“2010： The Year of Decision ”

    Remarks by Jon Huntsman U.S. Ambassador to the People ‘s Republic
of China Tsinghua University， Beijing， China March 18 ， 2010

    Ambassador Huntsman ： Professor Sun， thank you for that very kind
invitation originally to be with your students. I am truly honored to
be here today.

    It is a great pleasure to be able to speak with you here today， and
in particular to be able to celebrate – I know a little bit in advance
– Tsinghua ‘s 100th anniversary. The United States has a very special
connection to this university that I want to mention for just a moment.
When Teddy Roosevelt， who is one of my very favorite presidents， when
he served as President， the United States government established a scholarship
program for Chinese students with funds from the indemnity imposed on
the Qing Dynasty for supporting the Boxer Rebellion. The“American Indemnity
College ”（Meiguo Peikuan Xuexiao）， was founded in 1911 through this
program ， and helped some of China ’s top students prepare for study
in the United States.

    Among the many prominent Chinese who benefited from this scholarship
were the philosopher Hu Shih， the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Chen
Ning Yang ， the mathematician Kai Lai Chung， and the astronautical engineer
Qian Xuesen ， who later founded China‘s rocket program. So successful
was this scholarship program， in fact， that the Fulbright Scholarship
– the premier American scholarship program today – was modeled after
it. And as you know ， in 1928， the American Indemnity College became
Tsinghua University. We are pleased to be so intimately associated with
your founding and evolution. And we celebrate with you 100 years of friendship，
and Tsinghua’s proud history as one of China ‘s and the world ’s top
academic institutions.

    Now I ‘m delighted to be here this morning as well with my wife.
（Speaking in Chinese.） My son John has told me that when you define
relationships you must be very careful. In America there is something
called DTR. Do you know what DTR means？ DTR is American slang for“define
the relationship. ” [Laughter]. So in America when two kids are dating
，and I’m not going to ask John to come up and describe his experiences，
someone will always expect something of the other. Where is the relationship
going ？ Are we going to get married？ Are you going to introduce me to
your parents？ Have you even told your friends that we‘re going out？

    So on and so forth. You should never ruin a relationship by defining
it too early on ， because putting a label on a relationship too early
sometimes gives rise to expectations， which lead to complications. And
before you know it， you‘re single again. [Laughter].

    But in this case I think I‘m pretty safe in defining U.S.-China relations.
Not only because our two great countries have had a relationship for nearly
250 years ， but also because in bilateral， as opposed to romantic relationships，
sometimes you do need to stop and take stock of where you are and where
you ’re going. And no bilateral relationship in the world today is more
important than the one between the United States and China.

    A long-time China hand once told me that any time is an interesting
time to be in China. But I would suggest to you that this year， the Year
of the Tiger， is likely to be the most important in the 30-year diplomatic
history between the United States and China. This is not because of recent
tensions over arms sales to Taiwan or the President ‘s meeting with the
Dalai Lama. We’ve had and managed these differences for the past 30 years
and at the same time have been able to develop a broad and very productive
relationship. Rather what makes this year so pivotal is that it is one
in which we must take action and make real progress on pressing global
issues like economic recovery ， nuclear proliferation and climate change
and clean energy. What we do together – the United States and China–
this year will help define how we address the challenges ahead for the
rest of the decade.

    These are challenges， by the way ， that no one country can solve.
Leaders in both China and the United States recognize that as two of the
world ‘s three largest economies ， two of the world ’s largest populations，
two of the world‘s largest militaries and the world’s largest consumers
of energy and producers of carbon emissions ， we share a responsibility
to work together to find creative solutions to today‘s problems. Together
we can bring the rest of the international community along with us and
make real progress on these issues. Together we can build the kind of
positive， cooperative and comprehensive relationship that both of our
presidents have outlined， envisioned ， and talked about.

    I ‘m naturally an optimist. But I’m also someone who‘s been interested
and involved in the U.S.-China relationship for the past 30 years. I’
ve seen enough ups and downs to know that the recent turbulence we‘ve
experienced is part of a natural cycle. Of course ， I’d also like us
to find ways out of this cyclicality， but our relationship is mature
and stable enough to weather our differences. We are bigger than one or
two individual issues. I am convinced that blue skies are already on the
horizon. I expect we‘ll be well on our way to regaining the high cruising
altitude we achieved in our relationship last year maybe even by the opening
of the Shanghai Expo in May. And I’m confident we‘ll see real progress
on the global challenges we face when we come together again for the next
round of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue before summer and when President
Hu visits the United States this year ， as he told President Obama he
would.