Color me confused:

Betting on the Republican horse

[…]

his infatuation with the Republicans was then adopted by the mainland. Republicans are regarded as good friends of Beijing. Mao Zedong thought the brouhaha over Watergate was a terrible mistake and Nixon a victim.

Even a recluse Buddhist monk in the mountains inquired about the ex-president’s wellbeing, as a young American martial arts aficionado Mark Salzman wrote in his book Iron and Silk (1986). The abiding loyalty to the successive Republican presidential candidate continues.

With Mitt Romney running against Barack Obama, the mainland Chinese have a soft spot for Romney, despite his vowing to brand China as currency manipulator on his first day in office, if elected president.

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