China's ambassador to the United States said Monday that former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. was welcomed to his country, despite having protested against the Chinese government's 1989 actions in Tiananmen Square.

Zhou Wenzhong, who spoke at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics on U.S. and Chinese relations, was diplomatic in his description of Huntsman, the new U.S. ambassador to China.

"He knows China quite well. I think he's a friend of China, no matter what he said in the past," Zhou said. "I don't know his view in regard to what he said in the past. It may be better to ask him."

After his half-hour presentation, Zhou told a reporter his government quickly accepted Huntsman as an ambassador when he arrived in China. "That shows that we welcome the appointment," Zhou said.

Huntsman was named U.S. ambassador to China by President Barack Obama and resigned as governor in early August to take the post. His participation in a protest against the Chinese government was among the issues raised during his Senate confirmation hearings.

The protest against China's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators was held outside the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. At the time, Huntsman was running the Asian-affairs bureau for the U.S. Commerce Department.

He also has said he backed the protests against China's treatment of Tibet that disrupted the Olympic torch relay for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. A number of Utahns joined that protest in San Francisco, the torch's only stop in the United States.

"Of course I do. This is who we are," Huntsman told the Deseret News at the time. "I think we ought to be totally American about it, in terms of our expressions of outrage and concern and speaking up front and openly as we always do as Americans."

In response to a question about his past support for human rights in China, Huntsman told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he would "not be shy in seeking opportunities to raise candidly with China's leaders U.S. concerns about the poor human-rights situation for Tibetans and Uighur Muslims."

Zhou did not address human rights in China during his prepared speech to about 200 students and others in the standing-room only audience at the institute's caucus room.

Asked about the issue, Zhou said China has made a lot of progress in extending rights such as freedom of speech to its people, but "the right to subsistence as far as China is concerned is much more important than anything else."

At the same time the government is trying to meet the public's education, health-care and other needs, it is trying to develop a socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, he said.

"Still, we are experimenting with it," Zhou said. "It will take time, because democracy can only develop in light of the conditions of each specific country … No one can claim they have the best system for everyone."

Zhou also was questioned about China's efforts to censor what its people have access to on the Internet. He called it the government's responsibility "to make sure people can get useful information from the Internet. There are things that are not useful and even destructive."

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