09 March 2011

Obama Nominates Gary Locke to Be Ambassador to China

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — President Obama has announced the nomination of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to become the next U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. If approved by the Senate, he would become the first Chinese American to hold the post.

Locke would succeed Ambassador Jon Huntsman, the former Republican governor of Utah, who recently asked to step down from his post in China, Obama said at a March 9 White House ceremony attended by Locke and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, our relationship with China is one of the most critical of the 21^st century,” Obama said. “Continued cooperation between our countries will be good for America, it will be good for China, and it will be good for the world.”

“As the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who went on to live the American dream, Gary is the right person to continue this cooperation,” the president added.

Obama also praised the work accomplished by Huntsman in Beijing. “Jon has been an outstanding advocate for this administration and this country,” the president said. “I am grateful for his service.”

Locke’s grandfather left China more than 100 years ago aboard a steamship bound for the United States, where he worked as a domestic servant for a family in Washington state in return for the opportunity to learn English. “A century later, his grandson will return to China as America’s top diplomat,” Obama said.

But Locke also became the first Chinese-American state governor when he was elected in Washington state in 1996, and worked during those years to attract jobs and business to his state, the president said.

Locke joined the Obama administration in 2009 to be the president’s chief advocate for America’s businesses and specifically its exports abroad. As part of that assignment, Obama said he asked Locke to continue to make progress on the U.S.-China bilateral relationship.

During the past two years, Locke has overseen an increase in American exports, and particularly exports to China, a country with which the United States recently signed trade deals that will support 235,000 American jobs, Obama said. Locke was also the president’s lead official for his National Export Initiative, which is designed to make the United States more competitive globally in trade and, over five years, double U.S. exports of goods and services. In 2010, the United States increased exports to China by 34 percent.

“My father never imagined that one of his children could ever serve as the secretary of commerce in the United States of America,” Locke said at the White House announcement. “And he was beaming with pride, Mr. President, the day you presided over my swearing-in ceremony.”

Locke said his father, a combat veteran of World War II who served in Europe, died in January. “It would be one of his proudest moments to see his son named the United States ambassador to his ancestral homeland,” he added.

“I’m going back to the birthplace of my grandfather, my father, my mom and her side of the family, and I’ll be doing so as a devoted and passionate advocate for America, the country where I was born and raised,” Locke said.

Muhtar Kent, chairman and chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola Company and also the chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council, praised Obama’s choice for ambassador for his experience helping to promote American business in China and his effectiveness as commerce secretary.

“Secretary Locke’s leadership roles in business and government, combined with his recent success in strengthening U.S.-China commercial relations, makes him ideally suited to be a strong and effective ambassador to China,” Kent said. “Over the long run, innovation, economic growth and diplomatic harmony are most effectively achieved by free and fair trade and open dialogue. For these reasons, we are extremely pleased to see Secretary Locke nominated for this vital role.”

Locke’s nomination will be sent to the U.S. Senate and to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where a confirmation hearing will be held. If his nomination is approved by the committee — and it’s likely it will be since he also had to pass a confirmation hearing and Senate approval to become commerce secretary — it will be voted on by the full Senate.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)