Jon Huntsman, Jr. U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China Roundtable with Hunan Media
Jon Huntsman, Jr.
U.S. Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China
Roundtable with Hunan Media
February 10, 2011
Changsha, Hunan Province
Ambassador Huntsman: Thank you. We’ll go ahead and start. Whatever you’d like. We’ll kind of go from there, if that’s okay.
Press: I want to ask you the first question, and thank you for this opportunity. I’m the Hunan Economic [inaudible] Press.
In China we have an expression. [Inaudible] post ’93 [inaudible] young people in China. Energetic and a lot of expectations. I don’t know if you have a similar expression in America, Mr. Ambassador. Let me ask you what are your expectations and hopes of the young people in China?
Ambassador Huntsman: My expectations for the young people in China are that they’re able to maintain a grounded and proper understanding of who we are as Americans. I’ve noticed like with my son Will and the same with young people here in China. There’s so much information to access and so many sources from which to access the information that you go from one thing to another to another very quickly.
So you take a little information here and a little information there and sometimes you fail to stop and think and analyze for a long period of time the complexity of Chinese culture and history for Americans, and then for Chinese young people, the complexity and importance of American history. Sometimes that’s counter-intuitive. You have to sit and study and think for a long period of time.
My hope would be that more and more young people would take that study of culture and history of Americans seriously, and I would hope for the same thing among American young people.
Press: It means future of the nation, yes?
Ambassador Huntsman: Yeah. That’s my hope, is that there will be a proper understanding of who we are in America, and that comes through a study of language, it comes through a study of culture and history. And in America my hope is the same with American young people. That’s the only way we’re going to ensure that there will be peace and prosperity through that kind of engagement. That is my hope.
Press: I’m from Hunan Television. Before here I served at a web site of Wikipedia.
In your young time you used to be a salesman or a postman. I want to know if that is true.
Ambassador Huntsman: A postman?
Press: Yeah.
Ambassador Huntsman: No.
Press: Did you do some work like that, or salesman?
Ambassador Huntsman: Yeah. I was a dishwasher.
Press: You experienced some jobs that --
Ambassador Huntsman: Many jobs.
Press: -- that may not be really interesting or be good at. Since you became the [U.S.] Ambassador in Singapore and you became the right way for your life. Any suggestions for the young people both in China and America? In what ways they can find their right way, their life way?
Ambassador Huntsman: I don’t know if I found my right way. I have a job. I’m very grateful to have a job.
But I would say young people need to follow their heart because every young person, and I tell people in America, young people, every young person is good at something. They’re a genius at doing something, and they need to find what they’re very good at and follow it. It’s called following your heart, following your passion. I see all these young people here in this auditorium, and I look at all of them and I know there is enormous power and capability sitting in that room, and in many cases the young people haven’t discovered what they love to do.
Press: So where the power, your power come from?
Ambassador Huntsman: Following your heart. Serving other people. Others have made famous comments about serving other people, and I have found great satisfaction in public service.
Press: You mentioned the importance of inter-cultural communication in your speech. And we recently noticed that the Tiger mothers’ parenting philosophy, Amy Chui, right? Sparked a great debate in both U.S. and China. We also know that you and your family adopt a Chinese girl, a little girl in your family as your own daughter. We wonder your philosophy in parenting. Like raise up a Chinese girl in totally different background, and how do you practice your philosophy in parenting?
And it is still spring festival in China. We also hope you can prepare some greetings for our friends in Hunan Province via video, our most famous website.
Ambassador Huntsman: Happy New year. It’s the Year of the Rabbit, and whenever there’s a beginning of a year it’s a new start, it’s a fresh start, so for most people it’s a very important new beginning. So I sense there are a lot of people in China who are ready to start a new year and pursue new goals and objectives.
With respect to my daughter Gracie, we have a daughter from China and we have a daughter from India. Both are lingyang, they’re both adopted. What I’ve come to realize and what my wife has come to realize, she reminds me of this all the time, is that no matter where you come from, whether China or India, everyone has a heart. Everyone’s heart is the same. And everyone wants the same thing in life. They want a good education, they want a good job, they want to pursue their dreams and their goals. It doesn’t matter where you come from. So giving someone opportunity to pursue their goals, their dreams, is I think one of the greatest aspirations for any individual, whether it’s in the United States or whether it’s here in China.
So our hope with our little daughter Gracie and our little daughter from India, the same as our other children, is that someday they’ll be able to pursue their dreams. Gracie wants to be an artist. That’s her dream. I think if she were raised here instead of America, she would still want to be an artist. So our job as her parents is to make sure that she’s able to pursue her dream.
Press: So you must be in parenting encourage the children to do what they are dreaming to do.
Ambassador Huntsman: Encourage them to find what they love in life and what they’re good at doing. So long as it helps other people, that’s a good thing.
Press: Looking back at U.S.-China relations, going back to the time of President Nixon and establishing normal relations with China and then we entered the state of relationship in the 21st century with strategic partnership, of overall comprehensive cooperation, and then President Hu and President Obama are talking about the next stage of cooperation, initial respect, win-win, mutual benefit. But as you know there have also been twists and turns in the relationship and swings in the policy. So I’m wondering, Mr. Ambassador, the next stage of the U.S.-China relationship, what do you plan to do in terms of concrete actions to guarantee stability and continuity in the relationship as desired by both of our Presidents?
Ambassador Huntsman: It’s not just what the United States is doing, it’s what both countries are doing. We have a relationship that relies on both countries taking steps that enhance trust, deepen trust, and expand our dialogue in ways that improve the region and the world.
The thing that is different today as compared to earlier years, and certainly when President Nixon visited in 1972, is that the U.S.-China relationship has gone global. The implications of our cooperation are global, unlike any other time in history, if you understand what I’m saying. Before it was always bilateral -- trade, discussions on human rights and issues back and forth. Today we have the same issues but we also have global issues like problem solving around nuclear proliferation and weapons development in Iran, stability on the Korean Peninsula, international economic rebalancing. All of these are very significant and challenging global issues that weren’t part of the relationship in the early years.
So this more than anything else will mark the future of the U.S.-China relationship. It means we need to put in place the building blocks on both sides that allow us to understand the global implications of the U.S.-China relationship.
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