China-bashing ad takes voters for a ride

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In the final days of a close US presidential race, both candidates have been battling intensively in swing states, particularly Ohio. And one of the key issues they have been debating is whether automakers General Motors and Chrysler have shipped jobs to China.

Republican Mitt Romney's campaign, seizing on a recent news report that Chrysler is planning to open a Jeep plant in China, launched TV and radio ads in Ohio and Michigan to attack President Barack Obama.

The radio ad says that under President Obama, GM cut 15,000 American jobs and that they are planning to double the number of cars built in China, which means 15,000 more jobs for China..

It goes on to say that Chrysler plans to start making jeeps in China, questioning the effectiveness of Obama’s auto bailout.

The TV commercial sends the same message, accusing Obama of selling Chrysler to Italian firm Fiat, which is going to build jeeps in China.

Campaigning in Ohio, Wisconsin and Virginia on Nov 3, Obama accused Romney of being "dishonest" in the ads.

"It's not true. Everybody knows it's not true," Obama told a cheering crowd in Mentor, Ohio. He then said the car companies themselves told former governor Romney to knock it off.

Obama has repeatedly rebuked Romney over that ad in the past days. At a rally on Nov 2 in Hilliard, a suburb in Columbus, Ohio, Obama accused Romney of frightening voters.

In a counterattack, the Obama campaign aired TV ads in Ohio and Michigan, saying Romney's ad was false. The ads emphasized that Chrysler Jeep was not cutting jobs, but adding them in Ohio. The ad then reminds voters of Romney's New York Times opinion piece in August 2011 headlined "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt".

Chrysler and Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne said repeatedly in the last week that Chrysler is not moving any US Jeep production to China. On the contrary, it is planning to add Jeep jobs in the United States. And its production in China is only intended for sale in the Chinese market.

GM, meanwhile, also defended itself from Romney's attack.

“We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days. No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the US and repatriating profits back to this country," GM spokesman Greg Martin was quoted as saying by the Detroit Free Press.

The Obama campaign has often touted the $85 billion auto bailout, made mostly after 2009, as a success, stressing that Obama is willing to make tough, albeit unpopular, decisions to save US jobs.

Questions:

1. Which states did Romney launch his ads to attack Obama?

2. What does the TV commercial accuse Obama of doing?

3. What was Romney’s New York Times opinion piece in August 2011 headlined?

Answers:

1. Ohio and Michigan.

2. Selling Chrysler to Italian firm Fiat.

3. “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.