Yes, it was Rudy Giuliani, at a speech at Iowa State University. To his credit, Giuliani was not focused on toxic toys, but talked "big picture" issues. Part of it sounds OK:
We should remain substantially engaged with China.
Not sure what the qualifier "substantially" refers to. Maybe he did not want to appear to be one of those Panda huggers the far right is scared of, eh? Engage China, but not too much.
So engagement, that's good. What else?
We will be the two great economies in the world. The more we make sure China's rise is peaceful, the better it is going to help the United States.
Sounds a little more belligerent. The U.S. will "make sure" that China stays peaceful, huh? Tough guy.
To make sure that China doesn't think of challenging us militarily, we should increase the size of our military.
Hmm, that's rather discomfiting. The U.S. military isn't big enough after six years of substantial build-up? And certainly there's no chance that this build-up will not be construed by China or Russia as a threat, will it? Nah, nothing to worry about. Everyone respects strength.
My sarcasm seems to get worse as the week goes on.
Here's a link to the Rudy story at AFP.