US President Barack Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to China promised on 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 Hoklo, 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.
PHOTO: AP
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 such as climate change and North Korea.
“We need to continue working closely with China to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program,” Huntsman said, just hours after Pyongyang declared denuclearization talks dead.
However, Huntsman named Taiwan, human rights and Tibet among the “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 objective, 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 confirmation before lawmakers leave for a month-long recess on Aug. 7.
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.
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,” the governor said.
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 Utah 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.”
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,