Quote:
It is difficult to evaluate Huntsman’s Chinese-speaking ability because he so rarely speaks more than a brief sentence or two and never says anything particularly difficult. (When Piers Morgan gave him free rein to say anything he wanted, Huntsman responded with the kind of basic sentences one learns in first-year Chinese class, such as stating his name and saying that the other person doesn’t understand him.) An NPR report describing Huntsman’s appearance on Colbert referred to his “seldom demonstrated” Chinese ability, and a blogger complained that “his Mandarin is pretty damn hard to scrutinize” because Huntsman has rarely said much.
Strong evidence of Huntsman’s limited Chinese ability might be the fact that, when he spoke to Chinese audiences and Chinese media as ambassador, he did so in English. In a videotaped message to the Chinese public congratulating the PRC on the 60th anniversary of its founding, Huntsman spoke entirely in English, even though it’s hard to imagine any English-language audience for this message. (This one-minute statement should have been easy to deliver in Chinese, either memorized or read from a teleprompter.) Likewise, a television clip of Huntsman at Beijing’s Tsinghua University shows him talking in English.
Strong evidence of Huntsman’s limited Chinese ability might be the fact that, when he spoke to Chinese audiences and Chinese media as ambassador, he did so in English. In a videotaped message to the Chinese public congratulating the PRC on the 60th anniversary of its founding, Huntsman spoke entirely in English, even though it’s hard to imagine any English-language audience for this message. (This one-minute statement should have been easy to deliver in Chinese, either memorized or read from a teleprompter.) Likewise, a television clip of Huntsman at Beijing’s Tsinghua University shows him talking in English.
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/10/is_jon_huntsman_fluent_in_chinese_.html
Now, I don't know much about Chinese, but I think it's interesting that people are so impressed with his Chinese, when they don't know what he's saying.
