Americans should not fear that China will overtake the U.S. economy, former Ambassador Jon Huntsman told Southern New Hampshire University students on Saturday.
“You hear how the Chinese economy is going to swamp us. Don’t believe it,” said Huntsman, who is in the middle of a five-day tour of the first-in-the-nation primary state as he mulls a bid for president in 2012. “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."
It’s an optimistic theme he’s already hit on a number of times during his visits in homes and restaurants here. From 10,000 miles away in Beijing — where he was living until late April, when he resigned as the American ambassador there — Huntsman says America appears more promising than the depressed economic mood at home reflects.
“Here at home, listening to cable news 24/7, it’s easy to forget that our nation still pulses with a vital, life-enriching energy that comes from the very freedom we breathe,” Huntsman said in his speech. “The dissidents around the world see this. Sometimes we are too close to appreciate its impact.”
Huntsman is receiving an honorary doctorate degree from SNHU.
Huntsman also included calls for political civility, invoking Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in January at a Tucson, Ariz., supermarket as she met with constituents.
“If we Americans remain civil to each other, we can deal with our problems, including the debt crisis that is hanging over us,” Huntsman said. “After the shooting in Tucson when Rep. Giffords was injured, we talked seriously about civility. Many Republicans and Democrats even sat together at the State of the Union.”
Huntsman’s Saturday schedule also includes a stop in Hooksett at a local gun shop and a country store, and a speech to the county GOP in Windham. He’s staying in New Hampshire through Monday morning, and is scheduled to attend two more house parties and stop at another local restaurant before he leaves.
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