Former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman has announced that he is running for president, joining a crowded field of Republicans who hope to take on Democrat President Barack Obama in next year's election.

He formally entered the Republican presidential primary Tuesday with the Statue of Liberty behind him. He says the United States' economy is "totally unacceptable and it is totally un-American" and says he has the ideas to turn around the country.

Huntsman, also a former governor of Utah, had served as a diplomat under Obama until this spring.

He says he has the global experience to restore America's prestige. He also says that this generation could be the first in history to pass down a country that isn't as competitive as the last.