in recent elections, especially exporting jobs to China,” says John Feehery, a Republican strategist in Washington who isn’t working on any of the presidential campaigns. “If I were an opposition researcher, I would have a fi eld day with this.”
CAMPAIGN CONUNDRUM Huntsman announces his presidential candidacy at Liberty State Park. His ties to Obama and China (above, greeting World Expo visitors; below, with Vice Premier Wang Qishan; and left, with Provincial Gov. Lu Zushan in China) could prove vexing on the stump.
A Huntsman Corp. annual report features an early 1970s photo of a young, smiling Jon Jr. holding a dozen eggs in a polystyrene package, an innovation that helped the company become the world’s largest privately owned chemical producer before it went public in 2005. The eldest of nine children, Huntsman joined the family business in 1982, progressing to general manager of its international division before leav- ing in 1992 to become President George H.W. Bush’s ambassador to Singapore. He returned as a vice chairman in 1993 and left again in 2001 to work as a deputy U.S. Trade representative in President George W. Bush’s
administration. He served as Utah governor from 2005 until 2009. He left offi ce in his second term to become President Obama’s ambassador to China, calling on the Mandarin Chinese he learned to speak as part of a Mormon mission in Taiwan during college. Huntsman Corp. started as a family business in 1970 and remains one in many ways. Jon Huntsman Sr., 74, is still chairman, and family members and their founda- tion control 18.5 percent of the company’s stock, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Huntsman Jr. divested his individual shares when the company went public. He is now worth at least $15 mil- lion, according to disclosure forms.
As a candidate, Huntsman may face some of the most
51 percent from 2009 to 2010. The China growth for Huntsman Corp. is the result of partnerships with com- panies that are typically majority-owned by the Chinese government. During Huntsman’s time as ambassador from 2009 to 2010, the company’s revenue in China surged 57 percent, to $881 million, Bloomberg data show.
H
untsman Corp. says the number of U.S. workers has remained about the same over the past fi ve years. It’s just that it has hired many more abroad. The company has never stopped producing something in the U.S. to move the work abroad, Peter Huntsman says. “You’ve got to be competitive on a global stage. I hon- estly don’t see how that can be a liability.” (The candidate declined to be interviewed.)
It may not matter to skeptical voters that since leaving the company in 2001 Jon Huntsman has had no formal role in it. “China has become a bigger and bigger issue
diffi cult scrutiny from Republican voters in all-important New Hampshire, where he is spending a lot of time and money in hopes of winning the nation’s fi rst pri- mary next year. New Hampshire lost about 16,000 jobs to China from 2001-2008 — proportionally more than any other state in the country, according to a study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. Huntsman can counter with some statistics of his own. During his time as Utah’s governor, employment in the state grew 5.9 percent. As
for his family company’s business abroad,
Huntsman argues it’s good for the nation. “I am proud of my private-sector experience, helping to grow our family business into a successful, global enterprise that has created thousands of high-paying American jobs,” he said in a statement. “The company’s global outreach brought capital back to America, allowing it to greatly expand the number of American employees.”
This article rst appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine. Reprinted with permission of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Copyright 2011. All rights reserved.
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WORLD EXPO/PETER PARKS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES / MAP/ISTOCKPHOTO / QISHAN/AP IMAGES
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