'Giving back' important to Huntsman

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. sat with his back to the sweeping view of the Salt Lake Valley from the headquarters of his family's business empire during a meeting with a group of would-be constituents.

Huntsman instead focused all of his attention on the senior citizens and their advocates who had come to talk with him about the issues they want addressed if he's elected governor Nov. 2. "Your needs are going to be increasingly important," he told them.

Then the former diplomat began rattling off a series of statistics about the growth in Utah's aging population, noting that combined with the ever-increasing number of children, the state's resources are being squeezed by what he described as an hourglass effect.

But with his wife, Mary Kaye, and several campaign aides by his side, Huntsman listened, too, to their stories of elderly Utahns being forced out of their own homes to be warehoused in costly care centers.

He asked the group to continue with their presentation when their allotted half-hour was up. Finally, when they were finished, Huntsman promised to follow up on their discussion.

"These are pretty powerful ideas," he said.

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Heng-Chee Chan, Singapore's ambassador to the United States, lists the ability to listen as one of Huntsman's most important qualities. Chan first met Huntsman when he served as the U.S. ambassador to her country, and later, as a deputy U.S. trade representative to Asia.

"All my colleagues found him very approachable," Chan said. "He had a certain demeanor about him, a certain way. He was very gentlemanly and gracious. He made every country feel he was listening to them."

It also helped that he is fluent in Mandarin, a Chinese dialect. "He really won over Singaporeans, especially the Chinese-educated constituency, because he spoke Mandarin," Chan said. "He speaks excellent Mandarin."

Huntsman, 44, learned the difficult language as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan at the same time the United States was withdrawing diplomatic recognition of the country to appease China.

"I was riding around and people would throw things at you and they'd call you bad names," he recalled. "I thought, 'Taiwan is a friendly country. Why is it that they are treating us this way? We're American after all.' "