Jon Huntsman Sees Big Trouble In China

UPDATE: Jon Huntsman entered his party’s 2012 presidential race on Tuesday pledging to make the “hard decisions” to deal with America’s debt.

It’s a toss-up whether Jon Huntsman is better known as the former governor of Utah or as the Republican who President Obama appointed as his Ambassador to China.

Fact of the matter (and somewhat disturbingly), Huntsman is perhaps best known as the guy who introduced Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican National Convention. (“Hockey moms, unite!”)

Straw polls notwithstanding, only 35 percent of Republicans have even heard of Huntsman—and 36 percent of those voters said there was no chance they would vote for him.

Still, Huntsman, who will make his run for the White House official tomorrow, could be a viable GOP contender, albeit a long shot at this writing.

I’m not sure if his comments on China help. Huntsman predicted “major problems” ahead for China, as a rising standard of living increases awareness of political oppression and intensifies resistance to the government’s control.

As reported by The Huffington Post, Huntsman made the comment in a private conference call with university students across the U.S.
“There’s still that great divide between the economic class and the political class,” Huntsman said, according to a recording of the call obtained by HuffPo. “And at some point, as you get 300 and 400 million people who now become members of what will be the largest middle class in the world, they’re going to have to make some really tough choices about how you bridge the economic and the political chasm, which is not easily done.”
“If they don’t do it, they’re likely to have some sort of head-on collision, I would say four or five years into the future.”
While China’s economy has become more open, Huntsman said, the country’s internal political system lags far behind.

You can read the rest of Huntsman’s published comments here.