Christie peppered his responses with phrases like “if I’m President” as he answered questions on domestic and foreign policy for nearly two hours at the Village Trestle, a bar in Goffstown, New Hampshire.

He later attended a house party at the Bedford home of New Hampshire business owner and investor Bill Greiner, where he took questions and mingled with potential backers. New Hampshire traditionally holds the first presidential primary of the Presidential campaign holds

Christie, who has been working to distinguish himself in a crowded field of declared and potential Republican candidates, mocked President Barack Obama for calling the U.S. the most respected country on Earth last week and called for a tougher stance against China’s activity in the South China Sea, where it claims control and is building islands.

Christie called for a “military approach” to China’s advances to “let them know there are limits to what they’re allowed to do.”

“That is an issue that we can handle militarily by going out there and making sure that we show them that we don’t respect their claims to these artificial islands in the South China Sea that they’re building that they’re saying are theirs that are hundreds and hundreds of miles from the coast of China and are clearly in international waters,” Christie said adding: “We need to send that signal to the Chinese very clearly that we do not acknowledge nor will we respect their claims to those areas.”

The U.S. military has begun actively — and more publicly — challenging China’s sovereignty claims over the half a dozen artificial islands Beijing has been rapidly constructing.

The U.S. refuses to recognize China’s sovereignty over disputed islands and Defense Secretary Ash Carter recently said the U.S. would continue to enforce freedom of navigation in what it considers international waters.

Christie says he’ll make a decision about whether he’s running later this month.

(JILL COLVIN)