Later Monday, Republican candidate Mike Huckabee also talked about problems with China trade at the International Association of Machinists conference. He also joked about being a speaker at a union event, a rarity for a Republican.

Clinton also criticized President George W. Bush for letting the United States get itself into a position of weakness with China by borrowing so much money from the county.

“It has really put the Bush administration at a disadvantage, because it’s hard to be tough with your banker,” Clinton said during a conference attended by 700 members of the International Association of Machinists.

“If they woke up tomorrow and decided to dump dollars, especially when we’re in the middle of this mortgage crisis, interest rates would soar and everybody in this room would be affected by that. I don’t like to give that kind of leverage to a foreign government,” Clinton said to loud cheers.

The New York senator and former first lady also referred to the recent recalls of Chinese-made goods, like tainted toothpaste and toys made with lead paint.

“They’ve got to abide by the rule of law, they have to have labor, environmental, food safety, toy safety standards. And we have to be a lot tougher,” Clinton said. “We should tell them that unless they put into place some kind of comparable mechanism to what we expect — no lead in the toys, no magnets in the toys — we’re just not going to import toys.”

The same goes with food, she said. Similarly, she said food products should contain labels listing their country of origin.

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