CBS: ‘Most Candidates Reserve Their Most Incendiary Comments’ for China

O’DONNELL: “But Trump isn't the only presidential candidate to be critical of China. Senator Marco Rubio is also confronting Beijing this morning. In an opinion piece for today’s The Wall Street Journal, the Republican vows he would take on what he calls ‘a rising threat to U.S. national security’. Chip Reid is at the White House which is getting ready to host China’s president despite the growing pressure on the campaign trail. Chip, good morning.”
REID: “Good morning. As we all know, there are some very angry words flying back and forth to this campaign season. But many candidates reserve their most incendiary comments for what they see as a common enemy. China.”
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REID (voice-over): “Along with all the glad-handing, stump speeches and posing, there is another mainstay of presidential campaigning.”
TRUMP: "China's taking our jobs and taking our money.”
REID (voice-over): “… bashing China.”
CLINTON: "They're also trying to hack into everything that doesn't move in America.”
SCHELL: "Foreign policy issues – and particularly China -- are very easy targets because there is no cost really during an election to say what you think." 
REID (voice-over): “And there is plenty of that.
WALKER: "We need to stop China's cyber-attacks, slow down their advances into national waters and speak out about their abysmal human rights record.”
REID (voice-over): “Scott Walker's campaign is petitioning to put the kibosh on next month's visit by the Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump said he'd offer a Big Mac instead of a state dinner. And on Mike Huckabee's website, there's a page devoted to China hacking, which reads, in part, ‘the way you deal with a bully on the playground is to punch them in the face and put them on the ground, because the only thing they respect is power.’”
SCHELL: "I think China should realize that they are creating a reaction that is not helpful to either their position in the world or U.S.-China relations. On the other hand, I think it would be most unseemly for the president of the U.S. to punch the president of China!”
REID (voice-over): “With accusations of hacking into U.S. government computers, its provocative land reclamation in the South China Sea and the major role Chinese currency devaluation played in shocking markets worldwide this week, recent Chinese behavior has been political red meat for presidential hopefuls.”
ROMNEY: “Let’s talk about China.”
REID (voice-over): “And poking China is nothing new. In 2012, during a debate, 
ROMNEY: “That’s why on day one, I will label on a currency manipulator."
REID (voice-over): “But a strange thing happens once the victor takes office. When the recognition of China's importance as a trading partner and nuclear power sinks in, and there's often a softer, more diplomatic touch. When President Bill Clinton was candidate in 1992, he railed against the ‘butchers of Beijing.’ Once in office, he called China a ‘strategic partner.’ George W. Bush attacked Clinton for that, but Bush himself ended up engaging Beijing as well.”
SCHELL: "Every president sort of finds the balance point in the middle somehow after they get into office ... Presidents realize that their job is to make the world a peaceful, livable place, and they can't just run off the rails and mouth off.”
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REID: “The White House is dismissing Republican calls to cancel President Xi's visit. A White House spokesman said ‘The president has found engagement with China to be an effective way for the United States to advance our interests around the world.”