Arrival in Beijing

Remarks by Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China
Press Gathering at the Ambassador’s Residence
Beijing, China, August 22, 2009

PAO SKIPPER:  Good afternoon, everyone.  Thank you very much for coming this afternoon.  My name is Tom Skipper.  I’m the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy.   It is my great pleasure to introduce to you this afternoon our new ambassador, Jon Huntsman.

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:  Thank you, Tom.  [In Chinese]  I’ve heard that every day is this beautiful here in Beijing.  We’re very pleased to have come here and especially pleased to represent the United States and President Obama.  Today I’d like to introduce my family to you.

[In English] We’re delighted today as a family representing the United States of America as the new United States Ambassador to China.  We arrived last night and the work began today.  There’s much to be done, and we’re delighted to be able to hit the ground running, as they say.  Our family is very happy to be here.

[In Chinese]  In Chinese history, there’s an old saying from 2000 years ago, from the Han Dynasty, that says “When the family is happy, than all is well under heaven.”  And I can you all that today, my family is already happy.  My family is happy to have come here to provide service and represent our country.

[In English] There is much happening this year in U.S.-China relations.  We’re all very mindful of that.  We have the 30th anniversary of the U.S.-China relationship.  We of course have the 60th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China.  We have President Obama, who is going to be visiting in the middle of November.  And so I am here to tell you that by the end of the year, we should be in better shape than ever before between the United States and China, to be able to anticipate a positive tomorrow, anticipating all of the challenges and shared interests, which are many.  By the end of the year, after the President has been able to sit down many of the good leaders here in China, I am hopeful – I am confident – that by the end of the year, the U.S.-China relationship will be stronger than ever before.

At this point, I would like to -- [In Chinese] Now I would like to introduce my family to you.  Now Asha is our daughter adopted from India.  She can’t really speak Chinese, but she will start studying soon. 

[In English, to Asha]  You want to say hi?

ASHA:  No!  (Laughter.)

AMBASSADOR HUNSTMAN:  [In Chinese]  Today for lunch, she had her first authentic Chinese meal, and we discovered that she likes spicy food.

This is Gracie May.  Gracie May is from Yangzhou.  China has an expression that Yangzhou produces pretty girls.  You can see that she is very pretty, very beautiful.  She will also start studying Chinese.  She might tomorrow or the day after start her studies.

[In English, to Gracie]  I just said that probably in the next day or two you’re going to study Chinese, you’re going to start studying.  Is that right?  (Gracie nods.)  We have her promise.

[In Chinese]  Our oldest daughter is Mary Anne.  Now, Mary Anne is also very pretty, but until now, she still doesn’t have a boyfriend.  [In English, to Mary Anne]  I said you don’t have a boyfriend.  (Laughter.  Mary Anne groans.)  I’m in trouble now.

[In Chinese]  She can also play the piano, she’s a concert pianist.  In a moment, we’ll invite you into the residence so that you can hear her play.

[In English]  We’re very delighted to have Mary Anne here for a couple of months.  A couple of months after, she’ll probably be returning to the United States.  And finally…

This is my wife, Mary Kaye, who is originally from Florida, and my being originally from California, we come from both sides of the United States and we met somewhere in between.  We’ve been married luckily for 25 years.  We’re just very, very delighted together to be able to have this opportunity to represent the United States. 

We’ve just left the job as Governor of Utah, which is a great job and we’ve enjoyed it very much.  But when President Obama called us into his office and said, “Sometimes it’s important to rise above politics, to be able to put personal ambition off to the side in pursuit of things that are truly important for country, like the U.S.-China relationship, which we all believe to be the most important in the world.”  To that end, Mary Kaye and I are absolutely delighted along with our family members to be able to serve in that capacity.  [To Mary Kaye] Anything you’d like to say?

MRS. HUNTSMAN:  [Asha] wanted to say something first.

ASHA:  Hello.

MRS. HUNTSMAN:  She told me a moment ago that she was so excited because we were moving to China.  I told her we were already in China.  She’s so happy.

Our family is very humbled to be here.  I can’t think of a more exciting time to be in China than right now. We are so happy as a family to be here.  There are others that are not here with us right now who are back in the United States.  Of course, we miss them terribly, and they are very excited to come see us here in China.  Thank you for having us, and I think you’ll see a lot of the girls running around.  Please say hello if you see.  Thank you.

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:  If you have a couple of questions, I’d be happy to take them before moving on.

Q:  I am a journalist for (inaudible).com.  We have 300 million viewers.  Is there anything you want to say to Chinese netizens for my tweet?

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:   I would say through your tweet that there has never been a more important period for the United States and China to get along and to discover our shared interests.  We all know that from time to time we will disagree, but the world today more than ever before relies too much on a healthy and stable U.S.-China relationship, and part of that is the ability to communicate through the modern means – Twitter and other similar vehicles.  So those who are twittering out there, and those who are blogging – I know there are many, tens of millions of bloggers in this country – this communication revolution, this ability to keep each other informed on both sides of the Pacific and across the world, particularly for the younger generation.  Thank you.

Q:  [Question from LA Times on human rights.]

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:  As it relates to human rights, I’ve always believed that the human rights dialogue needs to be regularized and integrated into our broader discussion so that it isn’t just a once per year discussion, but rather an ongoing dialogue that is meaningful and that reflects our values as a country. 

Now, when you look at the issues that both countries will have to look at now carefully and properly -- and comprehensively, I might add -- there are issues like the energy and climate, the global economy -- because so much of not only the region but indeed the world depend upon the United States and China trading and investing in each other freely -- and finally the regional security issues like North Korea and collaborating on issues like Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iran.  These are complex issues.  They are not going to be resolved easily.  But in order to get to where we all know we can be in terms of priming resolution for greater harmony in the world, it’s going to take the United States and China working diligently on them.  I wish I could say that there was an easy recipe or an easy way forward on them.  There isn’t.  And which each of those issues I just outlined, it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of good will displayed on both sides, and a lot of collaboration.  

I’ll take one more.  Yes, ma’am.

Q:  [Question on the trade relations.]

AMBASSADOR HUNTSMAN:  Any plans on Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations?  I would tell you, as it relates to the trade and economic relationship, we’ve noticed – and these folks who have watched the U.S.-China relationship for many years – that the Strategic and Economic Dialogue has now been given a very high profile between our countries.  In fact, I participated in the last one in Washington just a few short weeks ago, and President Obama was personally involved with kicking it off.  I think that’s quite unprecedented.  I would tell you that in these very important areas of trade and economic relations that more and more will likely be put within the context of this dialogue, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue.  We have the JCCT meeting coming up, and of course when the President is here, these are issues that he is going to want to talk about. 

I think if we do things right, the Strategic and Economic Dialogue will probably represent the most important level of discourse and discussion and problem solving for the issues of economics and trade.  And gladly, it’s working.  We’ve had a lot of interaction now over 30 years, and I don’t know that we’ve ever reached a point in time where we’ve had an ongoing dialogue at the senior-most level that shows as much promise as the S&ED.

Thank you all very much.  What I’d love to do, without sounding hokey, is that if you want to come into Yi Ban and take a look inside.  You can listen to Mary Anne play the piano.  She doesn’t charge.  She’s free.  But you can leave her a tip of course if you’d like.  Take a look around and feel at home.  We’ll see you inside.

Thank you.  Thank you for coming out today.

 

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