ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Ambassador Jon Huntsman will participate in a discussion on China with former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger on Tuesday, ABC News has learned. British journalist Harold Evans will moderate the luncheon, which will take place in New York City.
Huntsman was appointed Ambassador to China by President Obama in May 2009. He served for two years before returning to the United States last month, though rumors of a potential 2012 presidential run were circulating for months before his resignation.
"I never expected … to be called into action by the person who beat us," Huntsman said in his appointment speech, standing next to President Obama. "But I grew up understanding that the most basic responsibility one has is service to country. When the president of the United States asks you to step up and serve in a capacity like this, that, to me, is the end of the conversation."
Since his return, Huntsman has used his many experiences in China as a key talking point on the stump, telling the graduating class at Southern New Hampshire University, “You hear how the Chinese economy is going to swamp us. Don’t believe it.”
“China has its own problems. And we have our own strengths. I mean, there is a reason that Google was started in America and not Russia or Germany or China,” he said.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Huntsman emphasized the importance of sparking a new industrial revolution in America in order to match China’s recent economic achievements.
“China is on the move. They’ve had thirty years of eight, nine, 10 percent economic growth,” said Huntsman. “You walk the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, doesn’t matter where, people are euphoric, they are giddy with pride at what they’ve been able to do economically.”
“We are not making the most of our innate indigenous resources here,” he continued. “And it has everything to do with the environment that has been created in this country, which is not pro-growth. It is moving in the opposite direction. And that must be reversed, and it’s going to take tax reform, and it’s going to take regulatory reform. It’s going to take a serious move toward energy independence, and…a reflection on our relative position in the world, to look at where we are, to analyze it carefully, to say the most important thing for foreign policy that we could be doing right now is to build our core right here at home.”
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
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