collapsed trapping six miners in Utah. Jon Huntsman, Governor ofUtah, escorted by coal mine owner Bob Murray immediately came tothe mine to speak to a press conference.
“What would you say to the journalists if you were GovernorHuntsman?” I asked a spokesman.
“I will investigate the mine owner and make him take responsibilityfor the accident,” the student said.
But Governor Huntsman is smarter in the following segment.“Everything that’s can be done is being done. Thank Mr. Murray forworking closely with the government and ensure that no stone beleft unturned,” he says to the journalists.
Clip 2: Ten days later, three rescue workers were killed by anothercollapse, leaving the six miners inside entombed. Governor Huntsmanholds a press briefing.
“What would you say to the press this time if you were GovernorHuntsman?” I ask another student.
“I am very sorry for the deaths of the miners. I apologize for thefailure of rescue. Coal mine owner Murray will be arrested and bepunished,” the student replies.
But againGovernor Huntsman is smarter in the followingsegment.
“These men died as heroes. No better way to express their love fortheir fellow human beings as risk your life as we saw last night,”he tells the journalists.”
In recent years, in my class training Chinese governmentspokespeople, Jon Huntsman has served as a role model in handlingmedia events.
But the handsome and humanHuntsman was a media hero until a week ago when he was captured ina crowd of protest in downtown Beijing. The out-going U.S.ambassador is now in the heart of controversy when the video is nowbeing circulated in internet。
In a recent crowd of less than ten protesters surrounded by over100 foreign journalists with thousands of curious onlookers,Huntsman in sunglasses and sporting a black leather jacket with aStars and Stripes badge on the shoulder captured the attention of aChinese bystander.
“Aren’t you the American ambassador?” the Chinese said tohim,. “Yes, he is the American ambassador,” the man continued,turning to address other bystanders.
“What are you doing here?” the man asked.
"I'm just here to look around," Huntsman responds,
"You want to see China in chaos, don't you?" he asked.
"No chaos yet,” he replied in Chinese.
The Chinese man then turns around to everyone in the crowd andstarts telling them that the US Ambassador is here, at which pointMr. Huntsman decided to walk away with his bodyguards.
It is rare for an ambassador to attend an anti-government protestin a foreign country. Ambassador Huntsman’s appearance in the crowdof protest has stirred a big controversy in Chinese internet users.Is he sightseeing? Shopping? Inciting an anti-government riot? Orgathering intelligence?
The U.S. Embassy told the press that Huntsman’s appearance wascoincidental: He knew nothing of the protest appeal and happened tobe walking through the area on a family outing.
But most Chinese do not believe the U.S. ambassador carelessly cameacross the crowd of protest purely by coincidence while he wastaking a stroll.
“Normally, it will take three hours to take a walk from theAmerican embassy to Wangfujing where the protesters gathered,”critic Liu Yang writes in the web. “ If the ambassador and hisfamily was shopping and sightseeing while walking, it would takethem at least five and six hours to make the trip.”
Many Chinese posted questions on the U.S. embassy microblog aboutthe “coincidence”. In an attempt to dispel the doubts of Chineseweb users, the embassy microblog later posted a picture ofAmbassador Huntsman riding a bicycle in Beijing.
But again, the Chinese web users postedmore questions: if he rode bicycle to Wangfujing , he was actuallyleading a big entourage of his family and his bodyguards ridingbikes in a commercial street which only allowspedestrian.
It is justhard for most Chinese to believe that the U.S. Ambassador to Chinawould accidentally drop by the scene of protest. Many onlinecomments say that he was there to stir up anti-government protestwhich was planned by his boss Hillary Clinton a few days earlierwhen she proclaimed US government wouldfund the overthrow of dictatorship regimes by a global internetfreedom. Since U.S. diplomatic cables about its Beijing embassyactivities were revealed by Wikileaks, many Chinese believe theState Department and its people in Beijing are the mastermindsbehind the political trouble in China.
There are other interpretations about Huntsman’s appearance in thecrowd. Some believe that he has built a reputation of being“pro-China,” and now he wants to win back the hearts and minds ofthe American voters if he runs for president next year. If you readAmerican press, you can easily conclude that that China is notpopular with most American voters. Mr. Huntsman intended make adramatic image for a future campaign video.
But a Utah newspaper interpreted Mr. Huntsman action as personal.The Deseret News reported that Mr. Huntsman had a history ofprotesting against China. Three years ago, when he was Utah'sgovernor, he joined anti-China protests in support of Dalai Lama.In 1989, he protested outside the Chinese embassy in Washington,D.C. even though he was then a senior official in the Americangovernment. |
