President Obama has selected Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to be his ambassador to China, sources tell CNN.
An official announcement is expected soon. Huntsman, who speaks Mandarin Chinese and has adopted a daughter from China, had been tipped as a potential rival to Obama in the 2012 presidential election. Huntsman, 49, is a former deputy U.S. trade representative and ambassador to Singapore. A Mormon, he did missionary work in Taiwan, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, described Huntsman as “the one person in that (Republican) party who might be a potential presidential candidate,” U.S. News and World Report reported earlier in May. Huntsman started his political career as a staff assistant in the Reagan White House, and worked in the State Department and Commerce Department before being elected governor of Utah in 2004, according to his official biography on the state of Utah Web site. Huntsman was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2008 and cannot run again due to term limits.
