US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has recently made a dual-pronged effort to provoke hostility from neighboring nations on both sides of the globe. Though his lack of tact isn't altogether surprising for a Republican from a multi-millionaire family, Romney's approach to international relations is wearing thin.

China and the UK are two nations no US leader can afford to ignore, and while each has a unique relationship to US power, both have offered a chance for Romney's lack of diplomatic skills to shine. 

In the US, Romney has voiced strong policy measures designed to challenge China on economic issues, such as intellectual property rights and currency liquidation.

Romney's book, entitled No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (2010), was supposed to be potentially rejuvenating for neo-conservative thinkers during the ongoing US spell of economic turmoil.

But it comes across as more petty than grand, spitefully obsessed with doing down others rather than making any coherent case for US strengths.

Most Republicans remain bellicose about "the China threat" to US preeminence. However, even the long-standing "special relationship" between the UK and US has proved vulnerable to Romney's tendency to jam his foot in his mouth. 

During a recent visit to the UK, just days before the beginning of the Olympic opening ceremony, Romney met with senior Conservative officials and their Labour opposition.

Romney began proceedings by referring to Labour foreman Ed Miliband as "Mr. Leader," a blunder as inappropriate as referring to "Sir Obama."

Though Miliband could hardly have been expected to check Romney for choosing the moniker, Romney himself might have spoken less casually had certain facts first been considered.

For one, the Labour Party's origins as a socialist, working-class party are dynamically opposed to the Republican platform and while the UK is currently governed by a coalition of two dysfunctional parties, "Mr. Leader" sounds more like a term of alliance rather than endearment.

The gesture was seen as little more than a minor gaffe. But Romney managed to blunder even more later when he roused controversy over expressed doubts of Britain's organization of the Olympic Games.

Prime Minister David Cameron, theoretically an ideological ally of Romney, sharply retorted that it was easy to organize an Olympics Games in the "middle of nowhere," implicitly doing down Romney's own running of the 1992 Salt Lake City games.

I felt Romney's remarks were fair enough, given the widespread reports of the security farce before the games. What did irk me were his later compliments offered in insincere compensation to the organizers, proving just how little Romney chooses to recognize or take the UK seriously.

In No Apology, Romney even goes so far as to misname England "a small island," adding that "with few exceptions, it [England] doesn't make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy."

In his compensatory statement outside the prime minister's address, Romney cited the quaint manner in which the Olympic volleyball courts could be seen "out of the backside of 10 Downing Street," marking a final foul up before the close of his official visit.

What all this boiled down to for me was ultimately seeing yet another US politician make his Gulliver-gaited hop over to Lilliputian Britain in order to patronize the improbable achievements of a small and understated island. A US president in the UK has the look to this day of a grandson admiring with half distaste the ornate interior of his shrinking elder's home.

Yet with Romney it seemed barely a conscious effort, let alone indicative of a special relationship worth nurturing. There is always the sense when a US spokesperson visits the UK of his wanting to break the smirk altogether and simply blurt out "Do all of you really live in these houses, these tiny brick things with the painted doors all end to end? Fascinating! We just couldn't do it back home!"

For all the nerves jangled in China over US rivalry, it is worth remembering that even closest friends of the US find themselves often undermined and underappreciated at the best of times.

The author is a British journalist currently living in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn