Charlie Rose

BENEZRAA  02/20/2012 03:28 PM Report

HUNTSMAN IS A NICE GUY...

Who no longer has his previous job, ostensibly by choice to make a run for the Presidency; more likely, the Chinese ate him for breakfast and lunch. So the question going forwards is, "What's for dinner?"

A view was stated that China is surrounded by monster powers. Respectfully, Japan today is not a monster power, Russia is China's major ally, and China is the monster, aggressive power in the region and beyond the region. It is China that continually tests India directly and indirectly; it is China that continually tests Indochina; it is China that occupies and oppresses and robs Tibet and Siankiang; it is China that along with Russia supports the Assad regime in Syria and the Ahmadinijad regime in Iran; it is China that stands to benefit by the pipeline that Ahmadinijad seeks to build through Pakistan (Pakistan is contiguous to China and to Kashmir of which China is one of the three disputing occupiers).

It is true that China may have an historical memory of Western and Japanese occupation and that this may create a psycho-pathology by which China has become the worldwide octopus that it is today. If reason can reach the leaders of China, perhaps the Chinese violence may be toned down; China has re-established it's place in the world; it is time the Chinese returned Tibet and Siankiang to their own respective autonomies, and it is time the Chinese stopped feeding Ahmadinijad and Assad.

Gelles  02/17/2012 02:37 AM Report

Shalom Friedman writes:

"Where are the 'values' in the U.S. long- term relationship with one of the most backward anti- democratic regimes on earth that of Saudi Arabia?"

Saudi Arabia is spoken of today by pundits on American TV as a possible ally against nuclear arms for Iran -- an ally who prefers Iran to remain no stronger than it is and whose cooperation may prove to be decisive in preventing a far worse outcome than if America were not its friend.

To date, I have bought that version of the Middle East balance of power.

hari  02/16/2012 10:57 AM Report

There is a missing link - for old China-hands - about the future relations with mainland China's neighbours like Russia, India and Japan.

I think the relations with India will ultimately prove to be the most critical, and as long as their common Hiamalyan boundaries (of Old Imperial Britain!) are not de jure fixed - one way or another - the chances of military conflagration remains potentially unsettling.

PLA and Indian Army look at their common boarders with different historical perspectives, which in light of domestric politics in the subcontinent is not easy to contain, methinks.

ShalomFreedman  02/16/2012 10:19 AM Report

I would tend to agree with Mr. Gelles in regard to John Huntsman intelligent and pleasant manner. I also learned from his analysis of the Chinese political situation with first priority being regime stability. His noting that seven hundred million Chinese still live in 'poverty' is to the non- expert a true eye- opener as we have been inundated with the story of China's growth, economic success, massive foreign currency reserves. I would also agree in part with Mr. Huntsman's claim that U.S. policy is driven by a sense of 'values' but it is also driven very much by self- interest. Where are the 'values' in the U.S. long- term relationship with one of the most backward anti- democratic regimes on earth that of Saudi Arabia?

Jon Huntsman did not discuss another major issue, the question of whether China constitutes any kind of future military threat to the U.S. I would too have liked to hear more of ways the U.S. and China might cooperate globally.

Gelles  02/16/2012 06:34 AM Report

Jon Huntsman and Charlie Rose present the picture of our future relations with China, the nation, and China as home of more people than other nations and, recently, more industrial growth than other nations. It is a nation with 700 hundred million poor people (they mentioned), and with monster powers on all sides -- Russia, India, Japan, and South East Asia with Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and the huge potential beneath the China Sea.

In other words, China needs America to be its friend, relative to its neighbors and their jealousies; and it also hates America for being unfriendly at times and for being its rival to some degree for power in the Pacific and seas and oceans that it borders and in politics where nations come together to establish limits on each others influence.

Huntsman's intelligent manner and quiet style are very attractive. He seems not to be a "know it all", like Kissinger, and not to be the financial player that Kissinger Associates appears to be to people "out of the know", like me.

We were told by our best military minds at the end of WW II not to engage in a land war in Asia. And we did not. Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia were wars at Asia's edge. They proved we were not meant to conquer the spaces that Europeans had not been able to populate. (This includes the non-Asian continents, as well, where we were supposed to bring civilization and republics not occupying armies.)

Now, says Huntsman, we offer human rights and free markets as an example for others to follow. How true is this -- and how far would it go if at home we present for others to inspect our prisons and our poverty?

Still, I like Huntsman. And I would like to see all our poor made rich and all in prison set free (with high tech restraints where necessary to keep them good or, if bad, kept away from good people they would harm if possible.) Then, if China were not our friend, Huntsman might be the type to win them over.

War, by the way, with Russia or China, is not a sensible desire. The present war with Islam is quite enough for the current century.

This interview with Huntsman and its other parts with Kissinger and Kagan, is one of my favorites among all the TV faire available today.

jason  02/15/2012 07:43 PM Report

i think Huntsman has good understanding of China. what he lacks is the ability to articulate his assessment in a higher strategic level. this i agree with "tabs" that Huntsman came across like a "workman rendition" as opposed to Kissinger, at a higher level, strategic view.

laupan  02/15/2012 04:24 PM Report

Mr. Huntsman was not in China long enough to develop a deep understanding of China and her history. You need to be a student of many years like Mr. Kissinger to get to that point. However he has been involved with China longer than 95% of America’s Population so has more knowledge than most westerners and having adopted a daughter from China he has skin in the game, more than the majority of Americans. More than Timmy Geitner!

tabs  02/15/2012 02:00 PM Report

Mr Huntsmans assessment of Chinese leadership and concerns was a workman like rendition.

Mr Huntsman was correct about the Chinese and there long historical memories, but he did betray his lack of knowledge when he recited that it was the Boxer rebellion that the Chinese look to when thinking about internal stability. It was the Tai Ping Rebellion and it's leader Jesus's Younger Borther Hong in the 1850's and 60's that the Chinese leadership has nightmares about. Further they remember it was the Barbarian Gordon who sacked and burned the symbol of Chinese imperial power and culture, the Smmmer Palace during the Second Opium war in 1861.