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.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS