The announcement earlier this week by US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman that he was resigning from his post to seek the Republican Party’s nomination for the presidential election next year could have substantial implications for Washington’s Taiwan policy.
A billionaire and former governor of Utah, Huntsman was a Mormon missionary in Taiwan from 1987 to 1988 and is said to be fluent in Mandarin and Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese).
While it is far too early to speculate on Huntsman’s chances of winning his party’s nomination, his political campaign could bring issues concerning Taiwan to the fore.
Political insiders said he would formally announce his candidacy late this summer.
Huntsman, 50, told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearings in July 2009 that Taiwan, human rights and Tibet were major problem areas between the US and Beijing and that he expected “robust engagement” on these issues.
He said he felt “personally invested in the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences, in a way that respects the wishes of the people on both Taiwan and the mainland.”
Huntsman said US policy “supports this objective and I have been encouraged by the recent relaxing of cross-strait tensions.”
Some sources say US President Barack Obama considers Huntsman a formidable opponent and potentially the most difficult-to-defeat candidate the Republicans could field.
US media said Obama appointed Huntsman as ambassador to China in the first place because he believed it would take him out of the presidential race next year, when Obama will be running for a second term.
The attractive and charismatic Huntsman also has a certain star quality that most of the other Republican hopefuls seem to lack.
However, winning the nomination will be an uphill battle because the Republican Party is heavily influenced by conservative Christians who are very wary of Mormons, who don’t like the fact that Huntsman has worked for Obama and who decry the ambassador’s moderate stance on key social issues such as immigration.
The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Huntsman would be returning to Washington in April and the New York Times said he was going to explore “a potential 2012 Republican presidential bid.”
Huntsman, a former ambassador to Singapore, has seven children, including an adopted daughter from China who was abandoned in a vegetable market in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province.
His fortune comes from the family plastics business, Huntsman Corp.
A Wall Street Journal report said that in 1971, as an 11-year-old, Huntsman accompanied his father, a plastics tycoon and special assistant to then-US president Richard Nixon, to the White House and met then-national security adviser Henry Kissinger as he was heading to the airport on a secret mission to open diplomatic contact with China.
Huntsman recalls being allowed to carry Kissinger’s briefcase to a waiting car.
His campaign for the presidency is almost certain to make a major issue of China policy and arms sales to Taiwan, which he is believed to support.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of