obama and romney have tried to reflect that sentiment, but as nhk world's susumu kojima tells us, campaign sound bites don't necessarily tell the full story. >> reporter: the employees in wisconsin know the pressures of their industry all too well. they watched colleague after colleague lose it because of competition from chinese factories. chinese companies break trade rules by setting imports at a loss, which pushed him to slash his workforce and hold off on expansion plans. >> any type of elected official should stand up for a level playing field. we're not asking for anything more. >> reporter: a recent study by the pew research center said many americans consider being tough with the chinese on economic issues an important priority. barack obama has promised american voters he will make china play by the rules. >> we're organizing trade relations with countries other than china so that china starts feeling more pressure about meeting basic international standards. >> reporter: mitt romney's message has been even tougher. >> we have to say to our friends in china, look, you guys are pl

nhk world's susumu kojima went to find some answers. >> reporter: president barack obama was elected four years ago. he promised a change from his predecessor, george w. bush. he has taken an approach to foreign policy. >> we were able to refocus our attention not only on the terrorist threat but also beginning a transition process in afghanistan. it also allowed us to refocus on alliances and relationships that had been neglected for a decade. >> reporter: republican presidential candidate mitt romney says he will take a different approach. he says the u.s. must maintain its own strength to create stability around the world. >> it is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to use america's greatest power to shape history. >> reporter: both candidates have talked about relations with china but often in economic terms. neither has explained enough how he would deal with beijing diplomatically. china is now the world's second largest economy. it's also strengthening its military power and it's growing more assertive in territorial disputes. professor zhao quansheng i

susumu kojima, nhk world, washington. >>> china has also been the focus for the japanese auto industry of late. sales are dropping. gong gi canning is here with more. >> we already heard from honda, mazda and toyota about how the dispute is affecting their sales. this time we're hearing from nissan. japan's auto industry is shifting into low gear because of the yen strength stemming from a territorial dispute. nissan is among the most hardest hit, exposed most heavenly to the chinese market which accounts for 26% of its global sales. nissan says its first half operating profit dropped 7% in yen terms from a year earlier to about $3.6 billion. that's mainly because of the yen's strength. the company predicts that profit for the entire business year ending next march will fall nearly 18% from its previous projection to a little over $7 billion. nissan officials attribute the drop to declining sales in china as well as the strong yen. they have cut their sales target in china by 13% to 1.17 million vehicles. tran tran we need to watch seriously and see what will happen to the japan-china