Rick Santorum defends his capability to Illinois voters Reporting from Arlington Heights, Ill., and San - Making his first visit to Illinois ahead of next Tuesday's primary, Rick Santorum laughed off New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's advice Friday that voters looking for a presidential candidate should ignore anyone who has never run anything. Christie, a Romney supporter, stressed the importance of executive experience - a central theme of Romney's massive ad blitz in Illinois - during a visit to the state as a Romney campaign surrogate. Santorum said that Romney had "no experience in international and national security affairs." The former Pennsylvania senator argued that his own eight years of service on the Armed Services Committee and involvement in drafting foreign policy legislation qualified him to become commander in chief and gave him "a big advantage" over Romney. Santorum, trailing in the polls in Illinois, said he hoped to convince primary voters that "being authentic, being someone who knows how to work hard, and connect with people, and be able to energize folks, is much more important than being able to outspend your opponent 10 to 1. Energy, enthusiasm - that's what's going to win the fall. He acknowledged that, once again, Romney enjoyed a financial advantage that had, thus far, translated into a one-sided TV advertising war in favor of the former Massachusetts governor. Don't know those kind of folks, by and large," Santorum said. Romney's financial holdings came under fresh scrutiny, meanwhile, after the New York Times reported that his former firm has ties to a company that is reportedly providing technology services to a Chinese government surveillance program. During a news conference in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, Romney was asked about the report that Bain Capital, the private equity firm he ran for 15 years, had purchased Uniview Technologies, the video surveillance division of a company supplying services to the Chinese government's Safe Cities program. Though the stated purpose of the program is crime prevention, human rights advocates have argued that it is an effort by the government to increase surveillance on dissidents, according to The Times. Romney left Bain Capital about 13 years ago, and his investments are managed in several blind trusts - two points that he immediately made to reporters when he was asked about the matter.