The Hill News

The rise of China represents a "threat" to world stability, a top Republican candidate for president said Wednesday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said he thought China, particularly through its trade policies, represented a threat to the U.S., and said he worried that country would become "belligerent and expansionary."

"I think they are a great threat to the stability of the world long-term," Romney said Wednesday morning on conservative talker Laura Ingraham's radio show.

Romney had responded in particular to Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, another possible contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, who'd said yesterday on Ingraham's show

"I would simply say, we have got to fix our own problems. The Chinese are not our biggest problem, at least not at present," Daniels said.

The former Massachusetts governor took a sharper tone against China, particularly on the issues of trade and currency manipulati! on.

"The emergence of China, with the trade policies they've pursued, has not necessarily been good for us," Romney said. "These are real concerns, and I think we have to recognize we have a real world power emerging, and that represents a threat to us."

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington last month on an official state visit,  but President Obama, the man whom Republicans want to defeat in 2012, largely escaped criticism. Hu did face tough questions, though, about China's human rights, protection of intellectual property rights, and its manipulation of its currency.

Indeed, one of the Republicans now considering a run for president, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, has served for the past two years as Obama's ambassador to China. Huntsman said on Monday that he'll resign in April, to explore a presidential candidacy.

Romney said that he would have rethought China's admission to the World Trade Organization, which had! enjoyed bipartisan support at the time. Romney said he would ! have pre ferred stronger agreements on currency and intellectual property rights before allowing China membership in the WTO.