WASHINGTON , February 01, 2011:US Ambassador to China Jon M Huntsman Jr has resigned, amid reports that he is likely to challenge Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential polls. Huntsman, 50, hand delivered his resignation letter to the White House on Tuesday in which he said that he wants to return to his home state Utah by May.
He will step down from his post in April. Earlier in the day, outgoing White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Huntsman, a Republican, had hinted that he would leave his present assignment and that a search to find a replacement for him had already begun.
“Ambassador Huntsman has told a number told several people inside this building that he plans to leave in the first part of during the first part of this year,” Gibbs said. “When the (US) President picked him in 2009, it was because we believed, and continue to believe, he brings a broad range of experience to an extremely important ambassadorial post with one of our most important relationships in the world. The President continues to believe that,” he said.
The Washington Post reported that Huntsman has resigned in possible preparation for a presidential bid against his boss, Obama, in the 2012 polls. Huntsman resigned from his governorship of Utah in 2009 after Obama named him as ambassador to China.
“The President and I think the American people, expect that somebody that holds the post of ambassador from the United States to China would dedicate their full energy and time to that position. And we believe that Ambassador Huntsman believes that as well,” Gibbs said in response to a question.
In an interview to Newsweek in December last year, Huntsman had said: “You know, I’m really focused on what we’re doing in our current position… But we won’t do this forever, and I think we may have one final run left in our bones.”
Huntsman, who is fluent in Mandarin, has played a crucial role in shaping the China policy of the Obama Administration.
- By KOL News , Written on February 1, 2011
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