.

''Asia is not content with making our Christmas tree ornaments. They want to build commercial jets and MRI machines, create software and breakthrough drugs. They are planning for the innovation and technical capital of the world to move from America to Asia," Romney told the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce earlier this month. ''We take comfort in the fact that we spend many times as much as Asian nations on R&D, but don't forget that our engineers cost about 10 times as much as theirs."

Romney was even more strident in a speech he gave to GOP state legislators in Michigan last March, saying ''we did not shed our blood on the battlefield of liberty to lose on the battlefield of jobs and the economy."

''Right now, the Chinese need our market. It is time for us to use our leverage while we still have it," he said. ''We cannot continue to allow our technology, our intellectual property, our clean air, and our manufacturing base to be taken by the Chinese, by Asia, or by anybody else."

In Friday's interview with the Globe, Romney said the United States should protect intellectual property rights, persuade China to float its currency, and push Beijing to eliminate trade barriers that block American products. He said the United States should invest more in technology and that the best way to persuade the Chinese to improve their human rights record is to show them that doing so is in their own economic self-interest.

But Romney isn't in a position to make foreign policy decisions, at least not yet. For now, he said he is focused on far more parochial prescriptions: making science an MCAS graduation requirement for Massachusetts high school students and getting school districts to recruit better math and science teachers by paying them more.

''You will see in my education reform proposals that I will continue to emphasize compensation for science teachers and career tracks for young people to move them into science and math, so we can maintain the technological lead," Romney said.

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.