Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman was pleased to see President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet Nov. 14. He says this needs to occur more than every few years, during a China Town Hall sponsored by the National Committee on U.S. China Relations.
“Once every two years, once every three years, getting the heads of state together is not enough. The stakes are way too high and the issues have to be defined by way of an agenda,” he said. “We have to know exactly how that agenda matches our national interests, and we have to kind of reintroduce each other. It's been a long winter, so to speak, and China has gone through a lot of changes. They've made decisions that have made the relationship very difficult. I know they would point a finger at us for having done the same thing.
“So in that kind of climate, the personal interaction and those of the key staff members, I was pleased to read that (Secretary of State) Tony Blinken will lead an effort to maybe reengage at a senior cabinet level,” Huntsman added.
Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said audiences in more 80 venues throughout the United States, Canada and China took part in the organization’s 16th annual China Town Hall, held on Nov. 14. Huntsman and Orlins also took several questions from members of the audience.
“U.S.-China relations matter as the two most-important countries in the world. What our countries do has implications across the globe,” Orlins said. “The past few years have seen discord replace diplomacy, while areas for cooperation have decreased. Whether it’s soaring inflation, pandemic prevention, climate change or Russia's invasion of Ukraine, our countries are safer and more prosperous when we work together."
He said Huntsman is one of the nation's “great public servants” and a friend whom he appreciated having the chance to speak with about these issues.
Huntsman, 62, was elected governor of Utah in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. He also served as ambassador to Singapore, Russia and China and was a 2012 Republican presidential candidate. Huntsman currently works as vice chair of policy for the Ford Co.
He said he is encouraged by recent political developments in the United States, and thinks they could bode well for U.S.-China relations.
“And as a practitioner, not an expert, but as a practitioner in the world of politics and international affairs, I'd have to say that the outcome of the midterm election was a good one,” Huntsman said. “I say that because I think the balance between both parties [means] you don't have extremist factions on one side or the other that are going to dominate in the House of Representatives, specifically."
Huntsman said he hopes cooler heads prevail in Congress, with a focus on how best to improve relations between the two nations.
“Having President Biden meet with Xi Jinping in person, first time in a couple of years, look at all of the the events that have played out in the last two years, pandemic, war in Europe, energy crises, inflation, economic spirals, and then the overall deterioration in the bilateral relationship, the most important the world has ever known,” Huntsman said.
Still, he said change will happen gradually.
“The stakes are so high in so many areas that having a conduit by which we can sit down and talk, not that we should expect immediate results. I don't think we're going to see any immediate results. I think the relationship is just too calcified. It's too frozen right now,” Huntsman said. “But where do you start? This is a people's game. I mean, diplomacy is a people's game. It can't work any other way. You can't rely on technology. You can't rely on intermediaries. You have to just roll up your sleeves and get it done. So in a sense, we're starting with a fresh piece of paper in a new environment that is highly charged, that is way more complicated than it was before.”
Huntsman was asked what has surprised him about how Xi has acted in recent years.
“I'm always surprised about what I see and experience in China. I was surprised by by Deng Xiaoping's opening and reform commitments,” he said. “I mean, who would have guessed that that soon after the death of Mao Zedong and the kind of abolishment of the Gang of Four, literally years after the Cultural Revolution ended, that you'd have that kind of opening?”
He said Xi’s decision to serve a third term was a mistake, in his view.
“I think that leads to drift. I think it keeps the fifth and the sixth generations of leadership off the playing field, which would have allowed a new infusion of ideas and energy into the system,” Huntsman said. “So, yeah, I've been surprised by a number of things — but nothing in China surprises me.”
He noted how drought is increasingly a concern in the western United States.
“Well, guess what? China has the same problem. So if you just kind of scratch the surface a little bit, you'll find that the China has some very severe water shortage problems. So what are we doing about that? Who's coming up with solutions and fixes?” he asked rhetorically. “Well, working together, we can probably find better ways forward in terms of how we deal with something as important as water, education, health care, transportation. I found as I met with governors of provinces in China, instinctively we would speak the same language because we're working on the same thing. You're working on issues that deal with your people.”
Huntsman said local politicians have to overcome concerns that that will be damaged by working with China.
“I think in this case, we have to put people first and say what's best for our citizens,” he said.
Huntsman said he wants to see more attention paid to the issue of nuclear weapons. The United States held such talks with the Soviet Union for half a century, and President Barack Obama helped ease tensions by reducing the number of strategic nuclear weapons and delivery systems that can be deployed.
“We've never had such conversations with China, largely because, as they would say, we don't have 4,000 or 5,000 weapons, and when we do, we'll come knocking,” he said. “Well, I think that's a disingenuous answer, because nuclear weapons are nuclear weapons. They can wreak havoc and destruction and destroy the planet. And to me, that is the most existential threat that we have in the relationship.
“So part of an extension of managing a bilateral relationship based upon our interests, right at the top of that list should be nuclear weapons,” Huntsman said. “And what we do about it in terms of understanding what the aspirations are — both sides — nuclear safety, strategic stability, proliferation, issues of safety, protocols around transportation, researching and testing. There's so much to it that we have not even started. The journey has even begun. And that is my hope is that whatever list is being made between the United States and China, that strategic stability is right there at the top.”
He said it’s important to understand China’s inherent sense of unease and worry about war.
“We've been given in the United States a greatest blessing in the world. Geographically, we have the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the two most impenetrable barriers any country has in the world. Canada has been a partner, an ally. And Mexico, we have a good trading and diplomatic relationship with,” Huntsman said. “China, on the other hand, is surrounded by a dozen countries. Domestically, it's a patchwork of provinces and an autonomous regions. But I think it's China's recent history that really tells the story. We had obviously a bloody civil war back in the 1860s. But when you look more recently at China's trajectory, you see things like the Great Leap Forward. You see things like the Cultural Revolution. You see things like what happened in June of 1989, the Tiananmen Square uprising. So domestic stability is a real concern and traditionally has been in China.
Orlins said Biden, at his news conference after the meeting with Xi, said China is not prepared to imminently invade Taiwan.
“There's been a lot of discussion among think-tankers, among the U.S. military, that they now have a timetable for that,” he said. “Do you agree with Biden?”
Huntsman said he does.
“That doesn't surprise me at all. It's an assumption I've been operating under for quite some time. I’ve lived in both sides. I've lived in Taiwan twice. I've known it from the days of martial law back in the late 1970s,” he said. “I don't think there's an immediate threat there. Of course, in politics, people in power are required to say certain things to appease certain factions of their political movement. That's just a given. And then you have to take a step back and say, OK, what is the reality here? And I think the reality is more in line with what the president has said.
