BEIJING — Jon Huntsman is a savvy operator who knows how to work a crowd. But it was someone in a crowd who worked Huntsman on a bitterly cold Sunday last month when the U.S. envoy to China was seen at a small anti-government protest in Beijing."Mr. Ambassador, why are you here?" an unidentified Chinese man called out to Huntsman, who is thinking about running for the White House in 2012. "Just taking a look," replied the silver-haired Huntsman in Chinese, wearing sunglasses and a brown leather jacket with an American flag patch sewn on the shoulder.
"That's not possible," Huntsman replied, smiling, before moving on through a crowd of passers-by who watched police disperse 100 people who had heeded Internet calls for Chinese protests following demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East.
Although U.S. officials said Huntsman was out shopping and coincidentally stumbled upon the gathering, the encounter with ordinary Chinese was typical of an envoy who has often delved beyond diplomatic circles during his two-year tenure in China.
His appearance at the protest -- which Chinese police dispersed before it really began -- was also consistent with the independent-minded personality of a man who declined to endorse a fellow Mormon from Utah, Mitt Romney, in the 2008 presidential election to back John McCain who had a media reputation as a "maverick."
The former Utah governor certainly bucked the Republican establishment when he accepted Democratic President Barack Obama's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to China, when the president was looking to recruit Republicans into his administration after a bitterly divisive election.
But he has had a long-standing interest in China and the Far East. The 50-year-old who once dropped out of high school to play guitar in a rock band, is father of an adopted Chinese daughter and learned to speak Mandarin while on a Mormon mission to Taiwan during college. He was appointed U.S. ambassador to Singapore in 1992 at the age of 32, becoming the youngest head of a U.S. diplomatic mission in a century.
Huntsman has been spotted riding a bicycle to work and even to official meetings at the foreign ministry. He is often seen walking the streets of Beijing, taking the temperature of a society going through breath-taking change. Described as relatively laid-back and amiable, Huntsman has been raising his profile of late.
On Monday, the envoy condemned the mistreatment of foreign reporters who went to cover another planned protest after a U.S.-based Chinese website spread appeals for Chinese people to emulate the "Jasmine Revolution" sweeping the Middle East.
It was the third time in as many weeks Huntsman had set himself publicly against the ruling Chinese Communist Party's efforts to stamp out even the slightest murmur of dissent.
Huntsman will step down as ambassador on April 30, fuelling speculation he will make a run for the White House. His brother has said he would make a decision in a matter of weeks.
His campaign-in-waiting has launched a political action committee (websitewww.horizon-pac.com/) and fund-raising effort, with a somewhat ambiguous slogan, "Maybe Someday." Its stated aim is to support "a new generation of conservative leaders," but doesn't mention Huntsman's name.
0 Comments
Posts
