Ex-China envoy Huntsman to launch White House bid

NEW YORK: Ex-US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman makes his White House bid official on Tuesday, while his handling of arguably the most crucial US diplomatic relationship remains a double-edged sword among fellow Republicans.

Emulating conservative icon Ronald Reagan, Huntsman will formally declare his candidacy in a New Jersey state park that looks out at the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline scarred by the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Huntsman could invoke Reagan's September 1, 1980 speech, which included a memorable assault on then-incumbent Jimmy Carter over high unemployment, and assail President Barack Obama over the same issue.

"A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his," the Republican said -- a line already echoed by other candidates aiming to deny Obama a second term.

The former diplomat, who served in Reagan's White House, possesses what are widely considered to be the best foreign policy credentials of a crowded Republican field that has left cold many of the party's core voters.

Huntsman, 51, could say he is the best suited to get China to abandon what US politicians charge are unfair trade practices that stifle US job growth, notably charges of intellectual property theft and currency manipulation.

The former Utah governor, who won re-election in late 2008 by a stratospheric 78 percent of the vote before Obama tapped him as top envoy to Beijing, trails far behind Republican front-runner and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney.

But Huntsman is well regarded in China, due to his fluent Mandarin and the fact that one of his seven children, Gracie Mei, is adopted from China. He was also known for preferring his bicycle to chauffeur-driven armored limousines.

He helped Washington navigate a particularly thorny time in relations between the world's top two economies, during which they battled over everything from the yuan, trade to Taiwan and Internet freedom.

In secret diplomatic cables made public by the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, Huntsman says Washington should "embrace" China's rise, but charges Beijing's economic policies "blatantly tilt the playing field" against US firms.

Among Republicans, however, he is not well-known -- and among those who know his name, sizable numbers consider his work for the Obama administration in Beijing to be an unpardonable betrayal.

Obama has repeatedly spotlighted their relationship, vowing recently "to make sure that every primary voter knows it" and joking at Huntsman's expense during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington in January.

"I'm sure he will be very successful in whatever endeavors he chooses in the future, and I'm sure that him having worked so well with me will be a great asset in any Republican primary," Obama quipped.

Huntsman and his aides have countered that he was serving his country.

But he has also praised Obama's economic stimulus package, backed civil unions for gay couples, and supported a "cap-and-trade" plan to curb greenhouse gases blamed for global warming -- all targets of Republican scorn.

And some commentators say his Mormon faith could irk evangelical Christian voters who make up a key part of the Republican party base.

Huntsman, the motorcycle-riding son of a chemical company billionaire, could inject his own cash, giving him an edge over the crowded field of presumed and declared Republican contenders for the presidential nomination.

In a campaign message on Monday, his daughter Liddy promised that "the politics of placing blame and avoiding tough problems are coming to an end" and vowed that her father could bring about "a remarkably improved America."

"Dad's way is a better way: calm, reasonable, and thoughtful. Restoring America to greatness isn't about who can make the most noise, it's about being the most effective," she said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011