 He was a top adviser to the Romney campaign on policy, including U.S. policy toward China, and has been called "hawkish".Chen viewed China as a topic that distinguished Romney in the 2012 campaign.Chen accompanied Mitt Romney on his campaign swing through Britain, Israel, and Poland in August 2012 and was one of the advisers who approved Romney's criticism of President Obama in the wake of the attack on the embassy in Libya on September 11, 2012, and the resulting death of J. Christopher Stevens.