Jon Huntsman

As expected when Jon Huntsman resigned his post as ambassador to China, the former governor will launch his campaign for the Republican nomination next week.

Huntsman is a moderate Republican. He supports gay civil unions, but not gay marriage. He supported funding for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. He supported cap and trade as a response to climate change. He supported private school vouchers.

Fiscally he is fairly conservative. As Utah governor: a statewide flat tax and business incentives.

Time magazine rated him as very slightly ahead of Tim Pawlenty, mostly because he has a more dominant personality, but still behind Mitt Romney who has far more name recognition.

He is known to personally get along with Barack Obama, and he did take the critical ambassadorship post under the Democratic administration.

Clearly as more of moderate, he might be appealing to voters who are upset with the fiscal situation of the country, but don't buy into the social agenda of some Republicans. Like the McCain-Obama rivalry personal attacks would be at a minimum.

I think he is my favorite in the GOP primary so far, mostly by default.

He is by far the most interesting candidate on both sides. He is a Republican and Mormon but has the ability to be in the opposite to both. Pro Same sex unions, pro teachers, really for small government. Very interesting. Looks like he has ideas not just policy.

I admit that I didn't know much about him. But he is out of the ordinary. His father seems to be fairly remarkable philanthropist as well (see article).
I was surprised to see that 3 out of 8 of ambassadors to China were either children of missionaries, or missionaries themselves. The current nominee is a Chinese American and an ex-governor of Washington State.

Quote: Forbes Magazine

Jon Huntsman On Giving Away $1.2 Billion
David Whelan, 06.06.11, 6:00 PM ET
In 1992 Jon Huntsman Sr. returned from a checkup with a bad diagnosis. He had prostate cancer. On the way to the hospital for treatment he made three stops. First he dropped by a homeless shelter and left a check for $1 million. Then the chemicals mogul stopped at a soup kitchen and handed over another check for $1 million. "The priest almost fainted," he says. And finally, he dropped off a check for $500,000 at the clinic that had found the malignancy.
...

Huntsman has so far given away $1.2 billion during his lifetime. Donations to his cancer foundation knocked him off The Forbes 400 list last year. But a run-up in his company stock should put his net worth near $1 billion again this year. He says he plans to give it all away before he dies.
...

Meanwhile, the family's profile grew. Huntsman's eldest son, Jon Huntsman Jr., served as governor of Utah, then U.S. Ambassador to China and is now considering a run for President. In 2009 Warren Buffett invited Huntsman to sign the Giving Pledge. Huntsman replied: "You don't have the formula right. It should be 80%. Why should someone who has $5 billion only give away $2.5 billion? They can't take it with them."

I really am ignorant of this language. Apparently most of the 2 million speakers of Chinese in America speak Yue (Cantonese) Chinese, from Hong Kong area. Jon Huntsman speaks Mandarin.

Quote: pacomartin

I really am ignorant of this language. Apparently most of the 2 million speakers of Chinese in America speak Yue (Cantonese) Chinese, from Hong Kong area. Jon Huntsman speaks Mandarin.

Chinese is a language I know a fair bit about. Not that I can speak it, but I can tell Mandarin from Cantonese when I hear it. I've been to China five times, and have annoyed the locals there with my language questions all five times. Much as I'm torturing the site with my terrible understanding of Spanish now. While there are way more than ten dialects (there have got to be in the hundreds of them), almost all are closely based on Mardarin. Only in and hear Hong Kong will you hear Cantonese. Granted, much of the early Chinese immigration came from around Hong Kong.

In overhearing Chinese in the US, I would estimate that about 80% of the time it is Mandarin or a close variant of it, with the other 20% Cantonese. Also, Cantonese speakers usually can speak Mandarin too, but not vise-versa.

Getting back to the point, anyone learning Chinese here would almost certainly be studying Mardarin, as well they should be.

99% of the players at the card room I work at speak Cantonese, as do the employees. I have been trying to learn some, but I am really struggling with the pronunciation.

Quote: Wizard

In overhearing Chinese in the US, I would estimate that about 80% of the time it is Mandarin or a close variant of it, with the other 20% Cantonese. Also, Cantonese speakers usually can speak Mandarin too, but not vise-versa.Getting back to the point, anyone learning Chinese here would almost certainly be studying Mardarin, as well they should be.

I read the following statements:

In the United States, the majority of people with Chinese background has historically been Cantonese and has spoken that dialect. However, times have changed.

Chinese, mostly of the Cantonese variety, is the third most-spoken language in the United States, almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California. Many young Americans not of Chinese descent have become interested in learning the language, specifically Mandarin, the official spoken language in the People's Republic of China. Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese, with the Mandarin variety becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening up of the PRC. In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only 10% of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca.

So it sounds like if you are talking to middle aged or older Chinese people in America you can normally expect Cantonese, but younger people will speak Mandarin.

The selection of an ambassador to China seems to be difficult because of the trouble in finding candidates that speak the language. As I said earlier, 3 of 8 ambassadors since Nixon have a missionary background. In the past , some of them did not speak Chinese (although I think the relationship has grown too important for that). Now with some Mandarin speakers coming through the ranks of politics, it may be easier.

Even when Obama appointed Jon Huntsman to be ambassador back in August 2009, he was aware that he was a good candidate for the Republican nomination for 2012. His name was already on the short list.