Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama's campaign sparred on Thursday over whether the White House is too weak on China, a hot topic that is gaining prominence ahead of November's U.S. election.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Romney accused Obama of "almost begging" Beijing to buy U.S. debt. His comments were timed to coincide with the visit of China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, who held talks with Obama at the White House this week.

Obama's re-election team in Chicago shot back swiftly at Romney, accusing him of changing positions on China for political gain.

U.S. voters are concerned about the loss of manufacturing jobs in states such as Ohio, an electoral battleground in the presidential election.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who faces a growing threat from former Senator Rick Santorum in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Obama in November, called Xi's meetings with U.S. leaders "empty pomp and ceremony."

"President Obama came into office as a near supplicant to Beijing, almost begging it to continue buying American debt so as to finance his profligate spending here at home," Romney wrote in the opinion piece.

Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Romney's attack during a foreign leader's visit was unusual but not unexpected.

"I just can't recall there being such a targeted attack on a president's China policy during a leader's visit," she said. "It probably doesn't surprise (China's leaders), although they're not happy to see it."

Zeroing in on one topic that galls American voters about China, Romney said Obama was not forceful in pressing Beijing over human rights.

"His administration demurred from raising issues of human rights for fear it would compromise agreement on the global economic crisis or even 'the global climate-change crisis.' Such weakness has only encouraged Chinese assertiveness and made our allies question our staying power in East Asia," Romney wrote.

Obama met with Xi, China's current vice president, in the White House Oval Office on Tuesday, raising China's human rights record and encouraging Beijing to play by global economic rules.

Beating up on China is an easy way for candidates to score political points, and Obama's campaign, which was expecting Romney's attack, called him a flip-flopper - a charge both Democrats and Romney's Republican rivals have sought to exploit in the former governor's policy resume.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama's campaign sparred on Thursday over whether the White House is too weak on China, a hot topic that is gaining prominence ahead of November's U.S. election.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Romney accused Obama of "almost begging" Beijing to buy U.S. debt. His comments were timed to coincide with the visit of China's leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, who held talks with Obama at the White House this week.

Obama's re-election team in Chicago shot back swiftly at Romney, accusing him of changing positions on China for political gain.

U.S. voters are concerned about the loss of manufacturing jobs in states such as Ohio, an electoral battleground in the presidential election.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who faces a growing threat from former Senator Rick Santorum in the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Obama in November, called Xi's meetings with U.S. leaders "empty pomp and ceremony."

"President Obama came into office as a near supplicant to Beijing, almost begging it to continue buying American debt so as to finance his profligate spending here at home," Romney wrote in the opinion piece.

Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Romney's attack during a foreign leader's visit was unusual but not unexpected.

"I just can't recall there being such a targeted attack on a president's China policy during a leader's visit," she said. "It probably doesn't surprise (China's leaders), although they're not happy to see it."

Zeroing in on one topic that galls American voters about China, Romney said Obama was not forceful in pressing Beijing over human rights.

"His administration demurred from raising issues of human rights for fear it would compromise agreement on the global economic crisis or even 'the global climate-change crisis.' Such weakness has only encouraged Chinese assertiveness and made our allies question our staying power in East Asia," Romney wrote.

Obama met with Xi, China's current vice president, in the White House Oval Office on Tuesday, raising China's human rights record and encouraging Beijing to play by global economic rules.

Beating up on China is an easy way for candidates to score political points, and Obama's campaign, which was expecting Romney's attack, called him a flip-flopper - a charge both Democrats and Romney's Republican rivals have sought to exploit in the former governor's policy resume.