WASHINGTON - Declaring China a currency manipulator would be highly disruptive, a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama's re-election campaign said on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Bader made the remarks while attending a China policy debate between foreign policy advisers of the two candidates' campaigns held on Wednesday by the Committee of 100, an organization of prominent Chinese Americans and Johns Hopkins University.

Bader, also a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, noted the Obama administration, if get re-elected, would maintain the key elements in its China policy.

He said it is important to keep a balance between "a strong, positive relationship" with China, and strong and positive relations with US allies in the Asia-Pacific. "You can't do one without another," he added.

Meanwhile, he said it is critical to set priorities in the next administration's China policy, which requires the understanding of both the important and "potentially disruptive factors" in US-China relations.

For months, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has vowed on various occasions that he would label China as a currency manipulator on day one of his presidency if elected.

Bader said Romney's talks are an example of the kind of things he thinks that "upside-down the priority that would be highly disruptive".

The next administration should "truly respect" China's rise and "what China has accomplished in the past years," he said.

During the third and final presidential debate closed on Monday night, both Obama and Romney voiced willingness to work with China, yet also blamed the world's second largest economy for America's domestic woes.

The Wall Street Journal noted in an article on Wednesday that Romney's tough rhetoric on the Chinese currency issue is not in line with facts and would harm the important China-US ties.

Torpedoing the bilateral relationship because of an ill-advised campaign promise could have multiple unforeseen consequences, warned the newspaper.

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