US President Barack Obama (C) announces that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke (R) will become the new US Ambassador to China as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington March 9, 2011. Locke will replace Jon Huntsman who will step down on April 30. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will help strengthen the US' relationship with China after he announced the Chinese-American's nomination as the new ambassador to China Wednesday.

Jon Huntsman decided to step down from his current position as ambassador on April 30. The Republican is expected to run for the 2012 presidential election against Obama. Locke's appointment will require approval by the Senate, whose members are expected to grill Locke on the White House's policy toward China.

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Insiders who spoke with China Daily said that the decision to nominate Locke likely stems from his Chinese ancestry as well as his outstanding work to promote China-US trade. The 61-year-old Locke beat out a number of candidates, such as Jeff Bader, the National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs; Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico; and former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson.

Locke said he was deeply humbled and honored to become the first Chinese-American ambassador to China.

"In replacing Ambassador Huntsman, I can think of nobody who is more qualified than Gary Locke," Obama said. "More than 100 years ago, Gary's grandfather left China on a steamship bound for America, where he worked as a domestic servant in Washington state. A century later, his grandson will return to China as America's top diplomat."

"As the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who went on to live the American dream, Gary is the right person to continue this cooperation," he said.

Locke's grandfather came to the US more than a century ago to work for a family in the state of Washington in exchange for English lessons.

"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," he said.

Locke is the former governor of Washington state, which has close economic ties with China mostly because of Boeing and Microsoft's business relationship with China.

The president recalled Locke's achievements as the country's first Chinese-American governor to double Washington state exports to China.

Locke was confirmed unanimously as commerce secretary in 2009. Though many trade organizations, companies and experts in the US applauded Obama's decision, others worried that Locke's lack of experience in Congress may be his Achilles' heel.

"It is a great choice on the part of President Obama because the nomination of Gary Locke reflects the administration's emphasis on economic issues in bilateral relations and reaffirms American values for inclusiveness and openness," said Cheng Li, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. "The potential weakness is that Locke does not have much experience in terms of working with the US Congress. At the personal level, he needs to learn Mandarin Chinese."

Chi Wang, president of the US-China Policy Foundation, said it is because of China's growing power that a Chinese-American can become the ambassador.

"Every Chinese-American will feel very happy for this news," he told China Daily in a telephone interview. "But it is not easy to ease the tension between the two countries. Locke may be good at trade but he is not familiar with security issues."

China Daily