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Gov. Jon Huntsman has many ties to China. He's lived in the region several times, speaks fluent Mandarin and adopted a daughter from the country. Before the games, Eyewitness News sat down with him and talked about what it means for China to host the Olympics.
Huntsman says now that China is hosting the games, it means the country is ready to be a world leader. "This is China's opportunity to assume their position of responsibility on the world stage," he said.
Huntsman has been keeping a close eye on China and the Games as far back as a decade ago when the country first bid for the Olympics. "They competed for the 2000 Games and lost by two votes, and they blamed the United States," he said.
Sydney, Australia, won those games. It turns out two voters were bribed to vote for Australia, and China took it hard. "The loss of 2000 was such a deep humiliation for them," Huntsman said.
The country didn't bid for the 2004 Games, which were held in Athens, Greece. But China was ready to throw its hat back in the ring for 2008 and won overwhelmingly.
Huntsman says he believes hosting the Games is China's way of overcoming the past. "Really, it was a chance to overcome the stains of Tiananmen Square -- June of 1989, the crackdown of the students," Huntsman said.
He also says China watched and learned after neighboring countries Korea and Japan hosted the Olympics. "They say, ‘When did Japan really take off economically and began to really hit its stride on the world seen?' It was 1964," Huntsman said.
Now it's China's turn in the spotlight. "The Olympics will be a very good thing for China," Huntsman said.
Huntsman was once as a U.S. ambassador to Singapore and had many business dealings in China. "I was a senior U.S. official responsible for us China trade, spent a lot of time negotiating trade agreements between the U.S. and China meeting with their senior leaders," he said.
Huntsman does not have plans to attend the games but will be watching them with his 9-year-old adopted daughter, Gracie.
"Gracie is from Yangshou, which is very close to the famous Yangshou River," Huntsman said. "She was abandoned at 2 months of age at a vegetable market."
Gracie hasn't been back to China but hopes to go soon. "I'm really excited to learn about my country and watch the sports," Gracie said. "I want to go Yangshou. That's where I'm from, and I want to see the Great Wall of China."
Gracie has a quite a collection of Beijing Olympics memorabilia. Tennis and track are her favorite sports, and when the U.S. and China are competing against each other, she says she'll cheer for both.
"I'm really looking forward, as a dad, to sitting with her and watching her expressions and reactions to the Olympics in Beijing," Huntsman said.
As the Huntsman family watches the games, cheering on both the U.S. and China teams, the governor has this message for our local athletes. "I would only say, in Chinese, to our Utah athletes: ‘Pour it on! Make it happen!" he laughed.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com
