Huntsman eyed for No 2 spot at State

Jon Huntsman, the former US ambassador to China and ex-Utah governor, is under consideration to be deputy secretary of state, according to The Wall Street Journal.

No final decision has been made, and other candidates may be under consideration, according to US officials, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Huntsman, who had previously been considered for secretary of state under Trump, is also under consideration for an ambassadorship, one official said, according to the Journal, which did not identify the officials by name.

Huntsman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

Huntsman served as ambassador to China under President Barack Obama and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2012

US President Donald Trump rejected Elliott Abrams for the deputy post, apparently because of criticisms Abrams made of him during his presidential campaign.

"The party has nominated someone who cannot win and should not be the president of the United States," he wrote of the GOP in a May 16, 2016 article.

Abrams had the backing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior adviser Jared Kushner, for the position.

Huntsman endorsed Trump for president in September, but the next month called on him to quit the race because of reports that Trump had made sexually aggressive comments about women.

"In a campaign cycle that has been nothing but a race to the bottom - at such a critical moment for our nation - and with so many who have tried to be respectful of a record primary vote, the time has come for Governor [Mike] Pence to lead the ticket," Huntsman told the Salt Lake Tribune on Oct 7, referencing Trump's running mate and the future vice-president, The Hill.com reported.

Huntsman's remarks followed the appearance of a 2005 audio recording that captured Trump making lewd, sexually aggressive remarks about assaulting women that month.

(China Daily USA 03/01/2017 page2)