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Division
of Investment and Export
PO Box 7970
Madison, WI 53707-7970
USA
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Vol.
8 #4, March 2009
Chinese-American to Lead U.S. Commerce Department
 On
February 25, President Obama nominated former Washington State Governor
Gary Locke to be U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The
Secretary-designate was born into a Chinese immigrant family in
1950. His ongoing ties with China will be extremely helpful in
fostering a strong and amiable trade relationship between the United
States and China.
Governor Locke is the only Chinese-American to have been elected a
state’s governor. He was elected to that post in Washington
State in 1996 and re-elected in 2000. Prior to that, he served
five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and one term as
executive of King County, Washington. He served as chairman of
the House Appropriations Committee from 1989 to 1994. He attended
Yale on a scholarship and received a law degree from Boston University.
In 1997, while serving in Congress, Governor Locke had his first
meeting with then Chinese President Jiang Zemin. They enjoyed
several more meetings over the next few years. In 2004, Governor
Locke visited at length with President Hu Jintao in Beijing. They
had first met when Hu was Vice President. To open doors for
Washington State businesses, the governor led eight trade missions and
opened a Washington State trade office in Guangzhou. As a result
of these relationships, Locke was asked by the Chinese Ambassador to
the United States to plan and coordinate a September 2005 visit to
Washington State by Chinese President Hu . Since leaving office in
2004, Governor Locke has worked for a Seattle law-firm specializing in
China.
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