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Obama China pick vows clear-eyed approach

By Olivier Knox | AFP

US President Barack Obama (L) chats with his nominee to be ambassador to China, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman at the White House in May 2009 in Washington, DC. Huntsman, is fluent in Mandarin and Taiwanese, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the sometimes difficult 30-year diplomatic relationship was in “an exceptionally exciting time.File photo/AFP/Mandel Ngan

US President Barack Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to China promised Thursday to bring a “hard-headed realist” approach to relations and said he felt personally invested in the fate of Taiwan.

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who is fluent in Mandarin and Taiwanese, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the sometimes difficult 30-year diplomatic relationship was in “an exceptionally exciting time.”

“But I also am a hard-headed realist about what it’s going to take to manage this relationship or being part of that team in circumnavigating the challenges ahead,” said Huntsman, 49, who is expected to win easy confirmation.

The governor, who had been floated as a possible 2012 Republican challenger to Obama, said he would work to improve Sino-US economic and military relations and bolster cooperation on issues like climate change and North Korea.

“We need to continue working closely with China to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme,” Huntsman said, just hours after the Stalinist regime declared denuclearisation talks dead.

But Huntsman named Taiwan, human rights, Tibet among “areas where we have differences with China” and vowed “robust engagement” on human rights if confirmed.

The governor, who lived in Taiwan as a Mormon missionary, 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.”

He said that current US policy “supports this objecting, and I have been encouraged by the recent relaxing of cross-strait tensions.”

The governor received warm praise from senators of both parties, and the committee was expected to refer his nomination to the full Senate quickly for possible confirmation before lawmakers leave for a month-long recess 7 August.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have taken on rising importance in the last decade as China has embraced its role as a leading global economy and has pushed for regional security amid tense standoffs with North Korea.

The situation of Taiwan, a democratically-ruled island claimed by China, has long been one of the most sensitive issues in Sino-US relations.

Taiwan and the mainland have been governed separately since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but Beijing sees the island as part of its territory that is awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

Both sides have protectively stationed vast weaponry on their own sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Asked about persistent US complaints that China’s currency is artificially cheap, giving its exports a boost, Huntsman said Beijing had made progress on trade imbalances and on the value of its money.

“It is our every hope and desire and, indeed, our intent at the negotiating table to ensure that progress is made in this particular area,” said the governor.

He also said he hoped that Beijing would curb arms sales to conflict-ravaged areas of Africa and urged China to “work with us to address governance and development concerns in places like Sudan, Burma (Myanmar) and Zimbabwe.”

There were moments of levity, too, as when Huntsman acknowledged senators’ praise and declared: “I hope I do as well at my funeral. I’m not sure that I will.”

The governor, a former ambassador to Singapore, noted that he had two adopted daughters, one from China and one from India, and quipped: “Happily, no border disputes yet surrounding their bedrooms.”

Copyright © 2009 AFP

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