US Ambassador Gary Locke Takes up Post

To describe Gary Locke, a series of magic numbers may be very useful His grandfather migrated to USA a hundred years ago and worked for a rich family in Seattle The house was only one mile from the governor’s residence It took the Locke’s family 100 years to complete the mile In 1996, Gary Locke became Washington State Governor, the first Chinese American to hold such a post in American History In 2009, he joined the Obama Administration to be Commerce Secretary Under his watch, the United States increased exports to China by 34 percent in 2010 He was sworn in as US ambassador to China on August 1, 2011, the first Chinese American to hold the post in American History

Gary Locke and his family made low-profile arrival in Beijing on the night of August 12, 2011 After the Boeing 767 had touched down at the Capital International Airport in Beijing, many passengers were surprised to learn that Gary Locke and his family had traveled with them Some pas-sengers later described what they saw on the plane to press: the Lockes were dressed in a casual style; the fam-ily kept a low profile; they sat in their seats, and they took the same airplane meals as supplied; they traveled like an ordinary family

On August 14, Gary Locke, the eighth US ambassador since the founding of the diplomatic rela-tions between the United States and China, held his first press conference in the courtyard of his residence in Beijing He said that he was “humbled and honored” to be the first Chinese American to represent the United States in the land of his parents’ birth and that he would continue to promote the booming bilateral relations between the two great nations

The Chinese people know a lot about Gary Locke He visited China many times when he was Washington State governor and Commerce Secretary During these visits, he met with high-ranking Chinese government officials and business people in a bid to promote American goods and technology

At the appointment ceremony, Gary Locke said, “I will work to keep the lines of communication open, to convey the admin-istration’s positions clearly, and to engage with Chinese government officials at the highest levels At the same time, I hope to do more to communicate directly with the Chinese people to improve understanding between our two great nations”

The appointment of the 61-year-old Chinese American to the ambassadorship to China was warmly received in the USA For the past two months, Gary Locke at-tended many goodbye gatherings in his honor held by the Commerce Department and by Asian communities in USA

Gary Locke’s latest appointment is considered to highlight the high priority the Obama administration gives to the China-US relations It is widely believed that Gary Locke will help further promote trade relations between the two great countries During his term as commerce secretary, the bilateral trade grew by large margins In 2010, the trade surpassed threshold of 400 billion US dollars and the United States increased its exports to China by 34 percent It is widely believed that a strong trade increase between China and US will certainly help President Obama run for reelection next year Moreover, “Mr China” as dubbed by some people has a better chance to understand Chinese and promote understanding and cooperation in the future Some people say that the differ-ence between Locke and his predecessor Huntsman is that one is a white man who speaks Chinese and one is a Chinese who does not speak Chinese But they are both American citizens

The issue many people need to under-stand well is that Gary Locke will certainly work to strengthen the cooperation between China and the USA and firmly take care of American interests